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As a college student, I worked as a mentor, and that got me involved in working with young people long before I became a foster parent.

When I was growing up, I was regularly involved in local activities such as food collections, food kitchens, and other initiatives.

As a parent, I have a job as a role model to my children, and by extension, to other young people.

In my early teens, I acquired a kind of representative status: went on behalf of the family to wakes and funerals and so on. And I would be counted on as an adult contributor when it came to farm work - the hay in the summertime, for example.

I have worked every day since the age of fifteen, supporting not only myself, but also helping a sizable family when needed.

I did most of my volunteer work when I was in college because I knew of more ways to get involved. In high school, we'd do things like, there was a homeless shelter near our hometown and our church group decorated one of the rooms. In college, I was in a sorority, and we did a lot of things, like pick up trash on the highway.

As with many teens, my first jobs included babysitting and mopping floors at McDonald's. Since then, I've held jobs a diverse as selling used cars, selling apparel, cosmetics, and real-estate, substitute-teaching six graders, teaching undergraduate creative writing, and working as an editorial assistant for a literary magazine.

Mine were informal mentors. They were all in my working life.

My first paying job, when I was 15, I was a day camp counselor.

I worked at a daycare for a couple of years going through high school and college. I did youth sports camps. I ran all the camps through my college.