Stacy Colindres (‘19) is a behavioral technician.
She works at HANDS Center for autism In Durham and attends grad school at UNC-Chapel Hill for social work.
Colindres did not originally expect to go into the social work field. She was always interested in mental health-related careers and later discovered social work was in line with what she wanted to do.
“I work in the field of applied behavior analysis,” she said. “I’m working with children who have autism and providing one-on-one therapy for them, kind of like a pre-k teacher.”
Colindres helps children learn basic skills like potty training and eating. She also helps them develop their communication and socialization skills.
One of the challenges faced in her job is working through tantrums with 5-year-olds as it takes time to calm the children down.
“There’s a very high staff turnover because it’s not an easy job as it requires a lot of patience,” she said.
But Colindres likes that her days are rarely repetitive and how spontaneous working with kids is.
“The children keep me on my toes,” she said.
Although it’s hard work, seeing kids make progress makes the job worth it.
“You’re essentially teaching these kids vocabulary,” she said. “Seeing them go from not being able to communicate to asking simple questions is really rewarding.”
After grad school, she plans to become a general therapist and work with the Latin community and Spanish-speaking immigrants.
One thing she wished she knew in high school was how to better network in preparation for college. She had limited opportunities, due to entering college during COVID-19, and didn’t know how to reach out to others, she felt disconnected from others in her field.
“Utilize the resources that Riverside offers,” she said. “College is really fun but it’s also very different, so you have to learn to be self-sufficient.”
