Gap Year Here at ACR

Gabriella O’Bryan finds ACR is the perfect place to do both a gap year and an internship before applying to graduate school. She began working for ACR while in the undergrad psych program at the University of Minnesota. Her work at ACR offered access to a wide range of opportunity and experience.

Gabby writes,
I’m doing my gap year at ACR because I started working here as a program counselor during my undergrad three years ago! I studied psychology during undergrad and I am proud to say I’ve had more than 50 ACR employees take the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. I thoroughly enjoy getting to know my coworkers on a personal level – and hey, who doesn’t like learning more about themselves?

Using Her Gap Year for a Psych Internship at ACR

I graduated with my bachelor’s degree three semesters early so I have no problem taking my time learning about how living with a disability affects mental health through my work at ACR while my peers catch up academically. I intend on completing a psychology focused internship through ACR in order to gain more experience in the field before applying to graduate school.

Wide Range of Experience

I was at my first ACR home in Robbinsdale for two years, then I decided I was ready to challenge myself by working with residents all across the company. I chose to become an emergency float during my last semester at the University of Minnesota because I was able to complete my classes online. I remember I would alternate between 65 hour weeks and then 40 hours weeks because I wanted to be financially independent and save money for student loan payments after graduation.

I love my job as a direct care professional so much that the more time I spend helping my residents the more energy I have! I worked a lot of pm/awn doubles and as an ambivert I loved the dichotomy of interacting with lots of people during the day then having my time to focus and clean during the night. I mostly worked overnight shifts because I felt it made the most sense to “kill two birds with one stone” and get paid to do my homework. I was able to not only continue working full-time but also graduate on time thanks to the scheduling flexibility the emergency float position offers. After working as an emergency float for over a year I decided to transfer to a new ACR home in Afton because I had grown so close to the residents and the staff. In fact I felt like I was returning home whenever I was able to pick up shifts at their house! I feel truly blessed to have stumbled across the ACR Homes booth during my undergrad not knowing how important this job would become to me! 🙂 #1Workplace

For more stories, videos, haiku’s, songs, etc from ACR employees who have taken a gap year, will be taking a gap year, or just think ACR is a great place to spend your gap year, check out our Facebook page.