“I work as a birth mother counselor/caseworker at a private adoption agency in San Antonio,” said 2008 Trinity University graduate Erin Shanti Smith. “I did undergraduate research on adoptions while in school and was able to use the contacts to get the job.

“I enjoy the work, though sometimes it is emotionally trying. I never know what to expect. I love working with people. Getting to be a part of the adoption experience for families has touched my heart. I was adopted from India and never had the opportunity to know my birth parents. Counseling birth parents has given me insight into what a difficult decision placing me for adoption must have been for my birth mother. Although my adoptive parents are white and I am brown, people say my adoptive mother and I look and laugh alike.”
 
Scholarships were essential to Smith’s college experience. “Because my parents are missionaries in Mexico and do not bring in any disposable income,” she explained, “I attended Trinity entirely on financial aid and scholarships. Scholarships paid for my tuition, room and board, books and health insurance for my entire four years of undergraduate study.”

Supporting the United Methodist Student Day offering, Smith said, means, “doing someone a favor of indescribable magnitude.”

Her triple major intertwined anthropology, Spanish and international studies. “They all, in some way, revolve around what I most enjoy: people and culture. Learning Spanish allowed me to communicate with people in other cultures. International studies helped me to understand their situation and circumstances, and anthropology helped me to understand their culture.” 
 
Eventually Smith hopes to work “in international adoptions, either as a liaison abroad or as a domestic facilitator, perhaps aided by the study of immigration law.”

Please give generously to this Special Sunday offering Nov. 29. Thank you!