Working In The Shelter System

While reading the steps of writing my essay, I thought this is going to be easy. I only have to write about my work experience and how working in the Shelter System has changed my life point of view. Well, it is not that easy. It is a hard task to write a paper and being sincere with yourself and expect to impact others who are going to read my essay. I am not sure if any series of introductory words would accurately capture my passion and desire to get into the Master’s Program at Fordham University, therefore I decided to go straight into what motivated me to apply for the program by telling you a little bit about myself and what inspired me to follow the path in the helping profession.
I want to start by telling you that I am an immigrant
from Ecuador. I came to the country 11 years ago with the only purpose of visit New York City and my parents. However, it has been 11 years since them, I had analyzed my life and I concluded that opportunities in this country are not easy to reach. The main reason is the inequality that existed in America. We are not equal in many ways like justice, housing, healthcare, education, etc... Everything works according to who you are, who you know and your economic power.
These were my reality living in America. My first job was as a cook. I worked for different restaurants. I face different situations where immigrants were treated differently, due to the lack of knowledge of their rights and specially the barrier of the language. It was about 2009 in my first job, I started as a dishwasher and I was earning $13 per hour. On the other hand, the cooks with experience earned $10 per hour. The main reason was that all of them were undocumented. It was hard to comprehend the inequality that existed between us at that moment. It was repeating in my head the fact that just because my co-workers were undocumented, they were underpaid. I knew and understood that it was unfair, but they seem to be just fine with it. The immigration issue made me think about different questions like; are they used to it? is the system’s fault? or do they need a voice? is it part of our society to function? I concluded, these people need a voice. All of the sudden, I decided to become their voice and I spoke on their behalf. Unfortunately, the chef was not happy about it, and I was fired days after. However, I accomplished to raise the salary of my coworkers and a longer lunch break. A lot of people advised me to sue the restaurant or to do something about it. I was ignorant to the situation and I let it go. I thought it was not necessary. Nevertheless, this experience inspired me to go back to school and start a new career. I wanted a career that will grant me to help, support and assist people in their desires. I decided to become a Social Worker. It was like the career chose me. It was not a difficult decision to make. Today, I am looking for means where I can assist families, individuals and communities to start fresh and secure in what they will call a successful life.
While graduating for my Associates at Bronx Community College in 2014, I was able to obtain a position as a Youth Care Worker with the Unaccompanied Immigrant Child Program.
It was a great experience to work with this little fellows. Even Though, my job was to be with the children during my shift and make sure they bathe, eat and play. My drive for help these children took me to conduct drive coats, food drive, and assisting them with the daily food menu. These small things are part of being a Social Worker, to seek for other ways to assist the agency and the children to come around from the problems of low fundings. Furthermore, the fact that I cooked for them, it helps me to build strong relationships with the children to the point that tears were the only thing left on me when they went back to their family. They taught me that dreams can be as big as you want them to be, also to never give up; the sky's the limit. It is undescriptible to define the courage of these children crossing the U.S border and the bravery to come to a country and pursue their happiness. It made me realize that dreams do not have
limitations.
This job inspired me to continue with my education and I decided to start at Lehman College and get my bachelor as a Social Worker.
I realized that getting a higher level of education can positively impact the life of others my family and friends that saw me once barely speaking English. Nowadays I am pursuing my Master’s in Social Work. My goal is to escalate to a position where I can participate in our policies making and I want to support the policies that make our country a better one. I am not sure which population I want to work with, because our nation needs so much help and there is no reset button to start a new society. It is a utopia to live in a perfect society, nonetheless as a Social Worker I want to be able to contribute to built a better
one.
Furthermore, homeless families is the population that I am working with at the moment. This population is increasing yearly and the social issue seems like it does not have an end. I am sure that with a Master’s in Social Work, I will be able to help our community from a different perspective. I want to utilize my knowledge of the system and the community to improve the services offered to people in need. My goal is to open an agency where I can assist undocumented immigrants to prepare to become part in our community. The help that I want to offer is simple. I want to start with baby steps, which is my favorite method in working with families. The first thing will be advisement on employment and their rights, help them to access to affordable health and housing, pushing them to get a higher level of education, and providing English classes with some other resources that undocumented immigrants will need to be active members of our society.
The above reasons and others are driving me to pursue my Master’s program at Fordham University, with the concentration of Leadership and Macro Practice. This particular path will allow me to focus on managing organizations and systems, developing policy, writing grant proposals and obtaining funding for what will be one day my agency. I am glad and thankful that Fordham is giving me this opportunity and time to become part of the school.