What are you studying and why? Valarie’s Answers

Moving away and attending a university away from home can teach you a lot about people, the world around you, and even yourself. This is an amazing journey and life experience I wouldn’t trade. To me, this is one of the points in your life when you discover you. By saying that I mean you learn who you are, where you want to go, and what you want to do with your life.

Coming to college I honestly wasn’t sure what I wanted to do as a career I just know I wanted a career working with children. I always had a passion for teaching and working with children.  Then that was when I decided I was going to become an early childhood major. For my first two years at Murray State University I was in that major but still, I always had second thoughts. I would question myself about it; is this truly something I’m passionate about? Is this something that I could see myself doing in the next 5 to 10 years? I loved working with the babies but I felt that I wanted to do something more than just being a kindergarten teacher.

unsplash-logoEdwin Andrade

Majority of my friends in college were social work majors so when I discussed to them my feelings they told me to look into social work. I took up their suggestions and find out who was in charge of the social work program and they suggested that I take an intro to social work. During the intro to social work, I learned the basics of social work. For examples, I learned about the definition of social work, what you can do with a social work degree, and even about social work that people do and they didn’t even have a social work degree.  After taking this class I realized that social work could be something that I’m actually interested in doing. Once I took two more classes about social work I decided that this was the major for me so I changed my major from early childhood education to social work. I finally then felt as if I was figuring out what I wanted to do once I finished college.

The formal definition of social work is any of various professional activities or methods concretely concerned with providing social services and especially with the investigation, treatment, and material aid of the economically, physically, mentally, or socially disadvantaged.  Social workers are here to help people make positive changes in their life that will have a positive impact on them and their future as well. I believe social workers are important in today’s society because they all serve the purpose of helping others to make positive changes and the world a better place. Also, social workers work with multiple people out in the community to help achieves these goals for people and themselves as well. Different groups of individuals working together in a community to help others is what is needed in today’s society. This is what social work is all about, working together to make the world a better place.

There are a few things about social work that some that are not in the profession don’t know about the field. First off, for those that don’t know social workers abide by a code of ethics this code is called the NASW (National Association of Social Workers) Code of Ethics. I believe the code can apply to most of the professions today. This code of ethics is what we apply our work to every day out in our field. The ethical principles stated in the Code are social work’s core values. These are the core value of service, social justice, dignity and worth of the person, importance of human relationships, integrity, and competence. The basics of the code are how to professional act toward staff, bosses, and the individuals you work with as well. It teaches you not to discriminate and to always show respect and dignity. Those few examples of the code are perfect examples of how to have professional behavior in any field. Another fact about social work is that there are different types of social work you can do based on your preference. When I tell some that my major is social work they automatically think child welfare and someone who comes to take a child from their parents. That is a career in the field that you can do but it is not the only one. In contrast, there are different agencies that purpose is to help keep their child in the home with their parents. There a various types of social work you can do which is another reason why I love the field.  Criminal justice, school setting, hospital, military, community, and church setting are just some of the different options of career choices you can do in social work.  Also, I want people to know that you can do social work without even being considered a social worker as I stated earlier. When I say that I mean that some people do social work every day they just don’t know it. Some examples of jobs that people do without the degree are non-profit jobs (Boys and Girls Club etc.), employment office, working in shelters, teachers assistants, and working with youth programs and communities. Social work to me is anytime you are helping others so there are many ways we all do social work that we don’t even think about.

unsplash-logoIan Schneider

I have always had a passion for helping others so after taking some time to see what I really wanted I found out that social work was my true passion. After taking classes about it and from my own personal experiences is what helped me come to this conclusion as well. My personal experiences especially helped me to realize this a lot because seeing things from your own perception can help you to help others.

I’ve heard from many and I agree to this myself is that you can’t fully be successful at something if you are not passionate about it. Passion is what makes to strive to achieve something, it is being eager to do something that you really love doing and that is the best feeling to have in your work. The passion you have for something is what keeps you going to do it and do better. The training I’m getting from school and my internship will help mold me into the social worker that I do want to be from my experiences. The impact of all of this will benefit my career but also will give me lessons that I will value for myself.

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