Personal Statement For A Social Worker

My intended major is Sociology. Once I earn my degree I intend to find a career in either social work or teaching. In choosing social work my focus will be low income families and programs that decrease social inequality. As a child I yearned for the ability to help people, to change someone’s life for the better and give them back the strength and hope they have lost through life’s battles. I gained this eagerness to provide assistance when my parents brought me to their homeland of Guatemala. Guatemala is a very poor country and I saw the despair and hopelessness of many while others still strived every day to elevate the lives of their family amidst poverty.

I began my social work studies over twenty-five years ago at Utah State University in Logan, Utah. I never questioned my decision to pursue a career in social work; I loved my classes and worked hard to learn as much as possible. But the information I gained in undergraduate school simply opened the doors of my education. Most of my learning has come through constant questioning, personal research, and especially through work and life experience. Through these experiences I have encountered the challenges faced by individuals, families, and society and have been able to further access and develop the innate personality traits and abilities that originally led me to study social work as well as learn and practice the many skills necessary to be a successful mental health counselor.

Indian nationalist leader Mahatma Gandhi once stated, “The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others”. This simple yet powerful quote motivates me to remain steadfast in the mission of aiding others. I’m pursing a Masters in social work because by working in this field, I can educate, advocate, motivate, understand, and encourage resilience to clients from every walk of life. It is a profession that will allow me to practice both on a micro and macro level simultaneously. Lastly, working in social work gives me the capacity to challenge policies affecting disadvantaged communities.

As a woman diagnosed with social anxiety,I was entrusted to be under the care of a social worker so as to help me manage my disorder. Personally, I have gone through so many experiences which collectively made me develop a deeper insight into the roles of social workers as compared to other health caregivers. Besides that, I have seen a lot of transformative supports to people who have various social problems provided through the selfless care of the social workers. Subsequently, this further fueled my ambition to study and support the most disadvantaged and vulnerable persons in the society. I firmly believe that my motivation towards helping

The pursuit of a doctoral degree is both exciting and humbling for me. It is exciting that I have a clear vision of the career I want to pursue as an academic, and humbling to think of the great opportunity I could have to teach future social workers. Early motivation to enter the field of social work was in response to adverse childhood experiences with domestic violence, parental substance abuse, poverty, and homelessness —further complicated by foster care intervention. My foster care experience included five foster placements, enrollment in countless schools, countless lost relationships, and a failed adoption. Though these experiences created much hardship, they have certainly promoted resilience and helped lead me to my current ambition of seeking a Ph.D. As a recipient of foster care intervention, I exited state custody through legal permanence. Through education, advocacy, and direct social work practice with youth in residential treatment, I acquired new skills and insight to addressing social and child welfare problems. I am excited for the opportunity to promote the field of social work in the classroom and improve the lives of youth in the foster care system through my research.

I am writing to express interest in appointment as a Core Faculty Member in Social Work at Walden University. Attached is my vita for your review.

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.

The area of social work I would like to pursuit is Adult and Healthy aging with a specialization in military veterans, this population is important to me because I stand in the same boots and sleep in the same conditions. The sense of strong wills I developed as a child is the skill used to crawl through the battlefield of life, to get to the point where I could ask for help. Getting old is a difficult to grasp, I struggled with a

When I was six and placed in the Foster Care System for three years away from my mother, it made me value the importance of family one needs a young age. This childhood experience I hold with me will benefit in the field of social work, which is what I want to pursue in college as my degree. I believe one of the most difficult obstacles I had to face being taken away from my mother while not knowing the problem of the situation and learning how handle at such a young age to be away from my mother's warmth. I give complete gratitude to my mother who fought her best to win us over when the odds were against her, and to the thoughtful social workers who understood the situation my siblings and me. As I now enter college I have taken a look at

As a teenager, I once came across a woman who said, very softly, "I wish to die" as I passed her. It changed my life. I could have dismissed her comment as my imagination, for there no obvious sign she was in distress, and carried on walking. However, knowing people who suffer from mental illness, including a teacher who committed suicide despite seeming 'perfectly fine', even then I knew mental illnesses weren't always obvious.

Growing up, I always had a knack for wanting to help others. Upon entering college I knew I wanted to work in a helping profession. I matriculated my college career as an Early Childhood Education major. My goal was to teach in low income middle schools and improve test scores of students. However, upon entering the program I knew that teaching was something that I was not passionate about. My grades began to slip and I was placed on academic probation. I was determined to find something that was for me in college. I knew that I wanted to continue to help others and after researching the many jobs a social worker can have is when I changed my major to Social Work. Choosing to major in Social Work was one of the best

Ever since grade school, I've known that what I aspire to do with my life is help people and from there on I've jumped on and off from different possibilities as to what to become. Growing up I went through difficulties such as having to deal with an alcoholic father, throughout the years he eventually recovered. Meanwhile, my siblings and I dealt with constant arguments that no child should have to deal with. I thought about perhaps becoming a social worker and provide children who are going through a storm with a newfound strength and help them know what it means to be safe.

The field of social work is boundless, and my educational attainment from the bachelor of social work program at Grand Valley State University has adequately prepared me to enter the field. However, by obtaining a master’s degree in social work, I will only be further expanding my opportunities and amassing my knowledge and understanding of diverse populations and the field. At this time, I am motivated to pursue a master’s degree in social work, because I want to serve our country and practice in the field of social work; I want to be an United States Navy Social Worker. However, the U.S. Defense Department requires social workers to obtain their master’s degree before signing with any military branch. Moreover, I am motivated to obtain my MSW, so

Social workers possess an innate set of talents, characteristics and skills that enable them to work as helpers and aid others in recognizing their own skills and abilities. For, as long as I can remember I have always wanted to be a social worker and make a difference in the lives of others. I can attribute my passion for helping others to my parents; because of them, I have developed a set of values that are similar to social work’s core values. They lay the foundation for not only what I believe as a professional, but are essential to who I am in my personal life. The values that have been installed in me through my parents and reinforced throughout my education allow me to understand and recognize that everyone has a story to tell and

The social work profession has been one that I have the pleasure of working in for the past ten years with the Department of Children and Families in the state of NJ (DCP&P). Within my line of work, I have been able to perform the duties of a screener for the child abuse hotline. Assisting reporters and gathering detailed information to generate reports that would be sent out to the local offices for review and response. These types of reports vary from physical abuse, neglect or sex abuse cases to those contacting the hotline looking for additional services they wish to provide to their children or assistance they may need due to financial difficulties they have encountered. Being an expert in knowing what types of questions are pertinent to ask has provided me with an additional skill set for this field.