Looking Back: For this week's blog, please use this space to comment on your year, expectations vs. reality, what you have learned, how coursework and field came together. We will use this time to begin the process of consolidating what you have learned. In the next and final blog, we will be "Looking Ahead" to next year.
In hindsight, this year has gone by very quickly. Last week’s class about termination was very helpful because it allowed me to start to reflect on my year. In terms of my internship, I didn’t know what to expect initially. I was faced with many new and challenging situations that I resisted in the beginning, but ultimately, they allowed me to grow significantly as a social worker. I am grateful for this past year. The reality is that I didn’t know how difficult it would be to balance the course load and my internship with everything else that life throws in the mix.
ReplyDeleteI have learned so much. My views have been challenged and a new perspective gained. I have learned to challenge my own views and explore the reasons behind some of my beliefs and feelings. I believe I have grown into a better clinician and a better person. I really struggled with balancing my roles with making time for myself. I tend to put other people’s needs before my own. Sometimes I don’t consider the impact that stress and anxiety has on me until it reaches a breaking point. I have realized the importance of self-care and self-advocacy.
This semester, I had more opportunities to do lectures and groups with my clients. I was inspired by many of the topics I learned in my coursework and I incorporated those ideas into my practice. I have also learned a lot about addiction and Alcoholics Anonymous. I pushed myself emotionally and mentally this year and I have gained more confidence in my abilities as a clinician. Classes provided many opportunities to learn from my peers through their insight and experiences. Overall, this year has been wonderful. I have challenged myself and learned a lot about the field of social work. I have gained many new friends who inspire me. I am grateful and looking forward to next year.
I was very excited when I heard I was going to be working with a school social worker for my internship. I thought I would have the opportunity to work with children one on one. I was very disappointed when I realized that was not the case. I would be working as an outreach social worker instead. The first semester was pretty miserable because I wasn't sure what I was doing and neither did my supervisor. I realized I was going to have to make the best of it. It wasn't easy and I definitely struggled. I learned how to be more of an advocate for myself in order to get more out of the internship. Having the opportunity to vent about it during class also helped me deal with my frustration. I did learn a lot about outreach within the Hampton community. I also learned how to help at-risk families within the school district on the micro and macro level. I was really happy to have the opportunity to talk each week with the class about what was going on in my internship as well as listening to how everyone else was dealing with their internships. I am really looking forward to my internship next year.
ReplyDeleteEach semester was a different story for me this year. I believe identifying an internship role within the agency I am employed at provided me with tremendous benefits during the first semester. While there are definitely aspects of the new role which I was unprepared for, I was both comfortable and familiar with the agency, my supervisor, and team members long before the internship began. For me, this avoided much of the “learning curve” I learned of some of my cohort were experiencing during semester one. Between semesters there was turbulent change within my agency, and the unexpected termination of my supervisor culminated in events that simultaneously increased challenges in my work and personal experiences within the agency, and an increase in the workload at school. I am very proud to have survived these unforeseen challenges as they occurred. I have also further strengthened my initial interest in adventure therapy as a field. I am now in the second semester learning to apply techniques, concepts, and practices from this field into my own work.
ReplyDeletePrior to graduate school, I was entirely familiar with the concept of micro social work, specifically counseling and therapy. Macro social work was an entirely novel concept to me and I have learned the most in this year how macro work can be applied in this field, and it has helped me conceptualize how structure and policy is shaped and implemented on a larger scale. I have also noticed a tangible increase in my own confidence, both as a social worker with a clinical opinion, and as a social worker willing to apply this opinion toward advocating for myself or for others. I believe this is tangible because I can think of specific incidences in which I advocated for what I believed in, and certainly would have never thought I would have been capable of doing this several years ago.
Looking back at the past year I have identified significant personal and professional growth in myself. My interview for the Hospice House was dreadful. I was super intimated and I am pretty sure I said, "I don't know why they placed me here, I'm scared". Last semester, I was really trying to find my professional identity but this semester I jumped head first. For example, I was able to provide emotional support to loved ones about their prognosis and views about dying, sit with a patient who was alone while she was actively dying, advocate for my patient's rights in nursing home facilities, and challenge the team with questions and concerns. It has been encouraging having passionate teachers and supervisors who have taught me skills I am able to apply in the field. I am looking forward to next year's classes and internship. I believe I am fully prepared for next year primarily due to the fulfilling internship and classroom experience I had this year.
ReplyDeleteI have learned many things in my current placement this year, probably the most important lesson being: Don't take your placement for granted. Many days did I walk into my place of internship dreading the day but now looking back I can appreciate everything I have taken away from it.
ReplyDeleteI have also learned a great deal in tolerance and patience working at the shelter. Many of my ideas and concerns were shot down throughout the year and feel as if my views were less important than the other employees working at the shelter, due to my status as intern. Learning humility was a positive step in my acceptance of this hard fact.
I am very excited to be entering into my new placement for next year. This work is mainly the type of service I want to be providing individuals with and believe that my help in the substance abuse field will be maximized the most. I have already began networking around the community and meeting the different people I will be working with as to familiarize myself with the setting and be able to jump right into the work