Social Worker Personal Statement

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.

Personal Statement Coming into Florida State University, my plan of action had nothing to do with social work really. I came to the university with the intention to go into Clinical Psychology, therefore I was majoring in psychology and minoring in biology for the first semester or so of my time here at Florida State. While my path has changed, my ideas and goals have remained the same for the most part. I have known for a long time that I truly want to work with and help people. Growing up with a very challenging and trauma filled childhood, sincerely made me want to help others that are suffering or suffered previously from the same sort of things I had to deal with.

Significant relationships and life experiences that have I have had in giving or receiving help that have motivated me to enter the field of social work would be my dealings with other social workers I have worked with at the Veterans Affairs Hospital in Southern California and my life experience as a military child and my experience serving, retiring and making a successful transition from active duty service member to civilian from the Navy. I am the only child to my biological parents. My childhood seemed normal, standard and carefree. My early beginnings were uneventful and ordinary. In elementary school I performed well academically, and participated in the Boy Scouts.

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.

Throughout my life, I have always loved helping people and enhancing them to be the best person they can be. My purpose for choosing to pursue social work as a degree is through the burning desire I have upheld to support individuals achieve their goals. I consider myself as someone who is keen on acquiring new skills and knowledge of understanding on a daily basis. This is due to my motivation and determination as those two things are essential to sustain as an individual. From previous experience obtained by working in a Care home & Nursery, I have always had a passion to guide individuals who are less able to do so.

I have always had a strong desire to become a Social Worker. My whole life I have been described as a social butterfly. I take every opportunity I can get to be social, which is why no one in my family had any worries about my ability to make friends when I moved away from home to CSUMB. I take advantage of every workshop, every speaker, and every event that my school offers in order to gain more insight on the Social Work profession.

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.

I am a Licensed Social Worker; Case Manager proficiency, skilled in interviewing, treatment and discharge planning. I can multi-tasking when need be, while maintaining a strong work ethic and exhibiting a positive attitude. As a counselor/ case manager, I am bringing several years of experience in counseling individuals of various ethnic and socio-economic backgrounds, including multicultural sensitivity. Expertise in crisis intervention

My name is Carla and I am a support worker for young adults with learning disabilities and challenging behaviours. I have been professionally involved in Social care for over 4 years now and am strongly committed to its aims and ethics. Having completed my NVQ 3 in Health and Social care and working alongside my mums social worker to outline an acceptable level of support for her, I feel more competent in my role as a support worker and hope to use the skills and knowledge gained in many different topics - such as equality and inclusion, safeguarding and person centred approaches – to become a social worker. I currently work as a support worker, assisting people with learning disabilities to lead full and independent lives within supported

My interest in social related courses dates back to my years in high school, where I started by being part of the school clubs and later on held a leadership position in my own class and another in one of the school’s biggest clubs, the Wildlife Club, both at the same time. Before I joined campus for my undergraduate degree, I had set my choice of courses in order of priority, in this case, Social Work Social Administration being top on my list because I felt the desire to enroll for that particular programme and explore more of it and today I can boldly say I am fulfilled. When I began my undergraduate program, I had the opportunity to be exposed to the full range of Social work courses, all of which tended to reinforce and solidify my intense interest in social work and its related concepts. I also had the opportunity to study a number of subjects in the other humanities, economics, social research among others and they were both enjoyable and enlightening, providing me with a new and different perspective on the world in which we live.