Individuals who aspire to become significant and positive influencers in the world have valid dreams that they wake up to chase. By receiving the necessary education, one can receive great values that help navigate through the preferred professional path. Thousands of careers exist in the contemporary world, and we are entitled to select the one that goes hand in hand with our ambitions. People who clearly understand their dreams and aspirations have a straightforward path that they need to take to achieve. Factors such as skills, abilities, values, socio-economic aspects, interest, culture, personality, and one’s perception of careers are the major aspects that impact career choices. One of the most valuable factors that I consider is my personality and the level of satisfaction that I would like to achieve in my career. Since I am an extrovert, I enjoy interacting with people, and therefore, a career that requires a lot of socializing would be a plus for me.
I am a people’s person. In this perspective, I enjoy listening to individuals’ challenges and always find approaches to solve them. People experience problems that make life impossible for them to live in everyday life. I want to take pride and professionally advocate for people who cannot speak up for themselves. Moreover, I would enjoy genuinely caring for individuals who lack or are denied access to services their communities should provide. There are a lot of vulnerable people that need help within my community. Such people include the disabled, the aged, ethnic minorities, and the socioeconomically disadvantaged. In most situations, these people are looked down upon, and their rights are denied because they lack a strong person who can advocate for their needs. “Human rights and social justice are recognized as integral to social work education” (Gatenio Gabel & Mapp, 2020). Being the one to advocate for all these vulnerable populations’ needs would bring me happiness, and I would count myself lucky to have achieved my aspirations. To fully accomplish my desires, I would have to receive professional training to gain adequate knowledge to handle the severe problems people face within the community.
I have always had an interest in Social Work, especially when work involves children, families, and any vulnerable population. Helping people overcome obstacles and difficulties and making the most of themselves is very rewarding and always gives me a sense of commitment. My application to study social work will grant me the chance to make a difference in people’s lives. I also believe that I have what it takes since I have been engaged in different social work activities at the individual level. I understand the complexity of human interaction, and it can be easier to do it individually on a smaller scale. However, I also know that to make a meaningful impact on society, I have to learn to make a difference on a larger scale. It is my expectation that social work will help me learn this better and also provide me with a network of like-minded people who can make this dream a collective achievement.
Knowledge remains to be power and having an understanding helps people in society. This same ideology can be applied in social work, where valid solutions are provided depending on the nature of the situation. As I had earlier mentioned, human interactions and experiences tend to be complex and so solving a problem will be dependent on both knowledge and experience. My application should help me become a social worker eventually, where I will be working with young people, children, or even families. The course will give me the theoretical knowledge needed to assess situations and have the best line of action. I intend to use the knowledge at both the personal and professional level. This is mainly because I consider social work to be a calling and will always be willing to help people whenever I can. Towards this end, my passion and desire for the field of social work are influenced by a sincere and genuine wish to make a positive difference in other people’s lives.
Problems Solved Through Social Workers
The current issues that the world is experiencing today require the interventions of social workers. For instance, individuals’ demographics are swiftly changing. This is being affected by the high rate of immigration, especially in the United States. The populations are getting significantly order. By 2050, many individuals across the world will be 65years or older and more services will be required (Khan, 2019). Currently, a few social workers specialize in gerontology, and thus more will be required in the near future. Moreover, there is an increase in the number of people who use the healthcare system, and health institutions will need more social workers for care coordination and follow-up.
The increase in people’s health needs, especially in this era of the Covid-19 pandemic, requires numerous interventions from social workers (Amadasun, 2020). Engaging in this career will provide me with many opportunities to interact with people and offer my anticipated support. The public-private partnerships are creating opportunities to enhance communities, so I am likely to find myself working with local businesses or other corporate partners, which would escalate the resources for assisting clients. I would also establish my innovative programs to serve the community through such partnerships.
The old population that currently exists still requires competent social workers to guide and support them throughout their old age. Therefore, pursuing the Bachelor of Social Work (BSW) program will allow me to offer the necessary services to boost the aged lifestyle. Through the program, I will acquire knowledge concerning ways to make a difference in individuals’ lives and within the community. The significant elements that I anticipate gaining more understanding about include how to assist older individuals in navigating challenging situations, how to help people who are affected by homelessness issues, and to comfort different clients during different challenging issues.
Moreover, in the contemporary world, challenges such as extreme poverty, domestic violence, alcoholism, and other forms of drug abuse have greatly affected the community (Stoeffler, 2019). The social work program provides a great opportunity to make a difference in how such problems are handled. Although the program is undeniably stressful because of the challenges faced firsthand, I will use the learned skills to overcome the problems. I believe social work career is for those who aspire to make a difference in people’s lives. Through the program, I will use my competence to change how individuals feel about different challenging situations and advise them what they can do about the problems. For instance, I will assist single parents overwhelmed by stress and still looking after their young ones by connecting them to local child care agencies for further support. I will also be involved in the assessment of parents’ eligibility for child care assistance, collaboration with a coalition of local workers to ensure flextime and child care services are accessible within the communities, and campaigns for the national government to increase child care resources for working families.
Bridging Technology Advancement Gap
In the contemporary world, a change in service delivery has been observed. The advancement in technology has brought new approaches in which social work career should be implemented. For instance, new healthcare models such as patient-centered medical homes depend on social workers to facilitate care coordination. Other technologies such as mobile devices, cloud computing, and electronic health records are highly used by social workers to coordinate care among home health aides, pharmacists, family caregivers, and other health professionals. I enjoy using technology, and I aspire to improve individuals’ lives through the current technological platforms. Thus, engaging in social work career based on technology will be a good move.
Spirituality Need in Social Work
Spirituality is a critical aspect that the current clients rely on (Crisp, 2020). Therefore, through the program, I will learn how to integrate faith in social work to be of help to numerous customers. Integrating faith within the social work curriculum will assist me in viewing the clients’ future holistically. This would aid in bridging the gap that other programs do not address. Precisely, faith is a vital element that would allow me to explore and empathize with clients’ worldviews. Given the right training, I will ensure that fundamental changes are implemented within the communities to enable people to live peacefully. Social work is flexible, and one may select a certain client population for specialization. Depending on the challenges experienced within my community, I would decide which population to focus on without altering my career. The course is interesting because I can also choose to help various individuals, such as switching from working with disabled children to assisting older citizens at the same time. Moreover, I would expand my services by working for government agencies to provide counseling programs as a private practitioner. The flexibility within this course will enable me to interact with numerous individuals to assess their problems and offer the necessary help from one community to another.
Social Change Within the Community
Social change is a crucial aspect that I would focus on achieving as a social worker. In this perspective, I would deal with victims of assaults by offering therapy services and educating members within the community to curb neighborhood crime. The customers facing difficulties in daily functioning due to family conflict or mental health needs would benefit from my services by implementing a behavioral health program. I would aim at working with individuals at family, societal, and group levels. By pursuing the social work program, I aspire to acquire the competence to provide people with the opportunity to share their emotions. As I had mentioned earlier, I look forward to assisting vulnerable individuals who are voiceless in their lives and who come from challenging circumstances in which no one recognizes them.
References
Amadasun, S. (2020). Social work and COVID-19 pandemic: An action call. International Social Work, 63(6), 753-756. https://doi.org/10.1177/0020872820959357
Crisp, B. R. (2020). Charting the development of spirituality in social work in the second decade of the 21st century: A critical commentary. The British Journal of Social Work, 50(3), 961-978.
Gatenio Gabel, S., & Mapp, S. (2020). Teaching human rights and social justice in social work education. Journal of Social Work Education, 56(3), 428-441. https://doi.org/10.1080/10437797.2019.1656581
Khan, H. T. (2019). Population ageing in a globalized world: Risks and dilemmas? Journal of Evaluation in Clinical Practice, 25(5), 754-760.
Stoeffler, S. W. (2019). Social Work and Poverty: A Critical Examination of Intersecting Theories. Social Development Issues (Social Development Issues), 41(2).
