Personal Statement On Child And Family Studies

Alex is a seven year old Caucasian female. She is struggling emotionally and socially. She was held back in the first grade. Alex has been involved with The Department of Children and Families (DCF) since she was born. The mission statement of The Department of Children and Families is to, “Strive to protect children from abuse and neglect and, in partnership with families and communities, ensure children are able to grow and thrive in a safe and nurturing environment.” (Commonwealth of Massachusetts, "About the Department of Children & Families", 2015)

I had to figure out what I wanted to do with my career, because I do not want to work as a certified nursing assistant for the rest of my life. I remembered that my best friend is attending classes in social work. So, I decided to ask her more about that field. As she was telling me all the great benefits of being a social worker, I grew more interested in wanting to take classes. So, this is where I am at now. I started taking social work classes during fall semester of 2016. As I learned more about what I can do in this profession, I grew to love it even more. I learned that I will have all of my classes done by next spring, and I can move on to a bachelors program at another

Completing my master’s degree in social work creates a better opportunity and a brighter career path. I am extremely excited about working in this field. The thought of helping

Explain how you became interested in social work and why you chose social work as a major.

When applying to the social work program I knew that it would be a rigorous curriculum. I also knew that I had to also mentally prepared myself for the demands of the program. Over the past year, now I have been so challenged in school and have learned so much from the MSW program. When finishing my first year of grad school I felt confident and excited about entering my second year. I was even excited about starting to do therapy despite of knowing it would not be easy. Therefore, I knew that I would just have to try my best to put into practice my therapeutic skills. My passion has always been working with children and families, therefore, felt so thrilled to start this new journey as I knew I could possibly make a difference in someone’s

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.

Growing up on a family farm in rural South Dakota, I never considered myself different from any other farm kid. At the age of eight, I joined the local 4-H club. Through my ten years of membership, I have participated in many differing project areas from showing beef calves to visual arts and everything in between. Through my many failures, I learned from my mistakes taking numerous best of show awards at county fair and finding success at state fair. 4-H has also given me the opportunity to become more involved in my community through local, county, and statewide community service projects. 4-H sparked my interest in agriculture.

Physically attending classes, in a classroom setting, was turning out to not be a possibility for myself. The opportunity presented itself when I learned that FSU offered online classes. Additionally, to the aforementioned, I love the social work/social service field! To help others has been a passion of mine for years and I know that I have chosen the field that I am destined to be in.

Being a third grader, I wanted to try something new to make new friends and be more involved in my community. I decided to join 4-H, which is a club where I can compete in events, do projects, and show livestock. 4-H was filled with numerous activities to do and I knew there had to be at least one that suited me. I started to show poultry and as the years went by I started to show different species of livestock as I wanted to try raising different animals. Not only did I show livestock, I also competed in public speaking where I found that communicating in front of a crowd was my talent.

I have been participating in 4-H since 4th grade. During all that time, I have done multiple volunteering acts to help the community I live in. Each year, my 4-H club works a four hour shift in the food stand, followed by a 45 minute shift of the Pavilion. I have helped someone who has needed it, whether it’s taking someone’s order of food, or letting a community member know rules and regulations of the Pavilion. By volunteering at the 4-H food stand, it has tremendously helped other 4-H members and the community because it lowers their membership fees, it has allowed 4-H members to be able to go to leadership trips, or other trips, at a lower cost, and lastly, because it allows everyone to have a large variety of fantastic food all day!

During my high school career, I have been involved in numerous activities. One of my favorite and most impactful activity was FFA. I have participated in many career development events and have competed successfully on the state level. I have been a team member of the state winning Ag Issues and Parliamentary Procedure team. Also, I have won the state Prepared Public Speaking contest as well as earning a national semi-finalist title. In addition, I have achieved leadership positions. I have served as my chapter’s Reporter and a mentored Agriculture 1 students. Another pivotal activity that I have participated in is 4-H. During 10 years of membership, I have served as my club’s Reporter, Secretary, Treasurer, and Vice President. Six of my static

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.

I have always wanted to be in the social work field ever since I started classes at Troy. Unfortunately, Troy in Montgomery did not offer social work classes; therefore, I chose sociology. I have enjoyed taking sociology courses, because it teaches you a lot about social inequality, social institutions, and the way people live in society. Sociology is a lot of research on a wide scale. On the contrary, social workers aide in direct assistance with individuals.

As I continue with social work, I developed an interest working with children and youth in a school setting. Eventually, I switched my major and was probably the toughest decision I had to make. Studying social work as an undergrad at Humboldt State helped me find who I am and what I want to become. I found a sense of belonging by developing a perspective of my own struggles while growing up. I realize how common systemic oppression affects not only me, but everyone around me. Understanding systemic issues, knowing the barriers that people face first hand, encourages me to want to work hard to fight against inequality.

I would like to become a student of the Masters of Social Work because I have a significant background in this area working with adults of both sexes as a Substance Abuse Counselor. In this context, many social experiences in my life have helped to shape this desire. Below are described some of the activities I have participated in that have influenced my decisions. For instance, after finishing high school I attended a secretarial school for a year where I graduated, found a job as a secretary, and start working in a place where I had to deal with numbers, accounts, and billing; therefore, I thought accounting would be the career I have to pursue. After having attended the accounting career for a year I changed my mind and me met with a friend who talked to me about the social work career, her passion, and her knowledge about social movements, and how important it is the role of the social worker for people in disadvantage; I decided to pursue the social work career, and I did it. While I was studying the social work career, I found a job in a non-profit organization where I got a lot of experience working with a female population who lived in the belt of poor neighborhoods, most of them were unemployed, illiterate, living in poverty, and also having to put up with domestic violence. Once I have graduated from the social work career, I continued working at the same place for several years until I move to the City of Chicago. Being part of a team of social workers, a