While many struggle finding their calling, Greenville’s Devon Sharpe has wanted to become a social worker since he was an eighth-grader. Sharpe, a former Pitt Community College University Transfer student, achieved his goal after earning a bachelor’s degree from East Carolina University in 2019. For him, social work is a means of earning income and paying it forward.

“I wanted to become a school social worker (because of one) who helped me and my family when I was in grade school,” he explains. Though Sharpe didn’t earn a degree from Pitt, he completed the 24 transfer credits he needed. “Going to (PCC) allowed me to get the basic classes out the way,” he says. “… I was able to take core classes needed to enter the social work program.”

As a school social worker/attendance specialist at E.B. Aycock and C.M. Eppes middle schools, Sharpe is colleagues with some of the same people who helped him as a student. He says social work “doesn’t feel like a job but a fun hobby.” Sharpe’s duties include discussing and resolving student attendance issues with parents, conducting home visits, and checking on students with behavioral issues. He also ensures students have personal hygiene items they need and documents each day’s activities.

Success in social work, Sharpe says, requires understanding, concern for others, self-confidence, and a calm nature. He says “taking things too personally” is one of the job’s biggest challenges. Nearly four years into his career, Sharpe says he’s discovered something about social work he learned as an eighth-grader: “A kind gesture can change a person’s life forever.”