Personal Statement: Social Work

After I graduate with my master's degree, I want to take my long experience in human services and apply those skills to gaining employment as a social worker. I would like to continue my work right now that I do with autism and learning disabilities in younger people and move from doing more of the tough work of physically taking care of the people I serve to find my place as a social worker in a place like a nonprofit that provides services for the community. During my time here at Melmark, where I applied behavior analysis, I have had to be hands-on with the patients, in some cases, helping to cleanse them and monitor their stool charts. I needed to build trust and comfort with the patients, especially when dealing with these more sensitive aspects of the job, and that level of attention and care that I have will translate well into social work.

My long list of experience shows that I have the knowledge, wherewithal, and ability to finish all extra training requirements that I would need to complete for the stipend. Being able to have some extra money while I am finishing my time as a student would be very meaningful and beneficial to me because it would help free me up more to focus on my training and my continued work in the fields of behavioral health as I try homing in on my goal of becoming a social worker. The patients I deal with now and who I will deal with in the near future would benefit from me being more focused and also being sharper from having more time and energy to learn more about my field of work. I myself am not from a vulnerable community or have experienced homelessness but have always thought it was important to not forget those in need of assistance. Such a noble thought is easy to put in the back pocket and not think about much, but once I had the chance to really do work with these underserved communities, I could see how important and necessary my work was.