INTS 4360 · Texas State University · Human Services Career Cluster

Building People,
Building Communities

Human Services is about helping people at every stage of life, and our five careers happen to line up that way. It starts with kids, moves through the classroom and the practice field, heads out into the community and into people's homes, and ends with the small business that keeps the lights on.

YouthCamille ClassroomNick CommunityJordan HomeSheed BusinessFaith YouthCamille ClassroomNick CommunityJordan HomeSheed BusinessFaith

Meet the Team

Meet the five of us. Hit anyone's journey button to see their whole story in one place.

Camille Phillips

Youth Development

CareerHistoryUniqueTrendMinor
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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 support young children as they grow. I'm hoping to find a job where I get to create positive experiences for kids and give them social and emotional support. I want to be someone who makes their lives better and helps them bounce back when things get hard.

Nick Gutierrez

Texas History Teacher and Powerlifting / Football Coach

CareerHistoryUniqueTrendMinor
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Minor: Political Science

I'm Nick Gutierrez and my minor is political science. I want to teach Texas history and coach powerlifting and football at the middle school or high school level. My goal is to help students reach what they're going after, in the classroom and in sports, and to be the kind of leader they can count on.

Jordan Rainey

Social and Human Service Assistant, Community Nonprofits

CareerHistoryUniqueTrendMinor
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Minor: Business Management

I'm Jordan Rainey, and I'm minoring in Business Management. I want to work for a nonprofit that gives back and makes communities stronger, especially for young people who need some extra support on the way to becoming successful adults. I worked at a homeless youth shelter and loved being around those kids. One of the counselors there did the job I want, plus a lot more. My plan is to start as a social and human service assistant, get into an apprenticeship, and specialize from there.

Faith Shepherd-Smith

President, Defense and Aerospace Consulting

CareerHistoryUniqueTrendMinor
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Major: General Studies · Minor: Business Administration

I'm a returning student finishing a degree I started a long time ago. These days I'm also president of RAMJAC Consulting, a small defense and aerospace firm I run with my husband, a veteran. Before that I spent years in video games, so I've been working for over 20 years in two industries that have almost nothing in common. I'm a mom too. I want my bachelor's, and then I want to keep building the company I already have.

What Is Human Services?

The big picture, before we get into our own jobs.

This cluster covers work that helps people with all kinds of needs, from counseling to fitness training. It takes in nearly every community and social service job in the federal handbook, along with many personal care and service jobs.

~5MJobs counted in the Human Services cluster (BLS, 2015)
$18,510Median pay at the low end, shampooers (BLS, 2015)
$80,330Median pay for industrial-organizational psychologists (BLS, 2015)

Education runs just as wide. Some jobs start with less than a high school diploma and short training on the job, while others need a doctoral degree plus an internship or residency. The personal care services pathway was projected to make up nearly half of the cluster's openings, and personal care aides led every other job in the cluster (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2015).

Our Careers

A closer look at each job, including pay and how to get in.

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, ranging from 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, 2026b, 2026c, 2026e). Employment for all of these occupations is projected to grow between 4% and 7% from 2025 to 2035.

Teaching and Coaching

To teach in Texas I have to finish an educator preparation program, pass the certification exams, and apply to the state for my teaching certificate (Texas Education Agency, 2019). Coaching at a public school adds the district's own requirements and UIL's rules on top of that.

Nationally, high school teachers made a median of $72,040 in May 2025, with about 63,500 openings a year projected through 2035 (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2026a). Pay in Texas depends on the district and how long you've been teaching. The school I have my eye on is in my hometown, and they're offering around $75,000. Teaching is competitive, but schools are always going to need teachers.

  1. 1Finish my degreeBachelor's, political science minor
  2. 2Educator preparation programComplete it and get approved
  3. 3Pass the certification examsThen apply for the Texas teaching certificate
  4. 4Meet district and UIL coaching rulesTeach Texas history, coach powerlifting and football

Source: Texas Education Agency (2019).

Community Nonprofits

Social and human service assistants help people get the services they need, in areas like psychology, rehabilitation, and social work (National Center for O*NET Development, 2026). You'll find them at nonprofits, for-profit agencies, and state and local governments, and the title changes depending on where you land: social work assistant, advocate, residential care assistant, social services aide, and plenty of others. It's usually full time, with some evenings and weekends.

All you need to get in is a high school diploma, and most of the training happens on the job. A degree isn't required, but it makes moving up a lot easier. Median pay was $45,930 in May 2025 (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2026d). That's not huge, but nobody goes into this for the money.

  1. 1Get in the doorHigh school diploma, training on the job
  2. 2Social and human service assistantMedian pay $45,930
  3. 3Apprenticeship and a specialtyPick a lane from the pathways below
  4. 4Degree, then case management or social workBachelor's or master's needed to move up; social workers' median pay is $61,780

Sources: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (2026d, 2026e).

Apprenticeship pathways (Office of Apprenticeship, 2026)

Child and Youth Care PractitionerDirect Support SpecialistPeer SpecialistSocial Services AssistantYouth Development Practitioner

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's no official job title for "person who runs a small company," so the closest match in the Bureau of Labor Statistics handbook is general and operations managers. They oversee a company's daily operations. For me that means pricing work, keeping contracts and invoices straight, closing the books, and planning ahead so clients come back. Most people in the role have a bachelor's degree and at least five years of experience first (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2026f).

$105,770Median pay, general and operations managers, May 2025 (BLS)
5%Projected growth for top executives, 2025 to 2035, faster than average (BLS)

History of the Cluster

Each of us picked one date from our own field.

  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. 1910From Nick

    The University of Texas starts what becomes the University Interscholastic League, which still runs school sports and academic competitions across Texas today (University Interscholastic League, n.d.). This is the organization that will set the rules for every team I coach.

  3. 1937From Jordan

    Congress passes the National Apprenticeship Act, also called the Fitzgerald Act, which set up the registered apprenticeship system the country still runs on (U.S. Department of Labor, n.d.). It's the reason someone can learn a trade like mine on the job and specialize without starting over in school.

  4. 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.).

  5. 1954From Nick

    Brown v. Board of Education requires schools to end segregation. Students who had been kept out of athletics based on race finally got the same shot everyone else had. In Texas, Black high schools had been competing in their own separate league until the two came together.

  6. 1972From Nick

    Title IX passes, barring sex discrimination in any education program that takes federal money (U.S. Department of Education, n.d.). That's the law that opened school sports up to girls and women.

  7. YearFrom Sheed

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

  8. 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 of our careers serve people in different ways, but underneath it we're doing the same thing: helping people grow. Whether it's support, resources, or a service, we all give people something that makes their lives and their communities a little stronger.

Camille

Youth development programs give young kids a strong foundation through supportive relationships, so they build resilience and life skills they'll carry with them as they get older.

Nick

What makes my path different is how much AI is about to change it. I can use it to build lesson plans that keep the school day on track, put together workouts aimed at what the team needs that week, and break down the stats after a game.

Jordan

The field is so wide that you get to pick a specialty based on what you're into instead of getting stuck. You might even end up in a role you never planned on and find out you're great at it.

Sheed

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

Faith

Mine is the only career here that's about the business itself. Any of the other four could work for a company like mine, and my job is keeping that company healthy enough to pay people and keep clients happy.

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

Political Science

Political science fits teaching Texas history better than it might sound, since so much of that history is about government and how it got built. The course that's helped me most is CI 3325, growth and development for educators, with Dr. Mencky. He makes me get up and speak in public and talk to people I don't know, so standing in front of a classroom won't feel new. It's forced me out of my shell.

Jordan

Business Management

Business Management will help me build and lead a team, and market programs so the people who need them can find them. Every business class I've taken breaks customers into different groups, and that carries straight over to clients. When you know who you're serving, it's easier to meet what each person needs.

Sheed

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

Faith

Business Administration

Most of what my business administration classes cover, I was already doing at RAMJAC, like pricing contracts, reading term sheets, and watching cash flow. The difference is the classes gave me the real terms and the theory behind it, plus the accounting rules I never had time to learn at work.

References

APA format, sorted alphabetically.

Coming from the team

Sheed: two APA citations, added here alphabetically.