Personal Narrative: A Career In Social Services

At the beginning of my sophomore year, August 2015, I fractured my left ankle. My second season of cross country had just begun. The whole team had a Saturday practice at Atlanta Memorial Park. We came to this park for a time trial. Not being able to run was going to be a challenge for me. I loved running, and seeing myself not run was going to be hard for me.

Throughout my undergraduate years, I have experience, achieve, and learn many things. More importantly, in the past few years, I have come to realize my doing in life is to do what I do best which also brings me the best joy. As I stated before, that joy comes from helping the vulnerable and being the voice that they need. I know this challenges will not be easy but I’m confident in my abilities to complete this degree which will ultimately lead to making an even bigger impact in the lives many students and

Nursing, and everything that it entails, cannot be easily described in just one simple word or phrase. It goes beyond the meaning of a profession and the stereotypical definition of treating the ill. Nursing is the “protection, promotion, and optimization of health and abilities, prevention of illness and injury, alleviation of suffering through the diagnosis and treatment of human response, and advocacy in the care of individuals, families, communities, and populations” (American Nurses Association, 2010, p. 1). Therefore, it is a career that requires dedication, passion, critical thinking, and knowledge. It demands commitment and an understanding of its core values and concepts, as well as the nurse’s own personal philosophy and principles.

Lani: I was helping for someone’s project for COMM 245; I was in the video lab, in the studio. I was on campus and decided to contact everyone I knew who comes to the school. I remember I sent out a snap saying guys I think there is a shooting, be careful and then I started sending out individual texts to people making sure they were okay, like hey are you good? Stay out of an area. I didn’t know how many people were getting shot. I just knew it’s not good and that we have to be careful. At first, the campus was like we are unsure, just be careful, and then it took some time till I finally got an email that said stay on campus and were held there for about two hours, I just kept recording.

At Miller Children Hospital in Long Beach I have developed certain skills that are necessary in order to go into the Human Services Career. At Miller I have learned how to communicate with different people, learn how to take things not seriously, and how to not let my emotions get in the way of assisting children and family.

I work for the Social Security Administration, under contract, as a disability benefits counselor. I help people with disabilities find employment via the 'Ticket to Work ' program. This job is a direct result of President Obamas ' strengthening of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). The Presidents directive has asked federal agencies to promote, increase hiring and assist other agencies in employing persons with disabilities. I find my work incredibly satisfying. The beneficiaries regal me with their stories of discrimination. (This is the depressing part of my work). I direct beneficiaries to organizations and agencies that are under contract with our government to provide employment services

An event in my life that has helped shape me as a person would have to be when my family started doing foster care. When I was in 6th grade we got our first set of foster kids. Luckily enough we were able to adopt them. From then on we have had two other sets of kids who either went back to their parents or switched foster homes. Each set of kids brought wonderful new meanings to my life. Being involved in foster care has made me a more caring and compassionate person. It also taught me to more responsible and accepting of others. If my family had never started doing foster care I would have never realized how much I love helping kids, which is why I have decided to pursue a career in Child Psychology. Seeing the trauma some kids have to endure

No matter how prepared an individual may be or expecting of a death, to lose a family member to death can be a traumatic experience. The grief process is a difficult process. However most understand that death is a natural and expected life event (McBride, and Simms, 2001). With that said it usually does not make the death of family member any easier to absorb emotionally. Although I have familiarly and awareness because of the deaths of my Father and Sister, it does not mean that I am comfortable with death, or have all the right words to say to comfort a person in the grieving process. I think a person can listen, extend a helping hand, pray, or a should offer a to cry on, but for the most part, there are

I am interested in becoming a student assistant leader to get to know and to work with people outside of my grade. I want to build relationships with students see around school and possibly collaborate with in classes and clubs my senior year. By becoming a student assistant leader I hope to review the curriculum I learned when I went on the Sound to Sea trip my freshman year and also to learn about more complex ecological science, by interacting and assisting the counselors. I took AP Environmental science last year and did very well on the exam, so I feel I can add some of my knowledge to the activities and discussions on the trip. By assisting in teaching the lessons, I could integrate concepts at a deeper level than just listening to a

The Army has been at war since September 11th, 2001. I learned a very harsh and cold lesson in the fall of 2003. The vast majority of the civilian populace in the countries in which we operate are good people. Unfortunately we find ourselves in situations where good people must die. It is an unfortunate recourse of warfare.

My cousin was born one month premature to a drug addicted mother. A couple of years later he was placed in foster care. That is when I met Ms. Irene Berry. She was his Family Service Worker. She spent a considerable amount of time with him, making him feel comfortable and safe. She made him feel loved. My mom obtained temporary custody of my cousin at the age of three. His mother would straighten up long enough to get him back, but then would falter and cause him to return to foster care. Through the years, Ms. Berry was constant in his life. She would come to visit and take him out to lunch. On birthdays, she would either call or send a card. When it came time to start college, I knew I wanted social services to be a part of my studies. I

Although I had always considered a career in teaching, it wasn’t the initial plan that I had set up for myself. However, I did have a plan of working with children. I obtained a bachelor’s degree in Kinesiology in the hopes of continuing my education with an ultimate goal of becoming an occupational therapist. I wanted to pursue a career in home health working with pediatrics. Upon receiving a rejection letter from the occupational therapy program at TWU as well as a wait listed letter from a smaller program I began to think that God had other plans for me. While conversing with a relative who’s a teacher at a small school, I began to think that this was something I was very interested and enthusiastic about. I heard stories of children

My field experience consisted of attending 3 Newton’s high school volleyball practices and the end of the season playoffs. Upon arrival I was greeted by old friends that are a part of the program. The coaches were not there yet so it was the girls and captains responsibility to set up nets and begin practice. The girls socialized for majority of the time and waited last minute to put up the nets. Once nets were up they would began to stretch and warm up then begin practice without the coaches. Again, the girls were more concerned with socializing. Some girls were warming up, some were in the hall socializing with football players, and some were still in the locker room getting dressed. As a whole the girls did not look like a team and they did not look like they were serious about being a part of this volleyball team. Since, I have an unconditional love for volleyball I took it upon myself to gather all the teams and have them warm up as a team.

Even though I have only worked in my profession for about two years now, I have great insight into how the developments in technology has changed my career field. What I have seen though has been nothing less than impressive. In just a few short years my career field has made some major changes due to the increase in information technology and mobile revolution.

I look away as the needle is slowly injected into the skin. I can sense the sting of the needle as it pierces through the wrinkled skin. My grandpa just injected himself with a dose of insulin for his diabetes. I wait by the sidelines, too incompetent to help him. All too often I feel paralyzed with helplessness. Maybe it is because of his blank stares, which reminds me of how distance he is from the rest of the world, or the fact that he has Alzheimer's. I tormented myself with these questions: What can I do to help? How am I able to help? It was later on after my grandpa was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s that my grandmother on my mom’s side was diagnosed with Lyme disease. I could not take it anymore, I had to do something. No more waiting for someone else to come along and help. I was going to figure out how I can play an active role in helping others.