Natalie Behnke

I'm currently in my junior year at Western Washington University, about to graduate next year, and I've been working in the human services field for about three to four years. What made me realize I wanted to go into human services was in high school when I got a job at my local YMCA in the childcare facility. I would see a lot of kids come in that were maybe tired or didn't get enough food, and it was really great to see the impact that the YMCA could make in the lives of families who are maybe working all of the time and don't have time to take their kids to the park. Our childcare facility could provide a safe place for kids to have meals and hang out and just play and get to be kids, and it was awesome because it gave parents a little break too. Ever since then, it's really just made me realize that I really want to go into human services, because you can just really see the tangible impact that you can have on the lives of people around you. I've had a pretty difficult life, and as of right now, I'm fully supporting myself through college for the most part. That has really led me to want to go into human services, because I do have a personal connection to a lot of the issues that are happening in our country right now. I know what it's like to be on the other end of receiving services through the human services sector, so I just want to be able to give back in that way and provide my own personal experiences as a baseline and as an incentive for me to keep going.