Why I Want To Pursue A Career In Social Work

Statement of Purpose
Honestly, growing up I never saw myself pursuing a career in social work, yet as you grow older you learn where your true passions lie and my passion is social work. I’ve always thought that social work was people in an office taking kids from their home. This was proven wrong to me after I did research based off the recommendation from Mrs. Wall. Mrs. Wall, a school counselor, occasionally visited my mother’s job and spoke with me about my schooling and career options. I explained that I ultimately wanted to help children through counseling and she told me that a social work degree would allow me to do more than just help one child. I would have the option to help change the environment that created the problems that the …show more content…
My first job was as an assistant teacher in a low-income school where many students are immigrants or the children of immigrants. My second job as an after-care counselor was at an upper-class school with Caucasian upper class students. While working with these two highly different populations, I had to use empathy, social perception and remain open-minded. These groups had very different needs and reacted to things differently. For example, in the low-income school, many parents did not pay tuition on time if at all and fundraisers had to be carefully planned because some parents and children would steal money from them. Teachers would not be paid on time due to the lack of funding available. This caused a high turn around rate for teachers. Many students lost a sense of structure and did not gain much out of the school year because they were constantly having a new teacher or substitute. However, I already sympathized with the lower-income school since as a former student I came from the same background as many of the children. My challenge was with my upper-class students at my after-care job. I had to put away any previous bias I had towards the upper class and by doing this I learned a lot about their own struggles. In the upper-class school, the parents often would donate funds to the school for supplies and events. Teachers would have no problem staying late and tutoring kids. Yet, these children still faced issues that money could not fix. I had one little girl who was only twelve. She would dress up and meet boys who were over eighteen and talk to them. Many times, she would lie about her age. I spoke with her about the situation and found out she thinks it is ok because her mom is twenty plus years younger than her father. She did not understand the legal consequences that could occur if this was reported because her parents condoned this behavior. I had to explain to her that at her age that is illegal and help her learn to