Prompt:
Describe your understanding of the social work profession and its core values. How have you incorporated social work values in your human service experiences and interactions with others?
My exposure to issues with mental health, working as a Peer Mentor Tutor and volunteering at the AGORA Crisis Center has led me to deciding on a career in social work concentrating on working with children and families.
Social work is a profession that serves those who are in need within a variety of domains. With principles of social justice in mind, many social workers provide emotional support and community resources in addition to serving as a liaison between a family or an individual and other resources within the community. It is important that every individual within society is able to access the tools to empower them to live out their lives to the best of their ability.
Growing up my mother has had difficulty with coping with mental health issues for much of her later life, which impacted her ability to be the parent she wanted to be. Due to her mental health issues she was isolated from the rest of her immediate family making it even more of an arduous task to cope living with a mental illness.This lack of support has continued to affect my mother and made me realize the importance of family relationships. It made clear the impact this lack of support has had on my mother's ability to cope with her mental illness. How mental health and family relationships are handled can have a dramatic influence on a family's dynamic. The situation my mother and many others experience could have been prevented were there more support from mental health services for herself and her family.
These past experiences provided additional perspective when I had close friends struggle with mental health issues growing up. They offered a context for recognizing and empathizing with their struggles. My exposure to therapy and mental health issues made it easier to openly discuss typically challenging topics and to give my friends the support they needed.
Demonstrating how effective therapy and family integration can positively impact lives was important to realizing my passion for this field. Seeing what mental health professionals can do for those who have mental illnesses helped me realize how important these services are.
When I entered the University of New Mexico I sought out ways to be involved on campus so I could give to the community in this capacity. My job on campus as a Peer Mentor Tutor as a part of the College Enrichment Program that assists first generation college students. Many criticized me for taking a student employee job so seriously because I was, after all, just a math tutor. I knew, however, that I did more than just that. It was my responsibility to motivate students and remain approachable in a frequently intimidating or uncomfortable setting. I assist incoming freshmen and nontraditional students in connecting them to university resources as well as be an emotional support in addition to tutoring services in the class room.
The next turning point came after I decided to volunteer for the AGORA Crisis Center on the University of New Mexico campus. This student organization provides an all-help line that is available to the University of New Mexico community, the State of New Mexico, and individuals in need across the United States. Callers from all age groups, ethnicities, and socioeconomic/religious backgrounds use AGORA to confront issues as varied as dissolution of romantic relationships, domestic violence, loss, abuse, suicide, and mental illness.
While I was initially nervous about taking calls, there soon came a day that reaffirmed my desire to work pursue work in a mental health and human services related field. After a stressful week of issues, both academic and personal, I found myself hesitant to go in for my phone shift. I was skeptical that I could possibly help others when I myself was so mentally exhausted. Putting this aside I sat my phone shift anyway. That evening I received a call from someone with severe suicidal ideation. Giving them space to vent, I did not say much throughout the call. After our hour-long call they were so thankful that a service like this existed. They explained how they had been bottling up their feelings for months because they did not believe anyone would listen. This call brought to light the real effect of compassionate listening and counseling. I learned throughout my participation with AGORA that, due primarily to the lack of advocacy and funding for mental health programs, New Mexico has one of the highest suicide rates in the nation. Seeing the absence of readily available resources helped me realize just how valuable these services can be for a community. Building upon my involvement with AGORA, this social work program at University of Southern California can help to shape these baseline skills into a more focused profession. Going into working with youth and families allows for social workers to work in a variety of health care settings that would allow for advocating for family services, community outreach, and awareness.
Both settings have given me an opportunity to learn from those who I was serving. In working with such diverse populations it provided an opportunity to learn from these experiences that may not have been gained otherwise. This allows for insight to other people and their ways of thought that have broadened my understanding of the world around me. Seeing the passion in those I know who are in the social work field is inspiring and has introduced to me many areas that need attention that social work can serve such as foster care, mental health, child welfare and educational programs.
As a child I was in foster care for eight months due to my mother being unable to take care of me and my younger brother. As short of a time this was, after my experience in three different homes this was my first exposure to issues within the foster care system. After these difficulties I faced, I've become particularly interested in joining my passion for advocating mental health and my concern for the children and families involved in foster care. Through my studies at the University of New Mexico I have learned of the insufficient support for adolescents who "age-out" of foster care without any of the proper resources to be financially independent and many end up homeless due to this. It is important to provide structure through this transition to ensure these adolescents are able to successfully live out their lives.
With how fast our country is changing, new issues and challenges families face also change over time. Knowing issues that are relevant for what these populations face today can ensure that those to be working with these families are aware of issues they face and remain up to date with recent changes and challenges. This social work curriculum also examines families and children within different contexts along with the different issues that can face family members. USC School of Social Work requirement of participating in the Virtual Field Program provides hands on practice in preparing for field work. The accommodating nature of an online program gives flexibility to working students and those who do not have the resources to live near the physical school access to a similar educational experience.
Hey Michaela, your work experience and volunteer work defines your interest in social work completely.
Regarding content, you need to present your essay in a chronological manner. You started your essay by your exposure which led you to decide a career in social work. Then you talked about the family, followed by your work experience. But then you lost the track and started to talk about childhood, your foster care again. There you explained the foster care as the reason of you pursuing social work. So this is the first thing to be corrected as per me. Just go through the essay once more, and try to write it in few complete paragraphs instead of broken paragraphs. Like first two paragraphs can be combined. Thirdly, some sentences are way too long and there is quite redundancy in the essay. I have rephrased some sentences below to get you the better idea.
My exposure to issues......families.
My exposure to mental health issues through peer mentoring and volunteering in AGORA crisis Centre led me to decide a career in Social Work. (I removed families and children , because that you already explained with foster care.)
This lack ......... family relationships.It made ......illness. (No need to emphasize it again, you already said this thing. ) I realized the dramatic influence of relationships on one's mental health. The situation.........
This will not only reduce your words but also would be easy for the reader to go through your essay. If you will notice, the sentences I edited or removed were repetitive words. Every sentence should tell something unique about the essay. Hope this helps :)
