Personal Experience In My Life

During and immediately after my undergraduate course, I had the opportunity to work as a volunteer at the American Counseling Association and as a houseparent for an institution that houses mentally ill individuals. The association welcomes students and encourages them to offer voluntary services while they have an opportunity. My experience at the association, as a houseparent, and currently as a paraprofessional for mentally ill adults and children with behavioral problems provided me with a solid footing as well as the necessary resources to prepare for my career in counseling. The experiences gave me an opportunity to attend several conferences and workshops where I had the chance to meet and interact with other professional counselors. These opportunities opened me up and exposed me to numerous challenging situations that helped me to grow both personally and professionally. Interacting with more qualified and experienced people in the association, institution for the mentally ill, and agency that I currently work for has helped me to develop confidence in my work as I sought their assistance and guidance whenever I needed help. The experiences gained while working at the association was helpful to me as I could apply that knowledge and the skills learnt to help my church members. At my church, I was a youth leader and

We are interested in learning more about you and the context in which you have grown up, formed your aspirations, and accomplished your academic successes. Please describe the factors and challenges that have most shaped your personal life and aspirations. How have these factors helped you to grow? (800)

The patience, compassion and encouragement of one person improved my family’s last years with its patriarch in countless ways. It was this improvement that inspired me to pursue a career as an

Growing up I witnessed my sister and grandmother deal with serious mental illness. My sister and grandmother both were diagnosed with bipolar disorder. It has always been my passion to help them manages their episodes. Growing up witnessing these episodes I always knew that I wanted to help those who are struggling to cope with mental health issues. Social work is not just a passion of mine, but a solution to the struggles many people face every day. I learned my “caring and compassion” for others, from my mother. My early experiences were a driving force for me pursuing my master’s in social work. As a child, my mother took in adults, children, and families within our neighborhood and afar to aid them in difficult times. Whether it was for a meal, a night, or longer, she has spent her life caring for others. The passion my mother possessed for helping others has become my

With this experience it prompted me to go into therapy, however when I began to practice as a therapist intern. I still felt unfulfilled, I felt that I wasn’t doing enough for my clients. After approx. 5 years of that, I spoke with a social worker, and I then realized that becoming a social worker is what I needed to do. I needed to become a wraparound service for my clients.

In therapy, I discovered that I was codependent. I was constantly manipulated by my mother, desperately needing her approval, but to no avail. As I learned to cope with everything my mother had put and puts me through, I realized my self-worth. I was able to help people again. Not only could I help people again, but I willingly accepted help, especially from my therapist. I would talk for four sessions in a row with her never saying anything, and I would reach the conclusions to the problems myself. That’s when I realized that a therapist is exactly what I want to be for the rest of my life.

After my first year at UND, I took a CNA class and became employed at a nursing home in Menahga, where I am still working. At this job I was able to experience patient care and begin to see the benefits of helping patients improve their lives. In my time after High School I have also had many other valuable experiences. I have been a Camp Counselor at two, 1 ½ week Confirmation Camps for our church. At these camps it was mine, along with other Counselor’s responsibility to teach the younger teens about how we believe as well as demonstrate how to be respectable adults. These camps allowed me to use and develop my leadership skills and also created memories that I will never forget. I have also shadowed a few different Medical Professionals, in order to better understand the world of medicine. Dr. Dan Smith is a General Surgeon who lives and practices very near to where I live. I was able to shadow Dr. Smith for many hours and built a relationship with him. He showed me some aspects of the medical field that I may not have seen elsewhere. My life has been far from typical, but I do believe that each of my experiences has made me both a better person as well as a be

Professionally I was tasked with putting the care plans for various individuals into action by helping the people cultivate life skills such as investing money and budgeting skills, assisting them in the development of high levels of independence while aiming at improving their social and communication skills. In one way or another, helping these people led me to develop a great passion for working as a social worker. On a daily basis, I provided steady and continuous emotional support so that the individuals can lead a less stressful life. Besides that, I learned how to communicate well with clients on various sensitive issues that affected them emotionally in the most appropriate and understanding manner. Thus, this job significantly improved my patience, communication skills and my imitative in approaching people I meet in my everyday life. I became more aware of my personal beliefs

As a child, I loved going to work with my mother during my days off from school. She worked at a nursing home, and I was amazed by all of the health care employees I was surrounded by every day. I watched, in admiration, as the nurses gave the elderly their medications, while the nursing assistants made sure they were comfortable and healthy, and while the doctors checked in from time to time to give routine check-ups. As soon as I turned 12 and was old enough to start volunteering at this nursing home, I signed up to do so with excitement pouring out of me. To this very day, I am still active in volunteering at the same nursing home that prompted me to pursue a career in medicine in the first place.

Creighton University Hospital was my first introduction to hospital life, and boy was it a wakeup call. I was actually starting pre-med at UNO when I obtained my nursing assistant certificate and started at Creighton. After months of seeing how hard nurse’s work and how they were really the back bones of health care, I changed my major to nursing. I wanted to be a part of something more profound than myself, to heed the call of helping the sick and injured and to provide care to those who could not help themselves. I have always thought that if I could help save just one life, or touch someone’s life in some way,

became a Monitor Tech Nurse at Providence. When we were children, my mom would frequently take my sister and I to the Providence Hospital and I would be absolutely mesmerized by the sights and sounds that surrounded me; people were laughing, crying, all the while being nursed to health by the helpful and caring employees. My mother was apart of this group of employees. She not only was a spectacle to most of her peers with her vast intellect and outstanding abilities, but she would help those in need. At the hospital she was more than just a nurse. She was a best friend, mother, child, and daughter when her patients needed her to be. She fulfilled the role of

Working with children is my passion. Ever since seventh grade, I have been working with children through babysitting, teaching Sunday school and vacation bible school. Working with children makes me feel complete; this feeling has deeply influenced my decision of majoring in social work. From kindergarten through seventh grade I witnessed one of my closest friends suffer from the pains of having an abusive father. After years of struggling to heal from his father’s abuse, my friend spoke up, and he was appointed a social worker. The day my friend told me about his social worker, he said that she was someone that he thought very highly of because she helped him heal from the nightmare that was his life for so many years. This personal testimony from my friend was one of the major contributing factors to my decision to major in social work. My societal responsibility after graduating from the University of Arkansas would be helping other children like my friend across the nation, despite how heartbreaking it would be.

The values and principles of social work captivated me even before I fully understood what the profession entailed. My experience as a 16 year old junior counselor at the Alamance County Salvation Army Boys and Girls Club allowed me to see the importance of empowerment, as well as the necessity of linking marginalized populations to resources. The majority of the children I worked with were minorities with low income. As I developed rapport with the youth, they began to share their struggles (i.e. family issues, academic challenges, and financial struggles), and my heart immediately went out to them. I had always known that I had a passion for helping others, but this experience at the Boys and Girls Club showed me that assisting others was

As time went on, I took over several roles, I became a supporter for young teenage girls whom became pregnant and were thinking about quitting school. I made sure that they continued school, by helping them seek the right resources to keep them on the right path. I was able to provide shelter for few and childcare for many. I also provided childcare for single mothers and fathers who could not afford daycare and /or seeking employment. Being there for people, I have come into situations were domestic abuse was an issue, foster care individuals were neglected by their foster care families, and individuals who suffered from low self – esteem and mild depression. These are some of the reasons why I decided to pursue a degree / career in Human

The last four years of my life were definitely some for the books. With ups and downs, I was learning no matter what. I was learning how to deal with myself personally, my peers, my family, my financial situation, and my academic situation. I also taught myself that it was better to be alone than to be with the wrong group of friends. That being said, it is not always bad to be hanging out with the “wrong” people.