MY WAY TO USC!

Hi Everyone!
I am a first time blogger and I would just like to take time out of this busy Tuesday to introduce myself and tell you all why I chose USC's MSW program. My name is Phenice which means a palm tree and fitting considering I ended up in a state surrounded by them. As you can probably tell I am an out of towner who recently moved to CA from Boston, MA. Up until a year ago, I had no desire to leave my comfort zone or become a social worker. My plan was to become a child psychologist. For a long time I was working with adolescence transitioning out of the Department of Social Services. I worked with a lot of adolescence who aged out of the system. After three years, working with this population, I realized that many of my client ended up homeless or having to go back to the families that abused them. All I remember feeling is complete frustration with the system and how it dealt with children. The system tries it best under the circumstances but in the end, the department is not a very good parent. I wondered how I could change things? For a long time I battled with this question. After a few months I realized that it was time to go back to school. I was helping my clients by being with them and planting the seed but there was this desire to do more. I soon realized that I could not create change without the proper education and knowledge that would stimulate growth. This is how I decided to go back to school. I started looking at psychology programs and maintain a general interest. As I attained information surrounding the field I realized that I would be in a narrow profession. I wanted the opportunity to do different things in my profession and give myself some freedom. When I told my supervisor at the time, she simple stated that I should go to an MSW program. After some convincing, I looked into the different programs within MA and then on the east coast and finally on the west coast. ( So I realize that I have rambled on long enough) It's time for me to stop and do some homework but I will post again with the end of the story. Until then take care.

Phew! What a day!!!

Tuesdays are non-stop for me! I woke up at 6:30 to walk over to UPC to catch a tram to the downtown center. My first class, policy, was as usual, a rush. I have a professor who is living history of all things that have happened in the US! He truly has an amazing story and is such a wonderful advocate! Luckily for me, I did my homework, and got called upon to tell the class all about a policy we are trying to pass. I read the actual bill last night, and boy was it long! This bill, if it passes, will create more low and extremely low income housing and emergency shelters in LA. The Bill, SB2, will also make such facilities/housing available in all areas instead of leaving the homeless population to be concenrtated in one area. Los Angeles has the nation's highest rate of homelessness, and my class is making an effort to fix it! It's a very exciting time, but quite overwhelming. Additionally, I'm supposed to contact some state senators and state assembly members to convince them to advocate for the bill and vote for it! It seems like this project alone is a full time job, but I'm trying to prioritize and compartmentalize everything so I can have small victories and not freak out about how much stuff there is to get done! :o) Anyways, so after my unexpected presentation to the class about the bill, my professor dove into explaining what our midterm was! I can't believe I'm already thinking about midterms!! Crazy!!! After policy, I hopped on a shuttle back to the UPC campus and attended the Out of Towner's Support Group. This group has made such an impact on my experience here at USC, since I moved here just for school. All of us have become very close, and it's nice to check in and see how everyone's doing! (Our leaders, 2nd year students, also are setting a wonderful example for us, teaching us how to lead a group!) Then, I raced back to the down town campus to have a meeting with one of the Deans and the advisor of the downtown social work caucus. We're setting up a brownbag, and figuring out some last minute details! Then it was off to class, finsihing my day up with Behavior, which was enjoyable as always. The classroom dynamic is wonderful and I love hearing what everyone has to say during our discussions. Then! Finally, I got to go home! I'm exhausted, and took a break to watch a bit of a movie, but now it's back to homework. And sometime I have to figure out when I am going grocery shopping. I had cereal for dinner. Haha, the dinner of champions...or social work students. So much to get done and so little down time! I'll keep breaking it down into little pieces and celebrate by crossing it off my list!

A Little Intern In The Large Social Service Machine

My field placement this year has been a challenging one. I have had to make the switch form a small private non-profit setting to a large County wide agency that serves over 200,000 clients every year, and has more than 3,000 employees. The challenges have been many. First, I am no longer seeing any clients so what is expected of me is very different in many respects. I take on projects and it takes months to complete them. I also had to learn to work within the confines of a system that is largely bureaucratic and driven by policies and procedures. This is not to say that bureaucracy is bad, and I actually think its necessary when an organization must make a concentrated and well coordinated effort to address social needs of large communities. However, the organizational culture in large organizations is very different. I had a difficult time understanding the politics involved and quickly learned the value of being politically astute and aware at all times. Are politics bad? Absolutely not, but learning that took a little while. Adjusting to being in an organization where everything requires the approval of a person higher up was very challenging, but I had to get to a point where I recognized how organizational protocol is critical in maintaining the stability of the entire organization. I felt like I was a little intern lost in a great big social service machine during my first few months at my field placement. The feeling grew and I knew I had to understand the setting before I was ever going to master navigating it. As a result, I decided to take an organizational behavior class offered through the Public Administration program and it has been great. Every time I read a chapter I understand more and more about my organizational environment every day.

I will say that my experiences at my present field placement have been so valuable. Since the day I walked in through the doors of the School of Social Work I knew I wanted to work at the macro-level. Really ask anyone who met me I was walking around telling everyone I was in the COPA concentration even though we hadn’t picked concentrations yet. I absolutely love and feel fortunate that I have been immersed in the world of macro-level social work. I am also happy to have done it as a student because I can still blame my “curiosity” when I ask people to share insider organizational information with me. Although my placement has been rich in lessons and challenges I wouldn’t trade it because I have learned a WHOLE lot about macro-social work, and most importantly about myself as a macro-social worker.

Social Work: A One of Kind Profession

Have you ever eaten ice cream from Cold Stone? I bet you have. What's it like? You are right...LIKE NO OTHER ICE CREAM! Well, I feel the same way about social work. In my opinion, social work is a profession that is unique and simply worth having. Pursuing a career in social work is worthy for more reasons than a few. Let me share my top three reasons why I chose social work:

Like Cold Stone's Ice Cream:

Reason #1: Just as you have the freedom to pick and choose your flavor of ice cream at Cold Stone, you can choose to work in a venue of any kind (schools, government, hospitals, county agencies, private sector, fortune 500 companies, and even in cinema-television).

Reason #2: Once you choose your flavor of ice cream, then you have the pleasure of selecting from a variety of toppings. As for social work, you can choose to sprinkle a little direct practice (e.g. psychotherapy); put a dab of macro-level work (e.g. program development); or just choose to be the change agent you are!

Reason #3: Here comes the BEST part of it all...Like Cold Stone Ice Cream, social workers are skilled to work in the MIX of all types of environments (considering the principles of person-in-environment), with people form various cultures and backgrounds using a strengths-based perspective, and are REWARDED with the sweet sensation of helping others help themselves.

I will have to say that social work is a CALLING…A VOCATION! My passion for social work comes from deep within. Given my personal and professional experiences, I did not have the audacity to sit and be content with the way our nation is…to accept things as they are. Instead, I followed my calling, my purpose in life, my DREAM which is to aid the challenged, breed hope from despondency, and advance the well-being of all people!

Inspired

As I read some of the comments of my fellow posters...I am INSPIRED!

It is so difficult to stay idealistic in a world that kills your entrepreneurial spirit....but it is my DUTY to stay inspired. Inspiration is a source of hope that keeps me going. It reminds me of my dreams and my ideals, it reminds me that change is necessary...change is possible. Men and women have come before me, rooted in their values and their inspirations, believing that a better world is to come and that we are in so many ways a part of that progress.

What kind of social worker would I be if I allowed myself to be squashed by the power of bureaucracy instead of fight it?

How do I stay inspired?

Addicted

I am addicted to coffee. I love my coffee and I hate my coffee.

My substance abuse professor, whom I absolutely still love and grieve the loss of her class...describes the dual nature (love/hate) of the relationship with the addictive substance. I understand more now, as I self reflect on my growingly complicated relationship with caffeine.

I am tired in the morning and I don't feel like I function well without my coffee...I can't think, I can't focus, I feel lethargic...so I drink coffee...I NEED my coffee. I need to be productive, I need to feel awake. I LOVE my coffee. I love to feel like I can finish everything, I love that I have a quick fix to psychomotor retardation :)...I love the taste, I love the smell (the smell wakes me up!).

But the coffee is EVIL...and while I feel awake and I feel focused and all of a sudden I'm actually doing my work...I also feel anxious...OHHH so anxious. I feel tense, I feel like I can rip my skin off, I worry about life and the future, my muscles tighten. I realize that my coffee...as wonderful as it is…does bad things to me. (Scary...sometimes I love the anxiety; because secretly I thrive on urgency...it motivates me.)

Unfortunately, the more I become aware of the negative consequences of my coffee, the more I HATE my coffee. I don't hate it enough to stop...I don't think I can stop. I get headaches and feel ten times more lethargic when I stop...WITHDRAWL...I just hate it enough that as I purchase coffee or bring the fabulous concoction to my lips, I scream in my head to STOP...and I still drink my coffee....and I hate that I can't stop, I hate that I rely on it, I hate that I want it.

All that I am left with is this internal struggle...the love and need...the hated and self loathing.

I cannot imagine that this comes close to any struggle any addicted person...especially meth, cocaine, and heroin must feel. My clients in skid row struggle with this relationship...it feels real, like the addiction calls to you...and tells you that you don't exist without it...you can't exist without it. But they don't have a place to sleep at night, and they don't have a family or friends to support them, and the addiction is easy...it loves you back, and it's THERE...all the time it's there...so easy.

I understand...even if in a little way...I UNDERSTAND.

Hello!!

Hello all!
My name is Alicia Wojcik and I am a first year, full time student working on my MSW at USC! I am originally from a suburb of Chicago, Illinois and moved out here in August to begin the program. I graduated in May '06 from the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign in sociology and gender women's studies and knew that I had to go on to get a masters! After identifying that I wanted to work with children in the school setting, I realized that I wanted to help them get the most of their education. Having worked as a camp counselor for junior high kids, I realized that my "kids" had other stressors in their lives that affected them in many ways. How can kids learn about math if they are worrying about problems they may be experiencing at home??? That's when I determined that my calling was to help those kids so that they may have a greater chance at succeding in school, which of course, will help them succed in life! Plus, kids are hilarious and they don't even know it. That and I may just be a kid at heart (and probably for the rest of my life!) and can easily identify with the population! In any case, from the moment I entered the program, I knew exactly what I wanted to accomplish. This of course, is not true for lots of people. In fact, most of my social work friends are having difficulty picking a concentration in the field of social work because there is so much you can do! After getting accepted in a couple of different programs, I decided on USC for a couple of reasons. The first is, what better place to learn about social work than in Los Angeles?? There are so many opportunities here, not to mention the richness of diversity which is present in the city and the classroom! I also looked into the different placements that USC offered and was excited to receive a challenging placement that would prepare me for life after school! While it was difficult to pick up and move out here and start fresh, the experience has been amazing. I never knew I could learn so much about myself when moving 2,000 miles away from all my family and friends! I came out here knowing no one in the Los Angeles area. The closest people I knew were 600 miles away, living in the Bay area, and I didn't have a clue for who to put down for a contact in the "In case of emergency" area! (That was a moment where I wondered, "What exactly made you think you could do this Alicia?!?") Yet, despite my reservations, coming to USC has been an excellent decision. I'll have more opportunities to explain later all about the process of moving out here, but for now, I must go back to reading! (the favorite past time of all grad students everywhere!)

What A Nice Surprise

Its official my microeconomics class is the most challenging class that I have taken thus far in my life. I won’t lie the very first day that I walked into class I was intimidated. Primarily because when I walked in the professor was already writing economic functions on the board. As I feverishly wrote down everything he said I couldn’t help but feel lost…and scared especially when more than half of our class is composed of economics majors. I recognized that I had absolutely no idea what I was doing. Particularly because the last time I took an economics class I was 17 and wasn’t really paying much attention. So I went through and read the book, I read a couple of chapters twice because for some reason the concept of marginal rate of substitution, and well many other concepts for that matter where just not sticking in my brain. However, I was so surprised today when I was actually able to answer the questions the professor made, and to top it off I was right. Oh yes it was a little icing on the cake that the economics majors didn’t know the answer. I wasn’t excited because I wanted to compete with my classmates, but I was excited to see that I actually learned. Well I did after all take like three hours just to get through one chapter. Anywho, the point is that I surprised myself and actually being able to participate in class discussion gave the boost of confidence that I need to get me through chapters that take me like 2 to 3 hours to read in order for me to understand the material.

My new favorite word...TIRED

So in the past couple of weeks it seems like my new favorite word is tired. I was amazed today at how many times I verbalized that I was tired and yet I never stop and rest. So, after going to multiple clinics to do some program evaluation for internship I went to school and rolled up my car windows and just slept. I got a nice two hour nap in the school parking lot before my economics class, and I felt really refreshed. As a result of my spontaneous nap I have decided to carry a blanket and pillow in my car and I will take any opportunity that I have to take a little siesta.

busy busy busy

Tuesdays are such long days...I start at 8am and I don't finish until 8pm...by the time I'm done, I'm tired and I want to go home and sleep. It doesn't help that the next day is a full day at internship...8-6 and again I want to come home and sleep...the result is that I'm almost always behind on my reading, feeling worn out, and yet inside...there's this sense of urgency and fear...I know I always have these assignments looming over my head. My tolerance for caffeine is increasing at a faster rate this semester...by the end I will probably be on three large cups of coffee and two caffeine pills...

Children of men

I saw Children of Men today. The portrayal of the limits of human evil during times of desperation was unfortunately all too familiar. I couldn't help but wonder whether human kind is worth the fight. How very un-social worker of me.

An embarassing moment...

Try not to get caught NOT DOING THE ASSIGNED READINGS!
(Double negative, i.e. GET CAUGHT DOING THE READINGS)

My professor called on me to answer a question pertaining to an assigned reading for which I did not have the answer to. Given the immense amount of reading assignments, I was not able to get to the ONE reading that my professor inquired about. What did I do??? I simply told the truth. I felt extremely embarrassed about not being prepared for class. I was overwhelmed with feelings of guilt.

LESSON LEARNED- Even if I do not have the opportunity to read the material in its entirety, at least I will attempt to peruse the readings.