First working with Samaritas as a refugee specialist, Giroux was able to pay off her student debts. Then she quit and took five months off to travel Southeast Asia. She is pictured to the right in Thailand.
“People thought I was crazy to just quit and travel without a job lined up,” Giroux recalled. “I taught English to refugee women at-risk for trafficking in Northern Thailand, and taught English in exchange for housing/food in a small village outside of Hanoi, Vietnam. I bought a scooter, and rode from Hanoi to Saigon with a few friends I met while teaching, sold it, and returned to the US.”
Within two weeks of her return, Giroux was hired with an Emmy Award-winning filmmaking company in Portland, Oregon known as Muse Storytelling (born out of Stillmotion). Today she works as their lead story strategist, managing online university content and handling everything from the complete storytelling process to how to conduct interviews to nonprofit story secrets. She’s taught the storytelling process at workshops, webinars, and during a tour with Canon across Asia. She also writes scripts for online courses and marketing videos.
As a student at WMU, Giroux fell in love with travel through a study abroad trip to Barcelona where she worked with gomio.com creating blog content about backpacking. Once she finished the internship and had a month remaining in Europe, Giroux then traveled to a small village in France for a work exchange at a bed and breakfast. It was her first time traveling alone, but the experience was one she describes as a blast.
“When you learn that you can navigate a new country on your own… I feel like it made me realize that there are a lot bigger challenges I could navigate when I need to as well,” Giroux explained.
Aside from participating with the Sailing Team while at WMU, Giroux also completed an internship with Samaritas in Battle Creek, helping to assimilate new refugees. She was then hired after graduation as a refugee specialist and worked as a primary case worker for 10-25 clients at a time, mostly with Burmese refugees, but sometimes with Iraqi or Rwandan.
She was responsible for making sure that resettlement services were provided and refugees obtained employment within 90 days of arriving in the US. “From housing and financial assistance, to ESL classes, medical appointments, home safety checks, obtaining social security cards and state IDs, cultural orientations, job applications, employment, and follow-up, it really taught me how to coordinate projects, network with community partners, and solve problems creatively," Giroux said.
"My journey has been unconventional, and I was so fortunate to have found mentors in Dr. Kostrzewa and Scott Friesner who have really helped to cultivate these traits and encouraged me to take the road less traveled. The internship I had at Samaritas was possible through course credit and through an introduction from Dr. Kostrzewa. It really gave me the experience I needed to have an edge after graduating."
As a result of her journey thus far, Giroux believes that diversity of experiences fosters personal growth and fulfilment.
“When it comes to experiencing other parts of the world, specifically, it's important to challenge the echo chamber you've grown up in, compare and learn from differences in cultures so that you can make choices in your own life more intentionally, but also realize that no matter where you are—everyone has the same basic needs, desires, and fears,” Giroux said. “Also, to realize that even when you're on the other side of the world, your actions and your choices have an impact on the environment and others.”