Alumni on the Move: Crystal Peatfield ‘17 Web Director | May 28, 2019

Crystal Peatfield was recently promoted to a counselor position at the Farnum Center in Manchester, NH.  

Two years ago, Crystal began working at the Farnum Center as a Resident Instructor for a women’s transitional living program. She was then moved into the program coordinator position. This program helps women in early recovery for up to a year with budgeting, life skills, resume building and job searching.  

Now, Crystal will work with a broader population of individuals working on paths to sobriety.  

“I enjoy working with this population because you can see how much they have grown in such a short period of time,” she says. “People are coming in at very hard times in their lives and when they go through our program, they are learning about themselves and how to love who they are without having to hide behind substances. It is truly transformative to see individuals starting to love who they are again. These individuals are not broken, they are courageous humans that have worked so hard to get through challenges and fight every day to maintain sobriety.” 

At Thomas College, Crystal studied criminal justice and was very active on campus.  

“Having diverse class options helped significantly to help me figure out what and where I wanted to go with my career. I also had the pleasure of participating in the Washington Center internship program to learn even more about my career. I took a class at Thomas called Drugs, Addiction and Crime with Dr. Tracey Horton and loved it. It was my favorite course and helped me have a better understanding of the population. We had to go to programs and tour them and when I did this, I learned this was something I would like to get into.” 
 
Although the career Crystal chose is not always an easy one, she says her time at Thomas prepared her.  

“The professors at Thomas always encouraged me to ask questions and to learn from academic mistakes. I felt prepared for this when I stepped into the human services field and have had some tough moments with wonderful supervisors who helped me see how to move past my human errors through supervision, but with great acceptance that I am human that I am going to make errors,” she said. “Thomas prepared me to be okay with making mistakes and challenging myself to grow from them.”  

While Crystal works at the Farnum Center, she is also studying for her Master’s in Clinical Mental Health Counseling at Southern New Hampshire University.  

Overall, Crystal is thrilled with her personal growth and professional three years after graduating from Thomas College, and she looks back on that time fondly. 

“I am proud to be a Thomas alum for a lot of different reasons. I made amazing friendships and great connections with the faculty and staff from the school,” she says. “Thomas staff members are really there for the students. I recently reached out for some help and had great response and follow up. My experience with Thomas was warm from the tour scheduling all the way to this day.”