Students Take a Trek Toward Future Careers

Bright and early on a Friday morning, more than a dozen Wesleyan students, with staff and community partners, embarked on special kind of experiential field trip. Through a “Career Trek” to Harlem, New York, students had the opportunity to witness impactful youth programming at two innovative organizations: Children’s Aid and Harlem Grown.  

“The goal of the event was to allow students to speak with and interact with those working directly within the community engagement and non-profit sectors,” said Camille McGadney ’93, P’27, law and social impact career advisor at the Gordon Career Center, which co-organized the trip with the Jewett Center for Community Partnerships and the Patricelli Center for Entrepreneurship. “They were able to speak with alumni working not only at Children’s Aid and its affiliates but others working in philanthropy, urban planning, and social entrepreneurship.” 

The first stop on the trek was Children’s Aid headquarters in West Harlem. Led by Wesleyan Board of Trustees Chair Phoebe Boyer ’89, P’19, ’23, who is president and CEO, the organization serves more than 50,000 children and families with programs designed to improve education and health outcomes. It also supports leadership development for youth and community residents across New York City.  

At Children’s Aid, the students heard from Boyer and Andi Wiley ’22, MA ’23, senior performance analyst, who provided an overview of the organization and its services before taking questions. Zoey Possick ’28 was excited to learn about different aspects of nonprofit work, which she has been engaged in at Wesleyan through the campus Habitat for Humanity chapter since her first year. “Having the chance to get all sides of what it means to be a nonprofit and to do that work—that was part of the reason that going to Children's Aid was so compelling,” she said. “I'm trying to construct this image of what is a nonprofit? What can it look like? What do I want it to look like for me in the future?” 

After the morning events, the students split up into groups based on their interests and visited one of two Children’s Aid program sites—Children’s Aid College Prep Charter School in the Bronx and Dunlevy Milbank Community Center—as well as Harlem Grown. Joining the students were Jewett Center community partners from the Middletown Chamber of Commerce's Summer Youth Employment program, the New Haven-based Sage Civic Institute, and Middletown Racial Justice Coalition. The smaller groups had the opportunity to tour the sites, engage with staff, witness programming, and interact with youth served by the organizations.  

While the Career Center hosts a few career-related treks each year, the collaboration was a first for the Jewett Center, said Director Clifton Watson. “Among the most critical goals for this trip were to underscore the ways in which community and civic engagement prepare students for work in the nonprofit sector and beyond, and that some of the best practices students observed during site visits can be applied to their current work,” he said.  

Window into Nonprofit Work 

For her afternoon site visit, Possick chose Harlem Grown, a nonprofit that engages youth through mentorship and education in urban farming, sustainability, and nutrition. That visit started with a private tour of different Harlem Grown locations in the neighborhood, including a community garden, an administrative space where staff also grow mushrooms, and a hydroponics farm.  

A highlight for Possick was hearing Harlem Grown’s CEO Tony Hillery tell his personal story and talk about the organization’s mission. From the visit and tour, Possick not only learned about some of the specific needs in the community—a high rate of homelessness and lack of access to healthy food—but she also understood better how nonprofits can work in collaboration with community residents. She recalled how Hillery talked about the difference between asking community members questions like what can I do to help? versus what do you need?

“That was something that he said that I was sort of playing back in my mind, [about] coming into spaces where we just assume people need help,” she said. “And they may not actually need anybody's help, but they might need a resource. I thought that positionality thinking was really helpful.” 

For Remy Fu ’26, a site visit to Children’s Aid College Prep Charter School aligned with his interests in community-based work and in education. While at the school, he listened to a panel of students from the National Junior Honors Society. The visit helped inform his studies as a double major in biology and education studies who is also conducting education policy research with Assistant Professor of Education Studies Alisha Butler.

“It was incredibly inspiring to meet so many engaged, dedicated people who have devoted their careers to education equity,” Fu said. “There are so many opportunities for community organizations to support the health of communities in New York City and the United States as a whole, but seeing one pocket of impact was inspiring and what I hope is a harbinger of things to come with future education reform.” 

Both Possick and Fu had the chance to reality-test what they are learning at Wesleyan and to see up close the type of work they could be doing in the not-too-distant future. “It just compelled me to want to pursue nonprofits more,” said Possick, who plans to major in government and minor in global engagement.” It made me feel like this was the place and the kind of impact that I want to be doing.” 

At the end of the trek, students returned to Children’s Aid to share their reflections and engage with Syed Ali ’13, senior director of strategy and partnerships - philanthropies at Trinity Church NYC. The discussion was moderated by Patricelli Center Director Ahmed Badr ’20. 

The trip is just one example of the type of experiential learning opportunities with alumni and community members that the Jewett Center, Career Center, and Patricelli Center aim to provide students. It gets them off campus and into environments where they might employ their learning and their passions. 

“We hope that students—leveraging what they learned during their visit—will hone in on the specific skills they’d like to sharpen and the content they’ll need to engage to learn more about their respective interests,” said Watson. “We also hope that students continue to make connections across Wesleyan networks and build relationship with the professionals and organization they met during the visits, which can be leveraged for mentorship and to potentially explore post-grad opportunities.”