Today, Laura spoke about her career working at the Advocacy Center for Tompkins county, which is definitely an interesting and unique profession. She first started out talking about all the resources that the Advocacy Center provides to help people with trauma, survivors of abuse and domestic violence, with options in either legal advocacy or just emotional support. The center provides a shelter for domestic violence victims, a 24 hour hotline service, and forensic examinations for sexual assault victims. The center also organizes events to promote awareness regarding these issues, such as Take Back the Night. It makes me feel relieved and optimistic that as a student all these resources are accessible and covered. Laura also talked about her specific job of providing people the guidance to choose what available resources they want to use, and her background in working with local nonprofits and indigenous group leaders, and refugee families in getting them settled with jobs. I really liked this talk because it transformed from information about the advocacy center to a broader talk on choosing careers. Laura for example, originally started out majoring in economics and getting an MBA, but realized her real passion was in social justice issues. Her main advice was to pay attention to what you think about a lot, and for her, she loved service and social movements. Just hearing all that she does sounds exhausting, but for her that work is worth it because it brings her joy. We also discussed how even though many people would like to get involved with social justice that it is not very practical to, given student loans and the low pay. This is the most challenging dilemma, as many of us have to balance between what we really want to do, versus what is considered a practical job. Even if one isn’t as passionate about entering the social justice fields, there are many other ways to get involved, like volunteering for the hotline. I really liked this talk to get that exposure on the Advocacy center and just a general discussion of career opportunities.