Social Work Reflection

The social work profession at the simplest level, is providing service and achieving social justice for our community. There are various ways in which social workers can do this, ranging from simply providing necessary support to getting children out of dangerous situations. I always knew that my calling was to help and advocate for populations in my community that were vulnerable and often forgotten. It was not until my senior year of college that I realized the social work field is exactly where I needed to be. I am not as knowledgeable in the field as I would like to be, but that is one reason why I am pursuing a graduate degree in social work.

I also learned that therapy should be resource and client-focused, giving client the opportunity to be an active participant in the therapeutic process, i... ... middle of paper ... ...individual therapy, “maybe a narrative therapist, since it resonates more with me. And maybe I can include some elements of motivational interviewing, and CBT in my approaches with my clients.” (Reflective Essay, 12/4/13). Ultimately, as a social worker, I believe that I have to realize my power to help someone transform their lives and become stronger and healthier people, as a result, I know that it my responsibility to obtain the skills I need and maintain the passion for my work so that I am invested in helping each and every client I serve. I know that it will take time and experience to become more comfortable in working with clients and doing clinical type work, but hopefully through my internship experience as well as fulltime work experience that I started about a week ago, I will get lots of real world experience that will serve my clients effectively.

This critical analysis will focus on my personal and professional experience that has driven my ambitions to become a social work practitioner in the field of mental health. While there are a variety of definitions for social work; (Chenoweth & McAuliffe, 2015, p. 16) state that it is a social workers obligation to challenge societal mechanisms that impede on welfare, human rights and social justice. I have chosen social work as my core values of compassion, patience, empowering relationships, fair and justness and challenging the status quo; align with the fundamental purpose of social work. Throughout my childhood, it was a family known matter that my father was unwell. It was not until my adolescent years that my parents disclosed his bipolar

Being passionate about this topic of oppressed populations made me interested in applying for the Springfield College School of Social Work. Its mission describes preparing their students to meet universal human needs based on principles of economic and social justice, dignity, and human rights. I know that I will be helping individuals and families living in high risk populations all throughout my social work career. Having those core values around teaching social work practice and knowledge, Springfield will equip me to excel my current education to make a difference in the future through my practice. I believe that the program and the courses that it offers will help me to develop my understanding of oppressed populations and ways that I can advocate for them at both micro and macro levels of social

My relationships to persons such as this man have inspired me to want to continue my formal education so that I can help people who have somehow seemed to have lost their way. Also, a college degree as a Sociologist or a Social Worker will require me to become engaged in the lives of people, many who are socially, mentally and economically disadvantaged.

However, I never thought of social work as a profession. I always thought psychology was what I needed to study in able to obtain my long-term goals of working in a school setting or becoming a therapist. It was not until my junior year here at Monmouth University, I realized psychology was not the right field for me. As psychology became a more research-based program, I began to examine social work as a major and explore the classes they offered. The Introduction to Social Work class opened up so many more opportunities.

For me, social work is a calling to bring advantages to the disadvantaged and my worldview is informed by my desire to do this kind of advocacy work. Being a foster youth, myself, I can speak to both micro and macro aspects of social inequality in this country. Moreover, my life experience has been both educational and motivating in my desire to pursue a graduate degree in Social Service because I have not only lived within the broken system, but I have also analyzed it through a variety of theoretical frameworks to better understand the problems and their solutions. My most purposeful consideration, the connection between educational services for foster youth and foster youth performance in higher education, has helped me to contextualize my own circumstances and provided me with a unique perspective through which I have been able to develop relevant and applicable solutions. It was in my second year of college, upon transferring to Hofstra University, when I realized how much harder my experience as a foster youth made college for me.

That is noteworthy, yet at the same time, a very board definition. I define health educators as a guardian of the unmindful, meaning as a health educator, you are responsible for the knowledge of your community and expanding their mind set. In my journey through my undergrad years, I have realized that becoming a health administrator will allow me to address several of my interests while also allowing me to serve my community. I will be able to expand my thirst for knowledge while also making a self-efficiency community. I feel as a health care administrator, I need to encompass the role of a lifelong learner.

For the main year in school I started to take classes that would change me into the Nursing program. Be that as it may, something changed and the best option ignored came social

Social Work Foundation and Advanced Field Experience My perspective about social work profession and career interests have been evolving and gaining more depth since I entered the MSW program. I would like to contribute to the betterment of lives of the disadvantageous or marginalized individuals, and I am confident that graduating from the UTSA MSW program will enable me to apply my knowledge to culturally competent practice. It was my career in teaching that directed me through the years of my professional experience toward social work. I recall many instances when I felt helpless because of the limitation of my resources and abilities when confronted with my students’ problems or questions. Along with expanding my intellectual horizons,