Social Work Goals

There are several goals that I hope to achieve by pursuing a graduate degree in Social Work. Pursuing a MSW will provide me with the knowledge, tools, and skills-set that will be fundamental to the achievement my career goals outlined below.

I believe social services are essential to those who are in need of help. They help people transition out of poverty. Social service programs helped me when I was growing up and to this day I still benefit from the programs that they offer. I went to head start, which helped me prepare for elementary school and through Head Start was where I learned to speak English. In high school I participated in Talent Search and now as a college student I receive help from Trio student support services. I do not know where I would find myself now if I had not received the support and guidance from these programs.

Growing up I dealt with many forms of abuse, and due to all the trauma I had a lot of built up aggression. Unfortunately, at the time I felt there was no other way to express myself except to act out. As a consequence of my bad behavior, I lost many close friends, and missed many good opportunities. As a result, I was required to go to intensive family therapy for three days a week, with a women named Julie. Fortunately, after therapy I saw a change in myself, and I began to learn new skills to communicate, and cope with my anger. Although, I’ve gone to see many therapists before, Julie was the one counselor that gave me hope, and after meeting her my life has positively changed. This experience of going to family therapy, and meeting Julie has influenced me to want to help other troubled teens who have dealt with abuse.

I am committed to social justice. My life started off rough coming out of an abusive home. I have worked so hard to get myself to a place where I can help kids that were in an abusive home and have trauma like me. I am a Criminal Justice major here at Westfield State University. My end goal is to help kids in bad living situations. I want to help juveniles that haven't taken the straight path like I did. I feel as though I can help them see that your background doesn't matter, but handwork and passion does. I have experience that not many people have. I can touch these kids in a way that others can't. I want to lead them to a path of greatness and use their painful past as fuel to make an amazing future.

Social work acquainted itself to me at an extremely youthful age. Being adopted, and being teased pitilessly in school for being "embraced" taught me an incredible arrangement about the lack of care of individuals. I draw from my own repository of encounters. I have thought about low self-regard and low self-viability since adolescence. I know the torment, one I personally ended, constructing my own feeling of positive mental self-view and freedom. I guaranteed myself I could never be vulnerable again, that my bad dream could never have been futile. Having brought up two wonderful girls alone, I am mindful of the arrangement of difficulties, adjusting work and being a good example.

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.

Social work may not be the most respected profession but it’s a recognizable one. Social workers help people or groups identify their problems, determine their skills and capacities, what they are doing well, and how that was accomplished, and then analyze ways that those strengths might be applied to the identified problems. Social workers are helping professionals.

Goal Statement Social work introduced itself to me at a very tender age. Being adopted, and being teased cruelly in school for being “adopted” taught me a great deal about the scars many of us carry. In my work, I draw from my own reservoir of experiences. I have known about low self-esteem and low self-efficacy since childhood. I know the pain, one I personally ended, building my own sense of self-worth and independence.

The way I understand the mission statement that is provided is that being a social worker, your job is to help everyone no matter what background they might come from. This goes from anywhere to religion, sexual orientation, race, gender, or any other diverse group. This is because of the clients that social workers are working with are more likely to be under privileged groups of people from all walks of life. This means that to meet NASW’s code of ethics and to be an effective social worker, you are to live and work by the mission statement that is given. That you are to be open minded and metaphorically speaking, color blind so that you can work efficiently and effectively with all clients.

Starting from being a certified nursing assistant, to becoming a unit secretary for a hospital that specialize in wound care, I have always known that I wanted to help individuals in need. However, I noticed that I was not happy with helping individuals in medical need. It wasn’t until I decided to continue my education that I introduced to the world of social work. Going up with a single mother that suffered from drug abuse, my family depended on social services for a lot of assistance, from everything such as food stamps to family counseling. This life experience helped guide my thoughts on pursuing social work as a career. I know that I want to help individuals that are down on their luck, but I want to take it one step farther, by providing individual counseling to adults that may need more one on one time, than what is normally given from a social service agency. Counseling will also give me a chance to do what I love most and that is to talk and get to know the individuals that I am helping make like changing decisions. Working as a clinical social work has my interest because it does not put limits on what I can do or who I can help, and it will set me up for my future goal of becoming a licensed clinical social worker. Being my own boss and changing my community is my dream job, opportunity and goal. I am currently on my way with changing my community and living my dream, because I am currently working for a non-profit

To begin, the Department of Health and Human Services or HSS is a federal agency that is responsible for maintaining the health of Americans and regulating federal programs like Medicare, Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services). Now, these are some serious people and what they do is very important to the welfare of the citizens of this country. The HSS had six goals they wanted to undertake between 2010 and 2015. Some of those objectives were to strengthen health care, advance scientific knowledge and innovation and lastly to advance the health, safety, and overall well-being of the nation (The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2013).

My goal statement as a social work student is to finish in the top of my class and graduate on May 13, 2017. I will apply for a full-time job in a non-profit organization. Working in a non-profit organization will offer me an opportunity to prepare for a professional Examination. Once I start working, I will take the licensure exam by August, 2017. To achieve this goal, I need to make a schedule and talk with my professors at the social work department about how to register for the examination, and find out the correct book to buy and study for the exam.

I was in grade 10 when I thought of becoming a social worker. As social worker practitioner the fields that interest me to work in is domestic violence and child abuse because I want to make change to the society. Also Mahatma Gandhi was my major inspiration through this quote “Be the change that you wish to see in the world”. Than an idea came to me, why not involve my contribution to the wide variety of communities. My communication with school counsellors and social workers has impacted my choice of desiring to study social work. I realised that if I have had a chance of seeing a social worker when I was young, things would have been much easier and less stressful. I want to provide opportunities that I did not encounter to other people. This essay will reflect my past experience, motivation and why I want to be a social worker, values, beliefs and theory of practice.

My vision of the social work field is being able to help people in need and being the person that people can look back on and remember as a huge help in time of need. I think my core values and beliefs will help me be an effective social worker and help me succeed in this field. It is in my belief that a person should never be knocked down when they are going through hardships, and rather empowering them. I also believe that not everyone could be a social worker because it takes a certain kind of empathetic and self-aware person. I truly believe that my upbringing has humbled me to understand and not be judgmental of people’s issues since I’ve seen a lot in my short twenty-one years.

My interest in social work developed because of a select few of the mentors during my undergraduate years. They all knew me so well that they knew I could have an impact on the lives of other communities and my own. I have always loved working with kids, especially the age group of 10-14 because those were the years that had the most influence on who I am today. To me, studying social work is a way to make a bigger name for myself and proving that everybody just needs a second chance.