Becoming A Social Service Worker

What are the reasons you have chosen to pursue education to become an SSW?
I've always felt the need to help others and somehow make a difference in a person’s quality of life. If you're a person like me who cannot stick to one thing, taking an education on social service worker is an excellent approach for setting a base foundation on your future career. For example, if a person who has take an education in social service were to get a job in advocating, but later realizing they're not really interested in advocating anymore, the person could switch from advocating to let's say educating, researching or even case managing. My plan is to gain the knowledge and the abilities of becoming a social service worker, and from that I can easily choose
to either advance my education, and/or gain enough hands on work experience and apply for a stable career along the field. In the end, I would either like to advocate, educate, and/or counsel!

Q2. What populations do you want to work with?
I remember reading the novel ‘The Catcher In The Rye’ where the protagonist is obsessed with children, “but not in a creepy way.
Really. [to him, children are] cute little bundles of hilarious innocence: genuine, caring, and naturally kindhearted.” (J.D. Salinger, 1951) After reading and understanding that novel, I knew for a fact that I was 100% on board of the concept of protecting the innocence within children. For that reason, I would ideally like to work with children and/or youths mostly because and as cliché as this phrase might sound but ‘they are the future, our future.’ Chances are most teenagers and adults have seen the harsh reality of life in their own ways. Children on the other hand carry this sense of innocence which is refreshing to witness every now or than.. There's also the fact that young individuals can easily be moulded into even greater individuals, with the help of correct guidance of
course.

Q3. What social issues do you want to address?
There are so many social issues that need to be addressed, making it difficult to pick just one or two. Hence, I feel that addressing youth unemployment automatically connects and opens the door to other major social issues, one of them being poverty for example. Youth unemployment can also lead individuals down a dark path, triggering bad habits that can turn them towards drugs, alcoholism, or any other type of addictive substances, at a dangerously young age.

Q4. What type of work do you want to pursue and Q5. what setting do you see yourself in?
Whenever I picture my future, career wise, I absolutely do not see myself in an office with a computer glued to my face. Instead, I would like to work side by side with child-welfare and/or family-types of organizations, who deal with a variety of social issues like trauma, violence, poverty, abuse, mental illness etc.

Q6. What would be your dream job and Q7. what do you need to do to prepare for a career in this area? When being asked about my dream job, the first thing that comes to my mind is Doctors Without Borders.
I believe that the first step one should take in order to be prepared and successful in any given career would be to get involved. Getting out there, building connections, gaining experience, and most importantly building confidence which is a key trait for anyone going into the field of social services. Once I'm done with school, or decide to take a break from my education, and have multiple social work related volunteer/work experience, the first thing that I would do is sign up as a volunteer for MSF, so that I could get a glimpse of what it's really like working with Doctors Without Boarders. If all goes well, I'd than sign up for an internship position of my interest, since they have over 17 different types of internship positions available. After my internship is completed I would either apply for a permanent position or see if I'm capable, health-wise to go from working in an office to working in the field where all the
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