Career Support

Ron VanDon grew up on Guam and graduated from Simon Sanchez High School. After college, he traveled to West Texas where he attended and graduated from Texas Tech University in 2012 with a Bachelor’s degree in English and a minor in Secondary Education. He resided in West Texas for over a decade where he worked as a high school English teacher for a diverse range of student populations. During his time as a teacher, he recalls picking up various skills — a succinct understanding of pedagogy, curriculum design and planning, graphic and presentation skills, event coordination, as well data collecting and analysis.

In 2022, he returned back to Guam and spent time trying to figure out how to pivot from one career into another. He spent some of that time learning about other fields, mainly UX design, web development, and basic coding languages before becoming accepted as a career advising specialist at the Triton Advising Center.

Ron is a big believer in making career readiness information and support accessible to students. In this role as a career advising specialist, he helps students get connected to potential job/internship opportunities, provide resources that students can use to jumpstart their career, and other services like resume checks.

Outside of work, Ron enjoys immersing himself in music, stories, mystery podcasts, and tabletop RPGs. He lives with his wife and daughter. The family is currently adopted by two cats: Runi (short for Runi Runi Bum Bum) and Home Slice.

Having resided in San Diego, Merrick attained an Associate’s degree in business administration from San Diego Mesa College before returning back to Guam to pursue a Bachelor’s degree in Entrepreneurship from the University of Guam.

As a Career Specialist, he assists students with career planning, finding internship and job opportunities, and providing resources that students can use towards achieving professional goals.