Anisha Vanka came to Penn GSE certain of her path ahead. After two years of working in schools as a one-on-one support professional for students with developmental needs, she was hoping to broaden her impact as a school counselor, so she enrolled in Penn GSE’s Professional Counseling program.
But after her May 16 graduation, she is heading to the Hill instead of the counselor’s office.
“I will be working as a Congressional Fellow with the Asian Pacific American Institute for Congressional Studies,” she said. “In this role, I will work in the D.C. office of House Representative Dave Min (CA-47), learning about and doing the various duties of a congressional staffer.”
Vanka spoke with us about what caused the career pivot, how Penn GSE helped her make it, and what advice she would give others who want to make a similar change.
How did your time at Penn GSE prepare you for this new job?
Throughout my experience in the Professional Counseling program, I did my practicum at a K–8 school in West Philly and my internship at a suburban high school. These schools could not have been more different with regards to location, environment, culture, and student population. That being said, they still experienced similar issues, just in different ways. Working at these schools motivated me to become involved in making differences at a structural level. Once I realized this, I took a class in the Education Policy program at GSE, where I learned a lot about different types of policy studies and issues within the education policy realm. [Director of Career Services] Christa Hunter helped me a lot during the whole application process, especially with restructuring my counseling-oriented resume for policy jobs, going through interview prep, and answering general questions I had about various applications I sent out.
What kind of impact are you hoping to make in your new role, and how does that connect to what you studied at Penn GSE?
I am hoping to learn more about how the policy world actually works in practice, as well as the systems and structures in place that one must navigate when they are looking to make policy changes. I feel that my time in the Professional Counseling program at GSE actually prepared me well for this career pivot, as I learned soft skills like being empathetic, a good listener, and working with people who have different beliefs than I do.
Looking back, what’s one thing you’re most proud of accomplishing during your time at Penn GSE?
Coming into GSE, I was pretty set on the path to getting my LPC and becoming a full-time therapist or school counselor, and it was scary to realize that I wanted something different than what I had set out to do. I'm proud of myself for actively working towards this policy goal during my second year. I added a second internship, did a lot of networking, and started educating myself on policy topics to make sure I would be a competitive job candidate.
What advice would you give to incoming or current Penn GSE students who want to follow a similar path?
Don't be afraid to advocate for yourself! Especially in the policy field, networking and learning how to market yourself are very important skills. They were also skills I needed to learn because we do not rely on them very much in the therapy world. I think that self-advocacy slots right into this; you are simply asking for what you need to accomplish what you want.
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