Unique Advocacy Experiences

Advocacy experience is an important part of an application to a genetic counseling program. While formally volunteering as a counselor (such as for a crisis line) is a great way to gain experience, some of our students participated in less-traditional advocacy settings. This week, we highlight some of these experiences so future applicants can read about other ways to develop skills used in genetic counseling.

I volunteered with two amazing groups before moving to Pittsburgh- BuddyUp Tennis and Camp Courage. When I was looking for a volunteer opportunity, one of the geneticists I worked with pointed me towards BuddyUp Tennis, a weekly tennis clinic for children and adults with Down syndrome (They’re nationwide – check them out!). Every Saturday morning, I got to start my day with some exercise and a lot of fun. The BuddyUp Athletes didn’t seem to mind my absolute lack of athletic ability, and we were able to work with them to help them learn how to play tennis, get some exercise, and make friends. Spending time with these individuals was a great lesson in communication and empathy, two very important skills in genetic counseling.

Camp Courage was a weekend bereavement camp for children who had recently had a loved one pass away. I volunteered as a “Big Buddy” and was paired with one camper for the weekend. We spent the weekend doing a lot of fun camp activities, but there were also sessions set aside for the children to have some time for healing. We helped the children make memory boxes, had a really nice campfire ceremony to honor their loved ones, and ended the weekend with a balloon launch for the campers and their families. The goal of the weekend was to allow the children to speak as freely as they wanted about their loved one, help them to normalize and perhaps better understand their grief, and really just listen and be there. Working with the campers allowed me to gain more experience in a supportive role. While I have grown more comfortable discussing sensitive situations with adults, interacting with children dealing with difficult situations was a great learning experience that has made me more compassionate and more aware of the importance of communication in the field of genetic counseling.

-Alyson Evans

I was on the Executive board of my sorority during my undergrad. This typically isn’t thought of as an advocacy experience, but part of my position was to meet with members who were struggling with grades or were missing a significant number of classes or our events.  Effective communication was key to helping the women understand that we weren’t meeting with them to reprimand them, but to find out how we could better support them if they were struggling with school or other issues that kept them from wanting to participate.  What we almost always found was that there were many resources (such as the academic success center or student counseling center) that we could put them in touch with to help them overcome or better manage more underlying difficult circumstances.  Each woman and each situation were unique, and working with them and our chapter advisers to find the best course of action was my favorite part of the position. For me, this helped to lay the foundation for effective psychosocial skills that will apply  to many situations I will face as a genetic counselor. 

-Lauren Winter

I was an AmeriCorps member for two years. Although I had many roles throughout that time, the experience I like to highlight is running a tax site. The nonprofit I worked with had federal funding to run a free tax preparation service for working-class families and individuals. When you do someone’s taxes, they are trusting you to protect their privacy; you look at their social security card and state ID, and see exactly how much money they made. You ask them very personal questions, such as whether they are legally married, who they live with, and whether they support themselves financially. The intake form they fill out is confusing, so you find ways to re-phrase questions and explain concepts in layperson’s terms. People are sometimes sensitive about their financial information and can get agitated quickly if their refund is lower than they expected or especially if they owe money. When taxpayers were unhappy with those amounts, I took the time to explain every line on the tax form, how that number was calculated, and why they might owe more than they expected. We would discuss their misconceptions and how they could plan better for next year. These are all skills used every day by genetic counselors. Genetic counselors ask deeply personal questions, explain technical concepts in a patient-friendly way, and counsel patients regarding their test results. As a student, I find myself expanding on those skills I developed as a tax preparer.

-Claire McDonald

In my year between graduating college and starting the Pitt Genetic Counseling Program, I worked as an AmeriCorps member at a mental health nonprofit organization. While a major part of my role was working on a crisis and national suicide hotline, there were many other advocacy-focused aspects of my position. I was responsible for writing all of the organization’s grants, including at the local, state, and national level. While this may not commonly be thought of as advocacy work, it taught me an incredible amount about how to effectively communicate the need to bolster support around issues that are overlooked. Mental health is a cause that is often ignored until someone has a specific personal connection or reason to support it. Genetics shares some of the same realities, especially when it comes to rare disorders. Working in this capacity for a year allowed me to communicate to genetic counseling programs that I was capable of and prepared to spend my career advocating for patients and a field that deserve support.

-Stephanie Betts

For two years while I was living in San Francisco, I mentored a 9 year-old girl through the YMCA Reach and Rise program. This national program focuses on the mental health concerns of youth who have experienced repeated trauma. Like many other urban centers, San Francisco is struggling with long-term, primarily minority residents being pushed out, so advocating for this community was really important to me when I moved to the neighborhood. The program paired me with a social worker, who served my mentee’s family as a caseworker and also provided me with invaluable mentorship. Her support helped me grow in my advocacy role. I also came to appreciate how truly amazing social workers are as resources! Finally, this structure acknowledged the importance of the whole family when working to promote an individual’s wellbeing; this tenet is at the core of genetic counseling. One of my main roles was identifying my mentee’s strengths and needs through our weekly time together.  We then connected her with relevant community resources, like a free STEM summer day camp, tutoring, and a community pool where she learned how to swim. This both broadened the program’s impact and helped sustain it after the program’s official end. Genetic counselors seek to promote resiliency in those they work with in a similar way. I have come to increasingly appreciate these unexpected lessons from the mentorship program, as I see how they help me serve others during my training to become a genetic counselor. 

-Caitlin Russell