Yes, I did work at a psychiatric hospital! And, Go Big Red (Cornell University)!

Here is the next installment of my personal labor journal:

Physics, Swimming Pools, Manholes, Contracts, Cats and Pink Cupcakes

My Personal Labor Journal   © 2011 Julie Shubin

College  work:  Swimming pools and counseling – Who knew that went together?

Just as I knew with certainty that I wanted to be a lawyer, I knew that the only college I wanted to attend was the School of Industrial and Labor Relations (ILR) at Cornell University.   Both my parents, Eugenie Alexander Helitzer and Jack Helitzer, attended Cornell, as did my maternal grandfather (Morris Alexander -- who attended until he was too sick to continue).  My older sister, Marjorie Helitzer Swirsky and my brother–in-law, Keith Swirsky, also attended Cornell.

Between my junior and senior years in high school, I attended the Cornell summer program.  I took my first ILR course with Professor Korman together with an art history class.  Both classes were fantastic.  The ILR School did not have early decision admissions, so I had to anxiously wait until spring for my Cornell letter.   Fortunately, I was accepted to the ILR School.  

The ILR’s school curriculum is very demanding, so I didn’t work during my college years.  However, during the summers, I worked as a mental health worker at a private psychiatric hospital in Westwood, MA.  Mental health workers assisted staff doctors and nurses by taking blood pressure, weighing patients, and updating charts.  The part of the job I loved the most was sitting with the patients, keeping them company, and listening to them – just trying to add a bit of comfort and normalcy to their days. 

The pool’s lifeguard was also a mental health worker, so during my junior year in college I became certified as a lifeguard so that I could work as a mental health worker for three days and as a lifeguard for two days.  I found that when working at the pool, the young patients, who were admitted mostly for drug and alcohol related issues, would feel even more comfortable talking to me in such a relaxed environment.  I liked making that connection to the patients and feeling that I made a difference during a difficult time in a patient’s life.