INTS 4360 · Texas State University · Human Services Career Cluster

Building People,
Building Communities

Human Services is about helping people at every stage of life. Our five careers line up along that journey: a strong start for kids, a classroom and a field to grow in, programs that hold a community together, a home to live in, and a business that keeps it all running.

YouthCamille ClassroomNick CommunityJordan HomeSheed BusinessFaith YouthCamille ClassroomNick CommunityJordan HomeSheed BusinessFaith

Meet the Team

Five students, five careers, one cluster. Here is who we are, what we are studying, and where we are headed.

Camille Phillips

Youth Development

CareerHistoryUniqueTrendMinor

Minor: Human Development and Family Sciences

My name is Camille and I am minoring in Human Development and Family Sciences. I have always had a love for working with children and understanding their development. My career goal is to work with youth development programs that work towards supporting young children to help them grow. I'm hoping to pursue a career where I get the privilege to create positive experiences for children, as well as provide social and emotional support for them. Through these youth development programs, I hope to make an impactful difference in their lives and contribute to their overall well-being and resilience.

Nick Gutierrez

Texas History Teacher and Powerlifting / Football Coach

CareerHistoryUniqueTrendMinor
Coming from Nick

Intro paragraph: who you are, your minor(s), and your specific teaching and coaching goal.

Jordan Rainey

Business, Coaching and Training, Community Development

CareerHistoryUniqueTrendMinor
Coming from Jordan

Intro paragraph: who you are, your minor(s), and your specific career goal in business and community development.

Sheed Jackson

Real Estate

CareerHistoryUniqueTrendMinor
Coming from Sheed

Intro paragraph: who you are, your minor(s), and your specific career goal in real estate.

Faith Shepherd-Smith

Business Owner, Defense and Aerospace Consulting

CareerHistoryUniqueTrendMinor

Major: General Studies · Minor: Business Administration

I'm a returning student finishing a degree I started a long time ago, and I'm doing it while running a company. I'm president and co-owner of RAMJAC Consulting, a small defense and aerospace consulting firm I run with my husband, who is a veteran. Before this I spent years in the video game industry, so I've got over 20 years across two very different fields. I'm also a mom, which is its own full-time job. My goal is simple: finish my bachelor's and keep growing the business. This degree is a credential, not a career change.

What Is Human Services?

A summary of the cluster: what it is, the pathways inside it, the kinds of jobs, and how big the field is.

Coming from Jordan

Cluster overview (200 to 300 words): definition of Human Services, the pathways, types of occupations, and the range of education levels. Faith will add the BLS numbers and visuals.

Our Careers

What each job actually is, the education or license it takes, and what it pays, with the source named.

Youth Development

Working in youth development can be a broad career field and lead to many different career paths, but they are all focused on helping children grow and learn. These careers can include recreation workers, youth program coordinators, social and community service managers, and child and family social workers. Youth development professionals can be found in a variety of settings like schools, city parks and recreation, nonprofits, and community centers.

Education requirements vary depending on the career path, with a high school diploma for some recreation jobs to bachelor's or master's degrees for social work and program management positions. The median annual salary in 2025 was $36,560 for recreation workers, $80,390 for social and community service managers, and $61,780 for social workers (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2026). Employment for all of these occupations is projected to grow between 4% and 7% from 2025 to 2035.

Teaching and Coaching

Coming from Nick

Career write-up (150 to 250 words): what the job is, Texas certification, pay and job outlook with the source.

Business and Community Development

Coming from Jordan

Career write-up (150 to 250 words): what the job is, education needed, pay and job outlook with the source.

Real Estate

Coming from Sheed

Career write-up (150 to 250 words): what the job is, TREC licensing, pay and job outlook with the source.

Running a Service Business (Faith)

There is no single job title for "business owner," so the closest match in the Bureau of Labor Statistics handbook is general and operations managers, the people who direct the day-to-day operations of a company. That is most of what I actually do: pricing the work, writing and tracking contracts, sending invoices, keeping the books, planning the year, and making sure clients are happy enough to come back. Most people in this role have a bachelor's degree and five or more years of experience in the field first (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2025).

$102,950Median pay, general and operations managers, May 2024 (BLS)
4%Projected growth for top executives, 2024 to 2034, about as fast as average (BLS)

History of the Cluster

Each of us added one milestone from our own field. Together they show how helping people became a profession.

  1. 1844From Camille

    Youth development gained momentum when George Williams founded the first YMCA (Young Men's Christian Association) in London to provide a safe environment for young men on the streets (YMCA of the USA, n.d.). In 1851, Thomas Valentine Sullivan established the first YMCA in the U.S. in Boston after inspiration from the "Y" in England.

  2. YearFrom Nick

    One milestone in public education or school athletics, plus two or three big-picture Human Services dates as timeline lead.

  3. 1953From Faith

    President Eisenhower signs the Small Business Act on July 30, creating the U.S. Small Business Administration. For the first time, small businesses have a federal agency whose job is to help them get started, get loans, and compete for government work (U.S. Small Business Administration, n.d.).

  4. YearFrom Jordan

    One milestone in community development or workforce training.

  5. YearFrom Sheed

    One milestone in real estate, such as when it became a licensed profession.

  6. 2003From Faith

    The Veterans Benefits Act of 2003 gives federal agencies the authority to set contracts aside for service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses, building on a 3 percent government-wide goal Congress set in 1999. This is the program that lets a company like ours compete for defense work (Dilger, 2022).

Similar but Different

All our careers serve people in different ways, but they all share a common purpose of creating opportunities, developing individuals, and strengthening communities. Each of our careers contributes to the well-being of people by providing them with support, resources, or services that help individuals and communities grow.

Camille

Youth development programs help build a strong foundation for young children through supportive relationships to develop resilience and life skills that will prepare them for future endeavors.

Nick

The one thing that makes teaching and coaching unique among the five.

Jordan

The one thing that makes business and community development unique among the five.

Sheed

The one thing that makes real estate unique among the five.

Faith

I'm the only one on the team whose career is building and running the business itself. Every other career here could work inside a company like mine, and my job is making sure that company stays healthy enough to keep serving clients and paying people.

How Our Minors Fit In

What each of us is studying on the side, and how it feeds the career we want.

Camille

Human Development and Family Sciences

My Human Development and Family Sciences minor helps me have a deeper understanding of how children grow and interact with their everyday environments. My courses have given me different aspects on social and emotional development, as well as family relationships. All these tie together and help me understand and prepare for working with the youth and all their different experiences to come.

Nick

Two or three sentences on how your minor or past courses help in teaching and coaching.

Jordan

Two or three sentences on how your minor or past courses help in business and community development.

Sheed

Two or three sentences on how your minor or past courses help in real estate.

Faith

Business Administration

My business administration minor is the formal version of things I already do every week at RAMJAC: pricing a contract, reading a term sheet, closing the books, and planning cash flow. The classes put names and frameworks on habits I picked up the hard way, and they fill in the gaps, like accounting rules and management theory, that I never got to learn on the job.

References

APA format. Each teammate adds at least two; entries are added as they arrive.

Coming from the team

Nick, Jordan, and Sheed: two APA citations each, added here alphabetically.