NEW CAREERS LEAD TO PERSONAL GROWTH

(ARA)- Many people dream of changing the direction of their lives. An important place to start is by looking at your career. Exploring both vocational and volunteer opportunties creates a tremendous opportunity for growth.

For Phyllis Kendall, a culinary arts graduate of The Art Institute of Phoenix, deciding to change from her professional military career to one as a professional chef was a creative way to segue from one life into another, doing something she loves. "In the Air Force, I had a chance assignment of running the kitchen of a coffee shop on a U.S. base in Turkey," says Kendall, and according to her, the expertise was a "revelation." She found she loved cooking for a crowd and resolved to take her Air Force pension and began studying culinary arts at The Art Institute.

"Many students at our schools studying for a career in the arts and design have already had established professional careers and see this as an opportunity to stretch their creative and professional wings," says Jacquelyn Muller, vice president of public relations for The Art Institutes. While The Art Institute doesn't track specific numbers of career changers, admissions directors cite an increase in professionals enrolling in culinary arts, fashion design and interior design, to name a few, as a way of reassessing their careers.

However, it's not just established professionals who want to make a change. Each year at The Art Institute, some 5,000 students donate more than 250,000 hours of volunteer work to community-based non-profit organizations. Some of these efforts are national in scope, including the annual Web Raising effort which builds professional Web sites for non-profit organizations for free. Faculty at the Argosy University campuses also volunteer time when they work with community, sometimes directly and sometimes indirectly through fund-raising.

For the faculty overseeing the initiative, the Web Raising is not just an opportunity for students to get real world work experience, including client meetings, budgets and deadlines, it's a chance to make a real impact on an organization and the people it serves.

"For some of our students, this is their first experience as a volunteer," says Dr. Ameeta Jadav, department chair for interactive media design at The Art Institute of Atlanta, who originated the first Web Raising. "But often it's the volunteering itself that makes the biggest impact on a student, and is in a way life-changing because they can't help but think about the world differently, and often continue to volunteer long after the Web Raising is over."

In short, says Dr. Weaver, "Any impetus for individuals to make a positive change in their lives, whether it's a simple New Year's resolution, or a chance to help make someone's life a little better, should be welcomed, acted upon, and become a part of who they are as they go forward in their lives."

The Art Institute, with 32 educational institutions located throughout North America, provides an important source of design, media arts, fashion and culinary arts professionals.

Courtesy of ARA Content