What field?

So the first step in my post-school journey, besides horrifying myself by looking at the amount of student loans I will have to pay back in 6 months, is to figure out what field of social work I'm interested in.

Let's start with what I have experienced. My junior internship was at a battered women's shelter. My senior internship was at a county human service agency.

At the battered women's shelter, I obviously worked with domestic violence. The clients were voluntary single women and mothers. It seems the work I was involved in during my time there was very basic and on a very very micro level.

At the county human service agency, I worked with the issue of teaching parenting and social skills. The clients were voluntary and sometimes involuntary parents and children. Again the work there was basic and on a micro level.

Although my experience seems to be micro level and centered around women, families, and children, I would like to explore more of a macro level work possibly research as I enjoy writing. I'm also thinking about the field of adoption, in particular pregnancy counseling as I have some personal life experience with that issue.

It may be important to think about what causes are important to me. I know that if I had to pick one, it would be the prevention of child abuse. It is a subject close to my heart professionally and personally as I have encountered cases of abuse in my work as well as the simple fact that I am a mother myself. Other topics I'm passionate about are the care of orphans in international countries, teen pregnancy, refugee family transitions in the US, and teen girls.

Welcome!

I have decided to start this blog as a way for me to document my journey in the social work field. If I get readers and can share my experiences with other new social work students and grads, then awesome. If not, then at least I will be able to vent and process on here. My hope is to remain anonymous in this blog as I want to be able to write as much as I can without compromising my social work ethical duties of my profession and clients. I also hope in this way I can separate my professional life from personal.

To give you a little info on myself and where this blog will be going, this is me: I live in the midwest, am a young adult, wife, and mother, have been in and out of school since 2003 but have finally graduated May 2010 with my Bachelors degree in Social Work from a private college.

I am currently employed at a state agency in a paraprofessional position. With my degree, I am now seeking an entry-level social work position. And here's where my story begins.....