My Love For Social Work

I am currently a Psychology major at Brigham Young University. I am graduating in April 2017 with a Bachelor’s of Psychology and a double minor in Family Life and Gerontology. This coming December 2016, I will be applying to the Masters of Social Work program at both BYU. I hope to become a medical social worker and be employed in a hospital as a child life specialist or a therapist for cancer patients and families. I’m attracted to social work because I served a service mission for 18 months in Guatemala teaching ecclesiastical principles and providing service to hundreds of Guatemalans. I left my heart there and came back with a determination to help those in need. With my educational background and my ability to speak Spanish, I am confident that I will be able serve many people in need. I have been able to volunteer as a Hospice Relief Supporter, a volunteer teacher at the Utah State Hospital, a volunteer at the crisis line, and as the Volunteer Coordinator at Camp Kesem (a free summer camp for children whose parents are affected by cancer). The more I volunteer, the more experience I gain and the greater my desire for social work grows.

Social work is a career that finds and chooses you, rather than you selecting it. Social work has always been an immense portion of my life even when I had no recollection of what social work entailed. My life revolved around so many situations that had a social worker stepped in, my life would be totally different than it is today. Many individuals and agencies lack the compassion and empathy for oppressed people. Having been in many circumstances, has given me the experience and background that influenced me to go into social work, as well as the understanding of my role and responsibilities that I will assume as a professional social worker, and my reasons for selecting the program at ASU School of Social Work and thoughts on how the Mission Statement addresses my career goals.

An author’s positioning of details in a story can make or break a story. Many aspects of revealing details can go wrong, but those details can be used to build suspense when they are placed in the correct space. Characterization is a huge part of Walker’s piece, and the way in which she used imagery and past events builds suspense and provides only needed information. The suspense created by Walker creates a sense of uneasiness in the reader, and adds to the overall message of the story. Through foreshadowing, Alice Walker was able to build up her characters and her plot, while at the same time not giving away too much information too soon. Stories can easily be flooded out with too much nonessential information, but all the information

When it came to envisioning my advanced block placement, I knew I wanted something different, something to transform the way I practiced social work for the last fourteen years. The timing ideal as my passion for palliative and hospice care social work was in transition. I seized the opportunity in preserving it by securing an international internship where I could research the cultural differences in the quality of both the tangible and intangible deliverables in providing compassionate end-of-life care. The destination, Nepal!

Always, I was told from parents and elders that anyone can achieve their dreams through arduous work and dedication. Surprisingly, I hadn’t pondered this until I observed a shivering homeless person standing at the corner asking for help on one snowy, frosty winter day. This affected my life greatly. On the way, I just started thinking about the life of homeless people and how they are not fortunate enough to get their own place to live, their choice of delicious food to eat and several other amenities that we all enjoy in our everyday lives. An incident, like this, sparked an enthusiastic sense of compassion and empathy in me. Along with my family, I started thinking deeply and my thoughts to help the homeless expanded to other areas and I wanted to start helping the community around me as much as possible.

For me, this ideal means living a life of service by being receptive to the needs of others and by being a voice to the underserved members in one’s community. From a physician’s standpoint, this value could manifest as a thoughtful doctor who sees people and not diseases; pains and not symptoms; friends and not patients. This principle of valuing all people while committing to a life of service is something I have strived for throughout my life.

Majoring in Human Services/Social Work has always been a dream of mine. I have always wanted to help people who are in need. Life can definitely be rough, and can throw anything at any time, even when you aren’t expecting it. Whether it be financial problems, emotional problems, or mental problems, life can begin to take a toll on people. In particular, I am leaning towards working with children or adults who have mental health issues or have problems with substance abuse. With the possibility of possibly helping people who come from broken families or homes.

I can say that being a social worker was never in my plans. I started from Liberal Arts, because I wasn’t decided on my career choice. I took almost all courses, when I got an advice from one of my friends to try Health Information Technology. I gave it a chance and I didn’t realize how time flied by and I graduated. My dream always was to work with children. When I graduated and took my internship, that was the time, when I understood that I made the wrong choice. I needed to search for another career, because I understood, that it would not be what I meant. My father is physical therapist and he gave me and advice to think and to do some research about Social Worker. This time, I did the most research that I could, in order to not repeat my mistake again. I instantly knew, that this what I needed. All over the world, there is and will always be abuse. That’s the reality of it, but now I’m studying for Social Worker here at Lehman College, because I would like to be working toward changing a child’s reality one day, I am changing my knowledge every time I come to class, and changing my life one step at a time. I believe that it all starts with me, and while I may not be able to save the whole world, I will be able to save and help at least small part of it. I currently work in the family practice as a receptionist. My best days are those when I able to help people and provide them with all the information needed. Every day is different.

The situation that brought me from my first internship to the second one was frustrating and difficult. Nonetheless, it provided me with beneficial learning experiences for my career and life in general. One of the silver linings of interning at these two considerably different internship experiences was increasing my knowledge of two different types of business. The first of these areas was in the Non-Profit organization at PACS, where their mission is to empower individuals who are struggling. The nonprofit industry has always deeply interested me, and what I learned at PACS only fueled that interest. The time I spent at PACS was brief and ended abruptly. Nonetheless, I learned valuable and significant information and gained an understanding of the various business characteristics that are essential in nonprofit organizations.

I am interested in school social work. My biggest goal is to work and help neglected children. When volunteering at Bessemer Elementary I got to see a school social worker in action. Making sure the children weren’t being abused, making sure that a child had the necessary needs to grow, and be successful in, and outside of school. This field has always interesting to me because when I was younger I had a family social worker. She came to visit my brothers and I after my father passed when it became hard for my mother to take care of all five of us. Every time she came she had a big smile on her face, and she gave my mother hope that everything would be okay; which is what I want to help someone else with.

This film was designed well. I felt that this film was intended to help people understand schizophrenia from the view point of the person with the mental illness. It changed my perception of people with this mental illness. Before watching this film, I was unware of the functions that each part of the brain took and the effects on each part of the brain for a person with this mental illness. I learned that the brain of a person with schizophrenia is physiologically and anatomically different. One comment that was made on the video that changed my previously held believes was that people with schizophrenia turn to drugs for a solution. Before, I thought that people with schizophrenia

Growing up I have been fortunate enough to have been taught by some truly inspirational teachers and I am well aware of the effect they have had on my life and the choices I have made subsequently. My own passion for working with young children extends from wanting to emulate those role models and have the same impact on other children.

I chose social working as my career because many other people go through tough situations and have a difficult time talking to relatives or friends to help them through a tough situation. I thought of becoming a social worker so I can have the ability to change the lives of others. Social work is one of those careers you can truly make a difference in people’s lives. I want to become a social worker because life isn’t about just helping yourself it’s about helping others as well, which is what social workers do for a living. Child and family social workers protect children and families in need of assistance. Many families and children don’t feel comfortable talking to just anyone about obstacles they have faced in their lives which is why

The decision to pursue my education in social work at Dalhousie University was not an easy one. While I was growing up, my career choice changed all of them time, but I always knew that I wanted to do something fulfilling, in which I could “help” and support people. My mom was a nurse and always loved helping people; I always figured I would follow in her footsteps, however I learned at an early age that sciences do not come easy to me. Unfortunately, my mom lost her battle to breast cancer when I was eight years old, so I hope that by me helping people socially, rather than medically like she did, will continue her legacy.

One of the greatest pieces of advice that I have received is that if you do something that you love, you will never work a day in your life. It took me changing my major three times to find what I am truly passionate about. After I changed my major to child and family studies I enjoyed learning everyday and applying what I learned from class into the real world. The knowledge that I obtained through my classes assisted me through my experiences as a nanny, a student worker for the department of child and family studies at Tarleton, and lastly through my internship at Gladney Center for Adoption this past summer. I had thought about pursuing a MSW since I switched to child and family studies. The few social work classes I was enrolled in have been some of my favorite material. Ultimately my internship through Gladney and my passion for adoption led to my final decision to pursue a masters in social work.