Graduate MSW Focus and Intentions

Social Work Statement of Purpose

While some people may be able to point to a distinct time or place in their lives when they knew how they wanted to make their livelihood, for others, the path to a profession cannot be mapped so precisely. My motivation to seek a Master's Social Work (MSW) degree is rooted in diverse experiences in both my personal and occupational lives.

I grew up in a family with a strong sense of community. In my extended family, some members had limited resources but they still found ways to be of help to their neighbors. When I think back to the years of my upbringing, I remember that many people in my family and community communicated their values to me, and expected me to assume a helpful stance in my life. As I grew, those expectations did too, and I learned that an aspect of my upbringing was that I should initiate supportive actions and just wait for adults to direct me. The clearest memories of praise from adults are of those times when I made my family proud through attitudes, behaviors, and actions that represented this legacy of caring, community, and service. This is not to say that I had an idyllic life as a child: I did not -- most of us do not. But it is to say that there were shining examples of selflessness that stood out, and became what an elder referred to as the tapestry you weave that becomes the fabric of your life. I was often reminded that the choices I made each day about how to treat people and how to spend my time were important -- like dropping coins into a piggy bank, the outcome could one day be significant, or not -- and that depended on me and the choices I made. The American author, Annie Dillard, who won a Pulitzer prize for her book Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, is known particularly for this poignant saying: "Because how we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives."

Through my personal and professional relationships, I have had opportunity to get to know people from different regions, cultures, ethnicity and races, and many different walks of life. While my family taught me to value all people, the military taught me the importance of getting along with all the people on my team in order to stay focused on and accomplish the mission. What these experiences have added up to, then, is a solid acceptance of people regardless of how different they may be from me. This acceptance extends to different lifestyle choices, as well, in as much as being judgmental can prove to be unproductive. This is not to say that my upbringing has not supported a relativist orientation to difference, as I have learned over the years that my sense of right and wrong is quite firm and soundly grounded in the dominant social mores. I believe it is important to note here that I have learned a great deal about structural violence and cultural violence, which gives me a perspective that is aligned with the objectives of social work. The primary objective of social work is to engage in activities that enhance the well-being of people and to work toward meeting the basic human needs of vulnerable, impoverished, and oppressed people. A core value of social work is to foster the development of capacity of individuals to meet their own basic needs within the context of the society in which they live. However, this aim is illuminated by full awareness of the fact that, while living conventionally can bring rewards, it can also result in a spirit-crushing lifestyle for those caught in the jaws of socio-economic structures that are not inclusive. It is this knowledge that brings those in human services to social justice advocacy and efforts to bring about substantive change in social institutions -- in addition to the changes they help foster in the lives of individuals.

I believe it is critical for social workers to understand their role in efforts to end social injustice in all its many forms, particularly discrimination, oppression, and poverty. Social workers can take any number of avenues to address these enduring issues, including administrative practice, advocacy, community organizing, consultation to government and business, direct practice, education, policy development and policy implementation, social and political action, program evaluation, supervision, and research. Accordingly, I am most interested in the following social problems and in upper division graduate study in these social welfare areas: Shelter and affordable housing for homeless people (especially our Military Veterans), social insurance programs, and health services such as Medicare and Medicaid.

During the 15 years I spent in the military, I had opportunity to observe people in a wide variety of situations and, as a matter of course; I studied the interrelations of systems variables. My education and training broadened my personal perspective related to competence, circumstance, and socio-economic forces. Through my volunteer work with several different agencies during my time in the military, my own personal paradigms shifted. Driven by a desire to learn how to have more impact in my efforts to help others, I sought and earned a Bachelors degree in Human Service from the University of Phoenix. My training and experiences in the military have prepared me well to address multiple and competing priorities. I have learned to adapt to a demanding schedule by maintaining a robust focus on goals, and practicing the balancing act of taking advantage of brief and long opportunities alike. I know how to interweave reading and studying into my daily activities, and to maintain a regime that is healthy and gives me energy. In addition, my military benefits provide me with options that may not be available to other students -- I intend to make good use of the benefits and supports available to me, just as I have in my undergraduate education.