Growing up, Sashoy Pryce was immersed in the world of service. Through her church, she was regularly volunteering at food pantries, helping the homeless, and supporting people in need. So when it came time to decide what she was going to study, she knew she wanted a career that would be focused on giving back.

Shoy first went in the direction of learning to be a medical assistant while regularly volunteering with the disability population. Even her advisor at Essex County Community College could see that she was meant to be in a more social role, so rather than going in the more clinical direction, she was placed as an activities assistant working with people with dementia and Alzheimer’s disease in a memory-care unit. “I’ve always been such a people person,” Shoy says, and her bubbly personality served her well in the job. “I was planning and implementing activities, creating memory boxes, I’d sometimes sit in on my lunch break to help feed people, really to listen to their stories and share a few chuckling ones of my own. That time with them made a difference—in me.”

For the next stop in Shoy’s career journey, she worked in a group home for people with disabilities, first as a direct-support professional and then as assistant manager. Meanwhile, she went back to school to study social services, and that set her on the path to The Arc of Essex County. “I would see The Arc vans all the time on my way to school in West Caldwell, and I would think to myself that it would be cool to work there,” she says. By a stroke of fate, that came to be: Shoy was working with a temp agency, and one day in 2017 she found herself assigned to The Arc of Essex County’s main office in Livingston. She stayed on as a temp and then was hired full-time, where she now works as the Operations Coordinator for Day & Residential Services. “It was totally meant to be,” she says.

In addition to serving in her more administrative operations role—making sure forms are up to date, checking in with assistant directors and managers, and ensuring Arc consumers have the care that they need—Shoy also frequently applies her more hands-on experience by taking on opportunities to work in The Arc of Essex County’s Children’s Saturday Respite, a majority of the Adult Community Recreation programs, and occasionally Hotel Respite. “Anywhere The Arc needs me, I make myself available,” she says.

She doesn’t hide the fact that Children’s Respite is her favorite place to be. “I love love love my Saturdays with the kids,” she says. “Watching them grow up, become more independent, and developing their own voice is so satisfying.”

Shoy says she has always felt supported during her time at The Arc, and is so grateful for the opportunities she has been given. And Shoy has reflected that support back, always making sure the people in her care have everything they need to live their best lives.