With an interest in developmental psychology, Brooke McCaffrey found that helping others—especially children—helped her develop. “I had so many opportunities at Sarah Lawrence,” she says, “I felt ready for anything.”

Through a service learning class, Brooke volunteered at Blythedale Children’s Hospital, where she assisted in a first-grade classroom. “What I learned in the seminar was very relevant to my fieldwork with the children,” she says.

That experience was for credit, but she volunteered on her own as well. Through Sarah Lawrence’s Community Partnerships and Service Learning Office, she participated in a mentoring program at Harlem’s PS 154. “I worked with a 10-year-old girl who had a learning disability. I would go once a week to help her with reading,” says Brooke. “We really bonded.”

At the College’s Early Childhood Center, where Sarah Lawrence students work as assistant teachers of local preschool children, Brooke gained hands-on experience in both teaching and leadership. As a participant in Sarah Lawrence’s Summer Leadership Institute, she found ways to refine her leadership skills.

All of this culminated after graduation, when Brooke embarked on a two-year term with Teach for America, an AmeriCorps-funded service program. “I taught elementary school in Phoenix,” says Brooke, “helping children (many of whom spoke mostly Spanish) with literacy and basic reading skills.”

The future? “I’d like to combine my interests in psychology, education and creative writing,” she says, “by writing children’s books.”