Personal Experience In My Life

During and immediately after my undergraduate course, I had the opportunity to work as a volunteer at the American Counseling Association and as a houseparent for an institution that houses mentally ill individuals. The association welcomes students and encourages them to offer voluntary services while they have an opportunity. My experience at the association, as a houseparent, and currently as a paraprofessional for mentally ill adults and children with behavioral problems provided me with a solid footing as well as the necessary resources to prepare for my career in counseling. The experiences gave me an opportunity to attend several conferences and workshops where I had the chance to meet and interact with other professional counselors. These opportunities opened me up and exposed me to numerous challenging situations that helped me to grow both personally and professionally. Interacting with more qualified and experienced people in the association, institution for the mentally ill, and agency that I currently work for has helped me to develop confidence in my work as I sought their assistance and guidance whenever I needed help. The experiences gained while working at the association was helpful to me as I could apply that knowledge and the skills learnt to help my church members. At my church, I was a youth leader and

With this experience it prompted me to go into therapy, however when I began to practice as a therapist intern. I still felt unfulfilled, I felt that I wasn’t doing enough for my clients. After approx. 5 years of that, I spoke with a social worker, and I then realized that becoming a social worker is what I needed to do. I needed to become a wraparound service for my clients.

The patience, compassion and encouragement of one person improved my family’s last years with its patriarch in countless ways. It was this improvement that inspired me to pursue a career as an

In therapy, I discovered that I was codependent. I was constantly manipulated by my mother, desperately needing her approval, but to no avail. As I learned to cope with everything my mother had put and puts me through, I realized my self-worth. I was able to help people again. Not only could I help people again, but I willingly accepted help, especially from my therapist. I would talk for four sessions in a row with her never saying anything, and I would reach the conclusions to the problems myself. That’s when I realized that a therapist is exactly what I want to be for the rest of my life.

After my first year at UND, I took a CNA class and became employed at a nursing home in Menahga, where I am still working. At this job I was able to experience patient care and begin to see the benefits of helping patients improve their lives. In my time after High School I have also had many other valuable experiences. I have been a Camp Counselor at two, 1 ½ week Confirmation Camps for our church. At these camps it was mine, along with other Counselor’s responsibility to teach the younger teens about how we believe as well as demonstrate how to be respectable adults. These camps allowed me to use and develop my leadership skills and also created memories that I will never forget. I have also shadowed a few different Medical Professionals, in order to better understand the world of medicine. Dr. Dan Smith is a General Surgeon who lives and practices very near to where I live. I was able to shadow Dr. Smith for many hours and built a relationship with him. He showed me some aspects of the medical field that I may not have seen elsewhere. My life has been far from typical, but I do believe that each of my experiences has made me both a better person as well as a be

became a Monitor Tech Nurse at Providence. When we were children, my mom would frequently take my sister and I to the Providence Hospital and I would be absolutely mesmerized by the sights and sounds that surrounded me; people were laughing, crying, all the while being nursed to health by the helpful and caring employees. My mother was apart of this group of employees. She not only was a spectacle to most of her peers with her vast intellect and outstanding abilities, but she would help those in need. At the hospital she was more than just a nurse. She was a best friend, mother, child, and daughter when her patients needed her to be. She fulfilled the role of

Having a large number of children in the family presented issues and problems that are to be expected. I began to pay attention to the dynamic of our family and wondering why certain things were the way they were. With age I gained knowledge and understanding, which began my interest in the human psyche. I must have been eight years old when I first encountered an individual that had mental health problems. I remember watching my mother as she consulted this individual by encouraging the utilization of faith and prayer to cope with the symptoms. Looking back that experience had a significant impact on my professional life. I have developed not only passion in wanting to help others but skills that allow me to be successfully supportive to those who struggle managing their life due to their mental illness.

As a nurse the shifts may get long and certain facets of the job will unavoidably become routine, but the life of a nurse is never boring. This is what has drawn me to wanting to become a nurse. Whether you are working at hospital or care center, you have to be ready to respond to just about anything at a moment's notice. Starting my first hospital job at Creighton University Hospital was probably the most influential things to my career path to becoming a nurse.

As time went on, I took over several roles, I became a supporter for young teenage girls whom became pregnant and were thinking about quitting school. I made sure that they continued school, by helping them seek the right resources to keep them on the right path. I was able to provide shelter for few and childcare for many. I also provided childcare for single mothers and fathers who could not afford daycare and /or seeking employment. Being there for people, I have come into situations were domestic abuse was an issue, foster care individuals were neglected by their foster care families, and individuals who suffered from low self – esteem and mild depression. These are some of the reasons why I decided to pursue a degree / career in Human

Growing up I witnessed my sister and grandmother deal with serious mental illness. My sister and grandmother both were diagnosed with bipolar disorder. It has always been my passion to help them manages their episodes. Growing up witnessing these episodes I always knew that I wanted to help those who are struggling to cope with mental health issues. Social work is not just a passion of mine, but a solution to the struggles many people face every day. I learned my “caring and compassion” for others, from my mother. My early experiences were a driving force for me pursuing my master’s in social work. As a child, my mother took in adults, children, and families within our neighborhood and afar to aid them in difficult times. Whether it was for a meal, a night, or longer, she has spent her life caring for others. The passion my mother possessed for helping others has become my

As a child, I loved going to work with my mother during my days off from school. She worked at a nursing home, and I was amazed by all of the health care employees I was surrounded by every day. I watched, in admiration, as the nurses gave the elderly their medications, while the nursing assistants made sure they were comfortable and healthy, and while the doctors checked in from time to time to give routine check-ups. As soon as I turned 12 and was old enough to start volunteering at this nursing home, I signed up to do so with excitement pouring out of me. To this very day, I am still active in volunteering at the same nursing home that prompted me to pursue a career in medicine in the first place.

Working with children is my passion. Ever since seventh grade, I have been working with children through babysitting, teaching Sunday school and vacation bible school. Working with children makes me feel complete; this feeling has deeply influenced my decision of majoring in social work. From kindergarten through seventh grade I witnessed one of my closest friends suffer from the pains of having an abusive father. After years of struggling to heal from his father’s abuse, my friend spoke up, and he was appointed a social worker. The day my friend told me about his social worker, he said that she was someone that he thought very highly of because she helped him heal from the nightmare that was his life for so many years. This personal testimony from my friend was one of the major contributing factors to my decision to major in social work. My societal responsibility after graduating from the University of Arkansas would be helping other children like my friend across the nation, despite how heartbreaking it would be.

At the age of four, my parents divorced and my life as I knew it changed forever. I moved to nine different schools before graduating high school and was raised by a single mother. The most brutal reminder, however, was our family dinner. I remember all too well the taste of stale bread and damaged foods purchased from consignment grocery stores. In a sense, I lived the stereotypical Appalachian life in Wise County Virginia, which lies directly on the border of Eastern Kentucky. The way I found to best cope with my situation as a child, was to respect what my mother could do to provide for her children. To this day, my mother and I have a very close relationship. We rely on the advice of each other for anything from emotional support to her business ventures. Through the times in which she struggled to provide for her children, our family learned together that cohesion and cooperation could pull us out of any circumstance. My grandfather was a mortician, community leader, and CEO of Norton Community Hospital for 40 years, which is a small hospital in Southwest Virginia. I spent most of my early childhood with my grandparents and without this upbringing may have never found my interests in medicine. Living in Appalachia, I witnessed a decline in the health of my family, friends, and neighbors at an unusually rapid pace. My upbringing gives me a perspective on the need for patient-centered and cost-effective healthcare. I learned to make the most out of every situation and

The last four years of my life were definitely some for the books. With ups and downs, I was learning no matter what. I was learning how to deal with myself personally, my peers, my family, my financial situation, and my academic situation. I also taught myself that it was better to be alone than to be with the wrong group of friends. That being said, it is not always bad to be hanging out with the “wrong” people.

My eyes were filled with tears and my hands sweaty. I was nervous about how mommy would look after coming home from the hospital. I was 10, it was daytime outside, but inside and all around me it was nighttime, darkness was coming and it filled me with terror. My mother worked as a nurse in the local hospital, I could smell her uniform even today.