Working Hard To Pursue A Social Work Career

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.

Choosing to pursue this education to become a Social Service Worker has been a life long passion; living a so called “roller coaster” of a life and being subjected to many things, enjoyable and regretful has helped me in many ways to comprehend what it is to truly have human empathy and compassion for others. A veteran at life in its lowest and highest forms, and feeling completely alone and hopeless at times; being subjected to sexual and physical abuse, seeing what alcohol and drugs do to families, how poverty effects children and loved ones. Fortunately there were a few individuals that reached out, bring me up out of the darkness. This is something that I feel in my heart that needs to be given back, for me to provide someone the empowerment that others have given me, to show that there is hope and give reason to keep going, individuals who feel desperate, help to raise their chances, dreams and the basic needs of life. Having the knowledge of education to give these resources for expert referrals to assist people in desperate times, so they can live the life that is deserving and fulfilling to them, therefore this is my ultimate goal!

This course is the second class I take at Simmons College. Therefore, I am not too sure what to expect from the whole experience. All of my formal studies have been in Puerto Rico, thus, making this my “first” academic experience in the USA. I hope to be able to adapt to this new form of studying and make a smooth transition into my graduate years. One of my biggest goals for this course is being able to comprehend and have the ability to appropriately apply the different theories in social work. It is completely understandable that mastering them is not an option at the moment since that is something acquired over time and experience. I have encountered, studied and worked with certain theories in the past but looking back my impression is

For as long as I can remember I have always wanted to pursue a career in social work. Helping others is something I have always been passionate about and I hope to be able to make a difference in the lives of those around me. Throughout my life, I have always been the person my friends would go to when something was wrong and they needed to talk. Growing up, I also experienced close family members struggle with addiction and mental health problems. I have seen how damaging these experiences can be on an individual. I have also witnessed the effects these experiences can have on family relationships. My personal occurrences have instilled in me a further desire to become a social worker.

My career goals following completion of graduate education in social work are to become a licensed clinical social worker and to open an individual private practice with a focus on serving children and families. My educational background in child and youth studies has taught me that children, families and couples encounter mental, emotional, behavioral and relationship challenges. I have also learned that these populations experience issues such as marital problems, family conflicts, depression/anxiety, bullying, isolation and other social issues (domestic abuse, substance abuse, academic/professional struggles). My ultimate goal with my private practice would be to address these challenges through individual therapy, group therapy and/or a combination of both to help clients sort through the causes of their problems.

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

Working in the Social Work field has been a great experience. I have learned how to access resource as well as provide my clients with beneficial information that helps them through their particular situations. Expanding my education in social work will allow me to expand my knowledge of the field while giving me the opportunity to be a better advocate for my community. Having a Master’s in Social Work will also give me the opportunity to explore different careers such as my focus as a potential school counselor.

I always had a desire to help other people through difficult times. From personal experiences, I know life can me a complete mess. Thus, I have always been willing to be there for people when their worlds seem to be falling apart. However, in doing so, I have realized how often I help people by carrying their burdens instead of helping them work through their problems. Even more than before, I have realized that this is a major concern. Moreover, I think my ability to relate to people stems from experience as manager. As a manager, I learned that people are extremely different. I had to learn that people think, feel, and behave in different ways because they have been shaped by their life experiences, which can also be very different. People that I worked with shared very personal parts of their life with me. I realized that people need other people for support. Although I considered diversity (e.g., race, gender, and religion), it did not impact how I viewed the person talking to me. In other words, it did not matter if the person was gay, Muslim, atheist, or Latino because to me they were all equal. They were all people with very special stories to tell.

Each Social worker is created in a unique way. Some are affected personally, by issues, people, and/or situations around them. I carry my own personal experiences from good to bad ones. Becoming a Master’s level Social Worker provides me with a larger spectrum to which I could dedicate myself. Accomplishing a Master degree in social work sets me a step closer to obtaining a licensure, being a therapist, a supervisor, a program director, and many other things. As social workers, we carry different roles which can be defined by whom we work for, as to working with individual (micro), institutions (mezzo) or within a system (macro).

The decision to become a social worker and help others began when I was a child. I grew up in a normal two parent household with a younger sibling. My childhood lead a life of leader ship in helping children younger than myself. There were two contributing factors that lead me to consider social work as a life career. The first was the program at my school when I was in fifth grade. My teacher choose me to participate in the leadership program, a program that aids preschool and kindergarten students with reading skills, social interaction, and becoming leaders. It was our job to be sure the child was acting and participating in a normal environment around other children. In addition to determining if there are any significant changes in their actions. It occurred, we were to inform the teacher and principal immediately. The process taught us how to solve the problem without concerning or harming the child’s well-being.

Based on the salary that a social worker makes annually, I can be comfortable enough to live peacefully. A social worker makes up to $45,500 annually. (“Social Workers: Pay”).

During my sophomore year of college, I got a chance to volunteer with two organization: the Martin Luther King Retention Program (MLK) and Inclusive Basketball program through the Social Work Organization at Shippensburg University. During my volunteering time at the MLK program, I got to mentor several students who had different nationalities and cu0ltures. All the students identified as First Generation College students. It was interesting to see different things each student did and how it differ from the others’ culture. It was interesting to learn new things from the students. This experience will help make me an effective social worker because I got a chance to work with a diverse group. I had to learn how to work with each individual on a one-on-one level so that their needs and goals were met. It was not easy because I had to adjust to some student’s cultural beliefs, however, I did learn to

Aside from wanting to leave Norfolk, I came to Virginia Commonwealth to start my journey to a professional career as a social worker. I had many goals coming into the fall semester, some of which were maintaining a grade point average of 3.5 or higher to make the dean’s list, make friends outside of those from my hometown, express and develop my independence even more, and get a start on networking within the social work field. As of right now, I have met two of the four goals, meeting friends from different locations, and further develop my independence. Coming into the 2016 fall semester, I didn’t have many expectations. I feel like I was just going with the flow of everything because I have always believed that having expectations for certain

Growing up as a child should be the most memorable time in a child’s life. Growing up I was well taken care of and never mistreated, I could not imagine a child having to deal with the thought of being molested on a daily base. My dream job has always been a social worker because I absolutely love helping others in any way I can. My biggest fear going into this field has been assisting a child molester. Severe damage is done to a child, I feel somewhat uncomfortable around a molester, and feel that there is no excuse for any adult to hurt a child in such a manner. Some people will say that touching a child is not harming them, but I disagree so how would I be able to help someone that I do not feel needs help but needs to be punished.

As a social work facilitator, taking on a democratic role and style can be helpful. When a facilitator takes on a democratic stance, they allow members to decide how they wish to work as a group to meet their goals and objective as group (Skillsyou need, 2016). In this role, the facilitator is usually at group meetings playing an active role by suggesting alternative ways of handling or approaching particular issues (Skillsyou need, 2016). The facilitator does not have to give advice; they can also act as active listeners and point out interesting or significant aspects that occur in the group. Instead of the facilitator taking full control of the group structure, each member can be key contributors as a way to foster leadership in all the