Time for an adventure!

Welcome family, friends and visitors to Caitlyn’s Volunteer Travel Blog!  Thanks for stopping by and taking the time to see what I’m up to these days.  First, let me sum up how I get to this point.  I graduated from Michigan State University in 2009 then headed straight to grad school at Sarah Lawrence to get my Masters degree in Health Advocacy (what is that degree exactly? I’ll post more about that later).  After graduation, my idealist self wanted to charge head first into changing the world for the better!  Unfortunately, I was not bitten by a radioactive spider nor give a fortune by Bruce Wayne (or Bruce Miller) so I had to get to work in the real world to make some money.  

I found myself back in Minnesota working odd jobs until I landed a full time position at a pharmacy benefit management company.  While corporate America has its perks, I found myself losing track of what was important to me and becoming increasingly unhappy with where my career was headed.  So I decided it was time for a change.  Winston Churchill said, “We make a living by what we do, but we make a life by what we give.”  And for me that time to make a life was now!  I made the decision to try and restart my career path and get back towards the work of international health care.  To do so I needed more experience in the field, and that meant going outside of this country.  

After reviewing the expansive list of places I could go and the many programs that facilitated the type of work I wanted to do in a safe and honest manner (and there are a lot that were neither safe nor honest!) I chose to apply to the organization of UBELONG to work in the country of Morocco volunteering in HIV/AIDS education and access (more to come on the specifics of the work I will be doing).  Once I was accepted I chose the earliest leave date of November 15th so I may get 4 months of volunteer experience before I need to come home to be a part of some fantastic people’s wedding (shout out to Susan and Aunt Lori).  I am so excited and hopefully that this experience will jump-start me back to the work I love to do while using my skills and experience to give back to a community in need.  So please check back in with me and read as I blog about my adventures volunteering abroad!