Social Work Personal Statement

Assisted young children between the grades of preschool to 8th grade in their education. I decided to volunteer because the children of today will be the children of the future and the more smart and educated they are the better they will be in the future. Another reason I helped was because it is hard for young children to adapt to the lifestyle of constantly moving from one place to another. Since their parents are migrants it can have a negative impact on them and their education. I remember one little girl is from Florida but every summer her parents move up to Michigan to work in the fields, but once the harvest is over they move back to Florida. She was behind in school and with the help of teachers and myself we motivated and helped her out so she was able to catch up. I really enjoyed volunteering the past two summers ago at the summer migrant program. If I had another opportunity to help I

Each child that is admitted to the program, is assigned a mentor that keeps in

As a Social Worker, I have had the opportunity to work with children and families from diverse socioeconomic, ethnic and cultural backgrounds. My experience and training includes extensive work with prenatal, infant and early childhood education and development. Through this course I have been able to

As a social worker who has been in the field since 2010, I will reflect on

For a majority of my life, I wanted to be a pediatrician when I grew up. I had wanted to be a pediatrician due to my passion to work with children, in addition to enhancing the lives of children. As I continued to grow up, I realized that science is not my strong suit and I would never survive medical school. I do not recall how I learned about the profession of social work, but around the eighth grade I have known that social work was the profession that I wanted to pursue. The idea of helping others is what initially struck me as compelling because I did not understand social work in it’s entirety, but I knew that I would relish a life of helping other individuals.

It is because of this that I am passionate about working in the social work field so that I can make a difference in the child welfare system I believe as a future Social Work candidate at Rutgers School of Social Work I will be educated in social work research, education and training. The skills to better assess youth involved within the child welfare system. As well as, the ability to utilize intervention tools and evidence based screening from Rutgers faculty to assist me alleviate child abuse

Starting my career as a social worker and working with children and families is where I feel as though I belong. I have the compassion, the drive and the withstanding endurance to make the area of child and family social work my passion. Working with children requires patience, dedication, resilience and so many other trusting characteristics. Relationships within children’s immediate families have a profound impact on their state of being. Becoming a child and family social worker is undeniably tough and arduous work but the reward of seeing families meet their set goals and becoming a stronger more united family unit come to fruition surpasses anything else. When I become a child and family social worker, my job days will be over and my career starts. Going to worker everyday knowing that I’m making a difference will be the best feeling. A great person once said, “It’s your mistakes that make you human, and it’s your humanity that makes you influential.”

When I first started working in the social work field, I began working with a family of four that included a mother, father, and two elementary aged children. This family faced countless challenges and issues that included addiction, loss of employment, and homelessness which

Many personal and professional life experiences have been my motivation to pursue a degree in Social Work. Although I was unaware that this would later be my profession of interest, my personal life situations caused me to have to come into contact with a few social workers. The social workers that I have had the opportunity to meet have helped me with overcoming poverty, mental illness, child abuse, emotional instability, and domestic violence. My interest from pursuing a career as a parole officer, then a physical therapist to now a Social worker all shifted to this decision based on my life. Over the years I found myself enjoying helping others in need such as when I was employed as a Correctional officer and talking an offender from committing suicide causing me to question my future and whether I was in the wrong field.

Aside from dancing at charity shows, I never had any hands-on experiences in community service in upper elementary or middle school. Upon entering high school, I found the perfect opportunity to give back to the community with many extracurriculars at my high school, West-Windsor Plainsboro North. From 2 years with UNICEF to 4 years with Tutoring Society, I have realized that the best way I contributed to society was through tutoring. Tutoring has given me instant satisfaction when I saw the students I tutored come back and tell me that they aced a difficult test. It has been great being able to connect with the students and learn more about them, and the subject being taught. My experiences as a tutor have expanded my horizons and taught

I developed many tools and acquired several certifications over the years; however, those tools have their limits. In order to continue to excel in my service to others, I must acquire new tools and develop deeper understandings. Fortunately, friendships with three Social Workers enabled me to explore how social work can provide me with additional skill sets to enhance my professional career. The professional experiences over the last 20 years along with the encouragement of a few social workers propelled me to take this next set and pursue an education in social work. I have always been a strong proponent of education because it creates a solid foundation upon which theory and tools can be developed.

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.

The values and principles of social work captivated me even before I fully understood what the profession entailed. My experience as a 16 year old junior counselor at the Alamance County Salvation Army Boys and Girls Club allowed me to see the importance of empowerment, as well as the necessity of linking marginalized populations to resources. The majority of the children I worked with were minorities with low income. As I developed rapport with the youth, they began to share their struggles (i.e. family issues, academic challenges, and financial struggles), and my heart immediately went out to them. I had always known that I had a passion for helping others, but this experience at the Boys and Girls Club showed me that assisting others was

My interest in social work began while working as a child mentor at Valley Youth House. It was during this time that I fell in love with helping others and thoroughly enjoyed helping the children that I mentored. At the time, I was attending Northampton County Community College and had changed my major numerous times and had left it undecided for a while but almost immediately after starting my job I knew that I finally had identified what I wanted to do, I wanted to help people. I researched what type of careers would allow me to help people and I came across social work and it was exactly what I what I was looking for.

My interest in social work dates back to my years at Glenville State College, where I did really well in all my social work classes. I am eager to learn more and want to pursue a career in social work. I am highly motivated to work with children and families. My interest are reading, listening to all kinds of music, and learning about new things.