Family and Significant Relationships
When it comes to family, I find it to be the most important thing to me. I would say I have a
strong relationship with my immediate family, which is my mom, dad, and siblings. Out of them
four, my closest relationship is with my mom. She and I have always pretty much had such
strong connections, and I find that special to me because not a lot of people have such good
relationships with their parents. I think of the lord every day for keeping me and her close in this
world. Being around my family together is usually a nice time and I know that whenever I need
them, they will be there no matter what.
Life Experiences & Healing Journey
My life has always been around wanting to help others, especially when it comes to children. As
a little girl I wanted to become a teacher because I wanted to see children come to me, thanking
me for helping them with their education but as soon as I got into high school that thought
changed. When in high school I was in a semi nursing program where I thought that was my next
goal. Plus, my mom is a nurse, so I thought it be cool to be just like her until I got into my first
year of college and the courses, I went to take were harder than I thought. I started to do some
thinking about leaving the nursing program and changing my major. I ended up going into social
science because I realized I wanted to be part of social work. With the new experience of
completely changing over it was something to get used to, but I was ready for this path. This was
all I did during the time I was in community college, and once I graduated from there, I went to
apply to Liberty University.
Going into my first year of university was very scary for me. This felt like a new change
because I was used to the general classes with community college but as being part of a
university it’s much more you must keep up with. Another thing I had to go through with college
was my first anxiety attack. Having this anxiety attack, I felt my body becoming numb, stomach
felt like it was turning over, my teeth was aching and my breathing was getting heavier. This was
the moment I realized I stuff from stress and anxiety. I had to make a doctor’s appointment to get
medication to help calm myself down anytime I had an anxiety attack. This wasn’t something I
wanted to be used to, no one did. Though I realized this was now part of me, so I had to deal
with for the better instead of the worse and with the lord by my side.
Experiences, Roles and Values
Voicing my opinion has always been the opposite of what I have done in life. Through my life
growing up, I have always been scared to speak my mind on a matter or issue. I never liked
paying attention to me or would worry that what I had to say someone wouldn’t like what I have
said. Most of this comes from my confidence being low and I wish I could work on it because as
an adult now with low confidence upsets me. I know it’s one of the personally that makes me,
but I can’t help but to ask God why he made me like this. As far as leadership goes, I would say I
take this role up through my little sister. Many people know younger siblings love following their
older siblings and my sister is one of those that does that. Being her role model can be hard
sometimes because I always must remember the words I choose to say or what I’m doing. I do
love the fact she looks up to me because I never had that feeling or a child wanting to be like me
or following me in my footsteps.
Even though I mention the fact that I don’t voice my opinion, I do know that by being part of the
social work field that does deal with a lot of voicing my thoughts for my clients. Which means
that this would be something I need to work on for each of the 12 roles, so that this can help me
improve my job. Speaking of values in social work, I do believe that out of 6 the two that would
be most difficult for me is dignity and worth of a person and along with social justice. Being a
social worker, we strive to be able to give our clients the same respect that we want as a person.
We tend to forgive that when we are talking to someone, we speak to another human. There are
people who tend to be disrespectful towards those who are just doing their job or trying to find
the best opportunity for them. I have had this type of experience with my current job. I work at a
grocery store, and I must go around, and shop for customers’ orders to the best of my ability.
Sometimes we tend to have items out of stock and most times the truck might not come through
for deliveries for that day. Unfortunately, customers don’t understand this and instead of
accepting what is being told to them, they rather get upset with me over the phone and demand
products that we do not have.
I use this example of what I went through as a worker because even the customer was rude
towards me but as the worker, I still must show them dignity and please them to the best I can for
the company. With this job it can be stressful from time to time because dealing with customers
like that can make you want to step outside of your own character, but I have never done that
before, and I am proud of myself for that. I don’t really think I will ever see myself losing
character and that is even when I go into the social work department because I know that won’t
solve anything other than the possibility of me losing my job or license.
Social justice has been around practically forever and with being part of social work, I find it
important to educate myself about how people’s backgrounds are like and culture. When growing
up, I never got the experience of hate towards my skin, given I am African American. I thank
God everyday for that because I know there is many of us who does go through such hate every
day. I never even witness hate unless it was through shows or movies but seeing it just from there
was upsetting. To know that someone can give a person of color hate just simply for that is
always mind blowing to me. I would like to be up to date of the things that is going on with the
world, to be able to educate myself in such mattes so that I know and especially be aware for my
clients as well.
Academic and Career Goals
Goals of mine when it comes to academics and career have always been keeping my grades on
top tier levels. As a little girl I kept schoolwork in line, would even punish myself when I felt I
was slacking with my grades or homework. I still have this same mindset when it comes to my
college work, but I must admit that I tend to slack a little more due to my stress levels. I believe
that a career goal I would like to have been to be able to shadow a social worker in school
systems to see how their job is on a day-to-day basis. That way, when it is my turn to become a
social worker, I will have gained good sources and help of not being so nervous about doing my
job.
As to picking field goals, the first one I would pick is to be able to explore through the schools
and to be able to have some experience within the department of social services. I picked these
two because I mentioned that I wanted to work in school systems and have that opportunity to
shadow a social worker in school. While also being able to shadow a social worker within
different departments could give me the help to gain knowledge of what it is like to work in these
types of environments. I think it would be a smart idea to have this type of background
knowledge in case I ever want to switch from school to working in an office. To be able to keep
my mission as being able to help each client to the best of my ability.
Diversity and Value Differences
If I am honest, growing up I can’t recall any time of being around different diverse groups, other
than school. With school I seen so many different people and how they dressed, spoke, acted, and
more. I would like to learn more though; especially given the fact that with social work I will be
around different cultures settings, and I want to be able to help each person without trouble. I
honestly believe with social work that will help me because I wouldn’t want to turn down a client
simply because of a culture I don’t understand. I would say the most difficult thing that I
probably will face is I may not always agree with a value that one has. Not everyone is going to
agree with each other, and I feel that is what makes us different. As a social worker, I will still
show my clients the most respect, even when not agreeing on what they believe.
A set of groups of people that I worry that I would have trouble with is the parents of the
children I will work with. I know that as a parent you want the best for your child and that
sometimes you may feel that you know best then the person who is trying to help. This can be an
understandable feeling, and I would never want to upset a parent, but doing my job I have to
speak on the matters that I find concerning and I would only pray that the parents will understand
it comes from a place of wanting to see better and not harming their child. I’m positive this will
probably be issues that will come with the job as I see it with my own eyes when parents get
upset about what is being said about their child.
Integration of Faith and Spirituality
My perspective on integration of faith and spirituality with social work is this is a powerful tool
that doesn’t need to be abused. This type of tool can help with understanding those around us and
to be able to support resilience. Another good thing is this could also help empower those who
face challenges. I feel this is important to have because with faith and spirituality it can be
personal for people, like it is person for myself. I very much have faith, and that faith tends to
take me a long way. If my client wants a faith-based meeting, then that is the type of meeting we
