Over the past several years, one of the fields students are most interested in pursuing after Christendom is counseling. Alumni counselors Michael Davis ‘12, Anne Marie Wingerter ‘20, and Jason Sparks ‘11 spoke at the first Life on Tap event of the semester sponsored by the college’s Career & Professional Development Office on February 15. The alumni shared stories of how they discerned their careers and offered insightful advice for students considering counseling, therapy, or psychology.
Jason Sparks, now a resident in counseling in Virginia and a licensed graduate professional counselor in Maryland, was unsure of his career path initially.
“It was not obvious that I wanted to be a counselor — that’s something that I discovered along the way as I went through the core classes,” said Sparks.
After attending Christendom, he went on to obtain a business degree and started working as an admissions counselor at Seton Home Study School. Though he was hesitant to take on counseling as a career, he could not ignore the connection he felt with the experience of helping others.
“I would be talking to families that called about their children and they had all kinds of stories like, ‘my child has special needs and is struggling,’” recalled Sparks. “Sometimes the moms would be in tears, and connecting with them in those vulnerable moments was really meaningful for me. It was a process of discernment, but it ended up becoming something that was everything that I wanted.”
After finally deciding that he wanted to pursue a career in the mental health field, Sparks enrolled in Divine Mercy University and obtained an MS in counseling.
Similar to Sparks, Wingerter was uncertain of her career during her undergraduate years but knew she wanted a career that played to her natural strengths. After some encouragement, she began to consider counseling, ultimately earning her Master’s degree in clinical mental health counseling with a concentration in crisis and trauma counseling.
“I liked the interpersonal aspect and I started looking into it,” says Wingerter. “The year I graduated from Christendom, everything had shut down due to COVID and there was a lot of confusion everywhere. In the middle of it, I was desperate to move forward and God took care of me. The doors to counseling opened and everything fell into place.”
Davis, who graduated from the Institute for the Psychological Sciences, described his journey into clinical psychology as meandering. After deciding that teaching or business did not employ his natural skills, Davis began searching for a more fulfilling career following graduation.
“I was longing for something a bit more intellectual but also personal,” says Davis. “Psychology ticked all the boxes — it had the things I liked about teaching and there are a lot of administration roles that you can do in psychology that I enjoy.”
Davis now works as a generalist, seeing patients with a wide variety of needs but specializing in working with neurodevelopmental conditions, trauma and personality disorders.
The alumni offered suggestions and encouragement to the students working toward a counseling career.
“Intellectually, read a lot of literature,” advised Davis. “It’s useful and, honestly, it’s far more useful in a lot of ways than a lot of psychology textbooks. You’re going to get to know people at a deeper level.”
The evening ended with Davis further encouraging students interested in counseling to start preparing by examining themselves to better understand others.
“Know yourself, read the literature in your classes and elsewhere, and be curious about the world around you,” said Davis. “You’re really going to get to know other people if you do these things, and you’re really going to get to know yourself. That’s the biggest thing for your future work in counseling that you can do.”
Christendom’s Life on Tap series provides students with the chance to learn from and speak to successful alumni about their careers. While discerning a career can be daunting, the Life on Tap series gives students opportunities to learn more about potential paths towards finding their vocation.
Learn more about the college’s career offerings at www.career.christendom.edu.
This story was contributed by Elizabeth Ostrowski (‘23)