Alumni Spotlight: Jesse Wolk

Jesse Wolk (he/him)

Major: PSY BS (Spring 2022)
Position: Utility Mapping Specialist
Employer: Department of Natural Resources

What is your work like? What are your duties?

Currently, I am serving in my second AmeriCorps term as an Individual Placement member with the Conservation Corps of Minnesota and Iowa (CCMI). CCMI is a non-profit that receives grant funding from AmeriCorps to carry out natural resource management projects around Minnesota and Iowa! I am a part of their Individual Placement program, where they partner members with staff at various organizations to gain skills and develop a network for their next stage in their careers. For me, that means serving with the Minnesota’s Department of Natural Resources to create maps for their state park’s utilities. This involves collecting data in the field, reviewing it on ArcGIS Pro and then training Park Staff on how to use the data. Additionally, my service term heavily emphasizes professional development where I am able to take trainings throughout the year, like a Minnesota Master Naturalist course or basic wildland firefighting, to facilitate holistic growth. 

How would you say your psychology degree has helped you with your current job?

When I graduated from the U in the Spring of 2022, my initial plan was to go to medical school. However, that was quickly disrupted after I became a Wilderness Guide with the St. Paul non-profit Wilderness Inquiry in that following summer. I couldn’t ignore my intense passion for working outdoors. Luckily, I had a gap year planned before entering medical school as a Team Leader with AmeriCorps’ National Civilian Community Corps (NCCC). It gave me some time to reflect, and that was invaluable. As a Team Leader, I was responsible for a crew of eight that lived and served together for a year. My undergrad experiences helped him lead with empathy and transparency, which fostered crew culture that grew through conflict in a healthy way. Without my psychology background, I don’t think I would’ve been able to achieve that.

In what way has your major complemented your current job?

Utility mapping and psychology certainly do not seem connected. But you would be surprised. While doing my psychology capstone, I worked on a project that did a lot of topographic cerebral data collection and analysis. Translation: I was mapping brains. This experience allowed me to get my current position as a Mapping Specialist because the software skills I learned during my research translated well into navigating and learning ArcGIS, a cloud-based mapping and analysis solution program. 

Zooming out into the scope of my greater career trajectory, I aspire to go to graduate school for a degree in Natural Resource Management where I‘d like to do research that focuses on the human dimensions of conservation. As I’ve discovered, conservation efforts are largely focused on mitigating one thing: human impact. Having a baseline understanding of what influences human behavior, which my psychology education gave me, allows me to have a unique lens from which I can view issues throughout my career.

How did you find your current position? 

If you’re curious about my path, check out the websites I had previously mentioned: Conservation Corps of Minnesota and Iowa, AmeriCorps NCCC, and Wilderness Inquiry.

What advice do you have for our current psych students and recent grads?

For me, graduating was a scary time. I was heading into a career field that I wasn’t interested in and actively didn’t enjoy. However, I had convinced myself that it was my best option because I had sunken so much time and energy into getting into medical school. Only after advice from loved ones, I finally accepted that this route was not a sustainable choice. Quickly, I felt elated. Even though I had gathered all my references, wrote my personal statement, and studied every day for two hours for six months to take a nine-hour test, when I quit the medical school track, I just felt relieved.

Regardless of its origin, if you are in a position where you dread your post-graduate future, know that you are not alone. You are just simply close to being an alumnus of a Liberal Arts school. Now that you’ve joined the club, I found that the only option in this position is self-discovery. Luckily, there are MANY choices for self-discovery. I went down the formal route and served in AmeriCorps to receive the educational, professional, and leadership benefits. Some need more space and just travel. Some want more of a challenge and head into the Peace Corps. Some WOOF or use Workaway.

Many find a job they don’t like or hop into a graduate program. This option is pragmatic and perfectly appropriate.Afterall, finances are often the bottom line of many decisions. However, if you are lost, I’ve found that the more exploratory opportunities lead to a quicker heading in life.Settling for a job and graduate school could just push the problems down the line. The farther that problem gets pushed, the harder it is to change course. 

Frankly, it doesn’t matter what you choose. Experience the community, have an open-mind, and investigate your passions. If you do that, you will generally start building a train that feels right.  

If you have any questions about how to do that, or how I am still building that rail, feel free to reach out to my LinkedIn. I’d love to talk. Good luck!

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