Brittany-- 2011

Brittany: In January, Britti (25) began her professional internship with Disney as one of six program facilitators for the YES (Youth Education Series). She absolutely loved it!! In this elite position, she had the opportunity to lead school groups on special learning adventures in the most magical place on Earth—teaching kids about physics while riding Space Mountain and Splash Mountain and instructing them about elements of light and optical illusions while going through the Haunted Mansion, etc. Unfortunately, Disney officials were very clear from the beginning about their freeze on hiring full time employees so Britti focused on her future while savoring her remaining time with Disney. She decided to follow her heart and pursue an alternative teaching license. After researching options, she selected the licensing program in Texas, and she worked hard to complete all of her requirements prior to finishing her six month internship at Disney. She chose Texas because it had the most clear-cut program and because her boyfriend from Disney, Ramon, is from El Paso. After much job hunting and conversation, though, both Britti and Ramon opted to re-locate to Athens after completing their time at Disney. Britti just couldn’t find a teaching job, and Ramon fell in love with Ohio University. Thus, in May, Christie flew down and helped Britti drive her belongings from Florida to Ohio. After a month of job searching in Athens, Britti found a job with an apartment complex as a leasing consultant, but, in September, our county extension agent was reassigned to another part of Ohio, and Britti landed the job as temporary program assistant with the Athens County Extension Office. Given her background in 4-H and
education, she is having a great time with developing programs and enhancing 4-H in Athens. In January, 2012, she plans to defend her master’s thesis (finally!) and apply for the permanent county extension educator job. Britti has received tremendously positive feedback from people around the county and state, and she is very hopeful about the permanent full-time position. She hasn’t given up on her long-term hope to be a teacher someday, but the job with the extension
office is a wonderful way to work with educational programming, youth development, and 4-H.