Bronco Spotlight: Ciji Gamble
Master of Arts, counseling psychology, 2012
Licensed Professional Counselor at Cornerstone Christian Counseling & Kalamazoo Valley Community College
At Cornerstone Christian Counseling (CCC), I provide individual, couples, and family counseling. This includes providing diagnosis, interventions and treatment planning for clients. As the Kalamazoo Promise Counselor at Kalamazoo Valley Community College (KVCC) I assist recipients of the Kalamazoo Promise scholarship, who are attending KVCC, with achieving their academic and personal goals. This includes providing academic counseling as well as short term personal counseling.
What is the most rewarding and the most challenging part of your job?
The most rewarding part of my job(s) is watching students as well as clients grow, overcome obstacles and ultimately achieve their set goals. The most challenging part of my job(s) is being settled with client autonomy. Clients and students are autonomous individuals and they have the right to choose wellness. This also means they have the right to choose poorly. In a helping field, you go into the field to help. The challenge comes in remembering you’re only a part of the help and being settled with the boundary line between helping and doing.
What experiences impacted the choice of your career path?
Being a part of Career and Student Employment and utilizing their tools, resources and support to develop as a professional made all the difference in my career path. While one part of the professional launch is obtaining the degree, knowing how to market myself, interview, as well as network truly made my professional career a success.
What advice would you offer students to help them decide on a career path?
My advice on choosing a career path would be, choose, and then choose again. It’s okay to change your mind. Now this may be against popular advice but I am an advocate for choice. I started my professional career with a BS in Engineering. I worked in Corporate America for two years and then found out that I enjoy breaking down problems, but now more so people problems. Shadow professionals, conduct field visits, definitely have internships and test out different fields of interest. Know that many positions have not even been created yet, so hone in on your strengths and develop your skills, as these will be a benefit in any field you pursue.