Kayla DeCant
By Zoë Eitel
Graduating undergraduate school was such a race to the finish line for Kayla DeCant that she forgot to plan her future beyond a short-term job right after graduation. That’s where DePaul’s Career Center came in.
“I didn’t actually utilize the career services a ton until after I graduated, which I think is something people forget about that there are so many services available to you as an alumni at DePaul that the university doesn’t cut you off as soon as you walk across the stage,” Kayla says.
Kayla connected with a career advisor to discuss her options for future schooling and what her degree options were as well as what those degrees would mean for her career.
“I started utilizing specifically Ed Childs at the Career Center,” she says. “He read through my personal statements a ton, he was really helpful in helping me see the materials I was going to submit for grad school through the eyes of an admissions counselor.”
With that help, Kayla went on to supplement her DePaul bachelor’s degree in Psychology concentrating in Human Services with a master’s in Community Development and Action. This has lead her to work as a Prevention Education Coordinator for Rape Advocacy, Counseling & Education Services (RACES) in Urbana-Champaign.
Prevention Education Coordinator at RACES
BA Psychology 2015
Kayla travels to schools to educate K-12 students on sexual violence prevention, connects with communities outside of traditional classrooms, and does outreach to other social service organizations to collaborate and support each other’s work.
This is a path that started for Kayla when she was at DePaul, working with on-campus organizations and with local social service agencies and community outreach organizations. During an internship with the Human Rights Campaign, she worked phonebanks and did canvassing along with some community organizing, which Kayla says helped her learn how to frame important issues for different audiences.
“I didn’t actually utilize the career services a ton until after I graduated, which I think is something people forget about that there are so many services available to you as an alumni at DePaul that the university doesn’t cut you off as soon as you walk across the stage.”
“If you’re doing any sort of social service work or any sort of community outreach and engagement, it’s really important that you know enough about your issue, but also know enough about where other people are coming from and what their interests or backgrounds are and that way you can shift focus a little and make sure it hits home for them,” she says.
Kayla says her internships helped supplement the classes she was taking at DePaul by giving her real world context to the subjects she was learning in the classroom. Specifically, while taking a class on grants, Kayla learned about the grant process. Then, in an internship, she saw how grants impact the decisions that social service agencies and nonprofits make.
Being involved in Greek life also had an impact on Kayla’s future career, teaching her about herself as a supervisor and how she works with people under her as the founding president of the Phi Sigma Pi honor fraternity. Kayla is still in contact with the current leadership of the fraternity and is happy the chapter is still active because it was a wonderful experience for her.
“I really loved being able to have my time there where it wasn’t people that you knew because of class, it was because we all had this core common values of we care about scholarship, fellowship, and creating these spaces for friendship and to support one another, and we care about giving back to the community, having service with one another,” Kayla says.
