Visualize living in a beautiful 4-bedroom home near the mountains. Now, imagine the transition to living in a car. Eventually you will shift from receiving government assistance to attending graduate school while working for the federal government. That is a snapshot of my life. Life has thrown me lemons, and I have done my best to make the sweetest lemonade. I have sustained employment since my senior year of high school, and have maintained above a 3.0 throughout my collegiate career. The roughest period was the 2007-2008 school year when I lost an uncle, grandmother, and best friend during a five month period. Nevertheless, my experiences never deterred me from achieving my dreams. I want to support children and families potentially headed down similar paths. In order to become this leader in serving children and their families, I am turning to the Human Development and Family Studies for further guidance. The yearning to resolve social, development and academic challenges faced by children and families developed long before interest in this program. Although my undergraduate program was history, I used electives to learn about human development. One of my favorite courses was Introduction to Sociological Research. My research titled “College Promiscuity” examined 100 college students and their stance on human sexuality. My desire to learn more about human development also led to becoming a resident assistant. For two years I was the only resident assistant for 176 residents in the largest residence hall. I gladly accepted the challenge because overcoming adversities comes natural. My job description only required me to create two programs a semester; however, I saw a need to for monthly programs to create unity and social ... ... middle of paper ... ...when I got older I did research and found the reputation of the University extends beyond athletics. It is a premier university with some of the Nation’s most creditable research. My desire to enter this program is influenced by the program’s leading-edge approach to the study of individuals and families, and associated programs. Another element that allured me to the program is the diverse curriculum preparing students for diverse living and working environments. I am interested to complete courses such as Child Development, Human Sexuality, and Parent-Child Relationships. In addition, I am excited to interact with Dr. Mary Elizabeth Curtner-Smith and Dr. Casey Totenhagen whose work is close to what I want to pursue for research. I am beyond confident my experiences are a welcoming and valuable addition to the scholastic environment at The University of Alabama.
I am the product of divorced parents, poverty stricken environments, and a blended family, but I refuse to let that dictate the outcome of my life. At the age of ten, I had to assume the role of a fatherly figure to my three siblings, so I missed out on the typical childhood most would have had. I grew up in neighborhoods where gangs and criminal acts of violence were a pervasive occurrence, but I resiliently did not allow the peer pressures of others to force me to conform to their way of life. By the age of 15, I received my worker 's permit, and that allowed me the ability to help my mother financially in the absence of my father’s income. I worked the maximum amount of hours I could while balancing my academics and extracurricular school activities. I was a scholar athlete and triathlete in high school, and although I continuously faced much adversity, I still managed to be accepted to the University of California State, Bakersfield after I graduated from high school in 2005. Sadly, after
“When schools, parents, families, and communities work together to support learning, students tend to earn higher grades, attend school more regularly, stay in school longer, and enroll in higher level programs.” (Van Roeckel, 2008, p. 1) Deer Valley High School in Glendale, AZ is the first high school built in the Deer Valley Unified Scholl District, and with a population around 1800 students, the high school is one of the bigger schools in the state. It has a tradition of family on its’ campus, where there are still teachers teaching that were there when the school opened in 1980. A number of former students have become new teachers on campus and just about all the teachers’ children have attended and graduated from the campus. With a school like ours, there are many connections to the community around it and it is demonstrated by the programs that bring in parent and community to help with the development of our students. There are numerous booster clubs run on our campus to help support student achievement on the sports fields, a school to work programs to teach the students necessary skills in different areas of either nursing, sports medicine classes, and in the culinary arts classrooms, and funding to our school to help ensure all students graduate on time. There are many programs on our campus, but I will discuss four of the programs: baseball booster club, C2G program, “school-to-work”, and the special education program sponsored by Arrowhead Hospital. These programs are designed to improve the relationships between the campus and the people in the community, and give all students on campus every opportunity to succeed in their future.
Kathy Harrison starts her personal story happily married to her childhood sweet heart Bruce. Kathy was living a simple life in her rural Massachusetts community home as the loving mother of three smart, kind, well-adjusted boys Bruce Jr., Nathan, and Ben. With the natural transitions of family life and the changes that come with career and moving, she went back to work as a Head Start teacher. Her life up until the acceptance of that job had been sheltered an idyllic. Interacting in a world of potluck suppers, cocktail parties, and traditional families had nothing in common with the life she would choose after she became a Head Start teacher.
As a future educator, I have reflected on how my own personal experiences have formed me into the person that I am today, and how I can use my experiences to help my future students. I have also reflected on how I can information about family systems as well as risk and resiliency to better understand families that I will work with in the future, as well as how children with special needs impact a family’s structure. I believe all of these components are essential for teacher, student, and family collaboration and success.
Richards, R. T. "When Family Literacy Begins on the Job." Educational Leadership 55, no. 8 (May 1998): 78-80.
...g of the struggle of poverty and subsequent educational barriers. Though extremely grateful for all of the privilege in my life, it was difficult to realize my fortune until working with the teens at RYP who often do not have two parents, have limited adult influences, and live below the poverty line, making education an afterthought. From the perspective of a tutor and mentor, the educational support that the teens require is unquestionable, just like the injustices they face daily. Through service, not only does one gain perspective into the needs of the local community, but also insight into systemic issues of racism, poverty, crime, education and more. By participating in service and trying to counteract the sources of need for others, one will undoubtedly change their perspective of the framework question, knowing that the very least one should help others.
Berns, R., (2010), Child, Family, School, Community: Socialization and Support; Belmont CA. Wadsworth Cengage Learning.
Another experience that has shaped my decision to become a school counselor has been my continuing work with VCU’s Addiction and Women’s Health: Advancing Research and Evaluation (A.W.H.A.R.E.) Research Team under the direction of Dr. Dace Svikis. With the A.W.H.A.R.E. Research Team, I work with at-risk pregnant women. I have had the opportunity to inform women about our studies, conduct interviews, and enter data into the SPSS dataset. However, more importantly I have witnessed the struggles faced by people with limited resources. Through my experience, I know that my interest lies in directly influencing individuals to b...
Knowing and Serving Diverse Families has many strengths and serves as good basic information for those interested in working to help others. The textbook is organized into five sections...
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. Because of this, I decided to dissect Administrative Children 's Services
When I was born, my family had just migrated to California from Mexico. In a new country, my father worked in landscaping earning less than $4 dollars an hour, while my mother relied on public transportation to take her newborn child to and from doctor visits. In the land of opportunity, my family struggled to put a roof over our heads. But never discouraged, my parents sought to achieve their goals and worked tirelessly to raise my younger brother and I. From a young age, I was taught the importance of education; this became a major catalyst in my life. My desire to excel academically was not for self-gain, but my way of contributing to my family’s goals and aspirations.
Hi, im Rowen Haist, I am very excited to join your class and boulder universal and I hope i will have a fun time transitioning into online school.
Sarah McLanahan earned her bachelor’s in sociology in 1974 and her doctorate in 1979 (Gilbert). This is clearly her calling, because she has a passion for this. “She is currently the William S. Tod Professor of Sociology and Public Affairs at Princeton University, where she directs the Bendheim-Thoman Center for Research on Child Wellbeing” (Sara S. McLanahan, 2005). Sh...
Living without a home is a condition of lack maintaining regular safe, secure and adequate housing. In other words, home is not only a physical space. It’s a place that defines a person 's identity. In fact, the people who are dealing with these feelings are homeless people. Homeless are the person without a place or a residence on public properties. They might be provided with temporary living like shelters. However, shelters are struggling to keep up with the rising demand for their services according to Ned Resnikoff. Moreover, according to Ned Resnikoff, “The largest increase came in Washington, D.C., where the number of people experiencing homelessness rose by 28 percent and the number of homeless families went up by 60 percent. Meanwhile,
The following family life education Program will emphasize on Parent Education and Guidance. The project will likewise focus on varying child rearing styles and practices; how parents treat their kids can influence their present and the future life, and also the program will concentrate on parent/kid connections and child rearing styles. Parents will get to be mindful of diverse styles and the circumstances and end results.