Finding Clarity Through Community: A Youthlincer Pathway From Service Year to RootEd Global

By: Jessica Hardiman

“How did you get into a career like this?”

I was recruiting at Utah State University’s Study Abroad Fair last week when students kept asking me that question. Each time, it stopped me in my tracks. I smiled, because the honest answer isn’t short.

I didn’t start college with a clear plan. I didn’t know what I wanted to do, what degree I would finish with, or where I was heading. In fact, I changed my undergraduate major more times than I care to admit. Enough that my transcript reads like a highlight reel of indecision. Somehow, I accumulated nearly two bachelor’s degrees worth of credits and still wasn’t convinced I had anything figured out.

What I did know at nineteen was that I wanted to be part of something meaningful.

That’s when I found Youthlinc.

I joined Youthlinc through the Service Year program while juggling multiple jobs and quietly trying to convince myself I wasn’t falling behind. Like many Youthlincers, I felt pressure to have answers. To know my path, my purpose, my plan.

I remember calling a professor one day, staring at my transcript and trying not to laugh or cry. I had changed my major so many times that my course list looked like a buffet of half-finished ideas. At one point, they gently asked, “So… what do you want to do?”

I didn’t have an answer. What I did have was a service project that weekend and a Youthlinc meeting coming up. Somehow, those spaces felt clearer than the overwhelming question of what I wanted to do as a career.

Service gave me language before I had a label, and community gave me permission to keep exploring.

On my first international service trip with Youthlinc to Peru, I met my team leader, Britnie. At the time, my life felt full and heavy all at once. I was raising two of my younger sisters while trying to stay afloat in school, work, and service. I carried a lot of responsibility, but I didn’t yet see myself as a leader.

Britnie did.

She listened. And not in a polite, surface-level way, but with real presence. She sat with me as I talked through ideas for community projects, questions about sustainability, and hopes for what could be possible alongside our community partners. She didn’t rush to correct me or tell me what was realistic. She took my curiosity seriously.

Over the next few years, that listening turned into mentorship. Britnie challenged me, encouraged me, and eventually invited me to step into leadership as her assistant team leader on a Youthlinc program to Kenya. I remember feeling completely unqualified. I was terrified of public speaking and deeply uncomfortable being in the spotlight, unless I was playing a sport.

But she trusted me before I trusted myself.

She gave me responsibility before I had the educational credentials to justify it. She pushed me outside of my comfort zone without ever making me feel alone inside it. Through her mentorship, I began to understand that leadership wasn’t about being the loudest voice in the room. It was about preparation, humility, and care for people.

That experience quietly reshaped my identity. Through Youthlinc mentors like Britnie, I started to dissolve the negative belief systems I carried about who I was allowed to be. I learned that curiosity wasn’t a weakness, it was the beginning of capacity.

As I became more involved in my local community, that clarity deepened. Coaching middle school basketball, joining county coalitions, becoming a certified EMT… I began to notice a pattern. Volunteering locally helped me see gaps I hadn’t noticed before. I learned that meaningful change doesn’t always start with big ideas; it often starts with proximity.

One evening after basketball practice, I found myself sitting on the bleachers with a student who didn’t want to go home yet. Basketball was the excuse, but what they really needed was someone to listen. In that moment, I realized that leadership doesn’t always look like leading. Sometimes it looks like staying, listening, and showing up again tomorrow.

Service abroad expanded that understanding even further. Working alongside international communities challenged many of the assumptions I didn’t even realize I was carrying. I learned quickly that meaningful service was less about what I brought and more about how well I listened.

Those experiences humbled me. They expanded my curiosity and pushed me to ask better questions; about culture, power, privilege, and whose knowledge is valued. Rather than arriving with solutions, I learned to slow down, observe, and learn alongside community partners. That shift didn’t just change how I approached global service; it changed how I approached learning, leadership, and relationships everywhere.

At the same time, it was through service at home that my inner compass became clearest. That’s where I practiced applying those lessons daily and learned what it actually meant to show up.

During my time as a volunteer EMT, I responded to a call that shifted how I understood responsibility. In those moments, what mattered most was calm presence, preparation, and trust. That experience stayed with me. It helped me understand that service isn’t about being the expert; it’s about being ready to show up when your community needs you, not just when it’s comfortable.

Originally, I thought my path was occupational therapy. But service kept pulling me toward bigger questions about systems, education, and how people learn through experience. Those questions led me to pursue a master’s degree in international development. Later, as I continued mentoring, teaching, and building programs through Youthlinc, I realized that education itself was the tool I was using most. That realization eventually led me to pursue a doctorate in education. Not because it was part of a grand plan, but because it supported the work I was already doing.

Over time, Youthlinc became more than a place I volunteered. It became a community that trusted me to lead, to build, and eventually to help create RootEd Global in partnership with Utah State University. RootEd Global grew out of the same belief that first brought me to Youthlinc: that education is most powerful when it is rooted in community-based service, reflection, and long-term relationships.

I am not just someone who participated in Youthlinc. I am a by-product of its belief that service shapes leaders before titles do, and identities before careers.

When students ask me how to build a career like mine, I tell them this: you don’t need to have it all figured out to begin. I certainly didn’t. What I had was curiosity, a willingness to show up, and a community that believed growth happens through service, reflection, and trust.

Youthlinc invited me to arrive curious, not ready. It taught me that preparation comes through doing the work alongside others, not waiting until you feel confident enough to start. Through local service, I learned what it means to stay. Through global service, I learned how to listen. Through mentorship, I learned who I was becoming.

The pathway from Service Year to RootEd Global didn’t just shape my resume. It shaped my identity. It helped me discover the kind of learner, leader, and community member I wanted to be.

What I didn’t realize at the time was that Youthlinc wasn’t just shaping my values; it was quietly building my professional ecosystem. The people I served alongside became mentors. Those mentors became collaborators, references, and connectors. So many beautiful doors opened for me simply because I kept showing up in spaces that lit my soul on fire.

My career pathway didn’t unfold through a single decision or degree. It unfolded through relationships. Through people who saw potential before I could articulate it, who invited me into rooms where I could learn, and who trusted me with responsibility long before I felt “ready.” Community didn’t just support my journey; it actively shaped it.

If you’re feeling uncertain, overwhelmed, or behind, know this: confusion is not a failure. Pay attention to where you feel most alive (especially in service), who you become when you’re part of a community working toward something bigger than yourself, and what questions keep pulling at your curiosity.

Clarity doesn’t always arrive as a plan. Sometimes it arrives as people who believe in you, work that matters, and the courage to keep showing up.

That’s how clarity found me and it’s a pathway Youthlinc helps create every day.