Goals: After earning my MSW Degree at XXXX University, I hope to begin my career as an accredited social worker serving with Child Protective Services’ (CPS), Child and Family Agency. Within time, I would like to become a Social Worker Supervisor at the same agency working to ensure the safety and well being of families. My long term goal is to serve as the Director of a program working to prevent child abuse and neglect. Since I see children and families as inseparable, child and family welfare will always stand at the center of my social work focus, direct practice, and method.

Experience: My decision to make my mark in life as a social worker was directly inspired by the traumatic events that I personally endured and survived by learning to cope, as a child, an adolescent, and an adult. My parents divorced when I was in middle school. My sister has mental health dx (Bi-polar & depression) and 5 children, none of which are with her. My mom and I have custody of the oldest, one is with her dad, one is with a friend, one is with a paternal grandmother, and the fifth was placed in the child welfare system and adopted. I followed each case and did everything that I could to ensure that they would all be cared for. My older brother had undiagnosed mental health issues and suffered from drug addiction; he committed suicide when I was a senior in high school. We were very close and the loss of my brother prompted my life-time dedication to the study of the destructive effects of substance abuse, particularly to the abuser’s family and children. I am myself a victim and survivor of domestic violence at the hands of my oldest child’s father and I know close up how difficult it is to rise above being a victim of domestic violence. A single mother of two, neither of the two fathers of my children has helped me to raise them or support them so far and neither has complied with court orders to assist financially with child support.

I have worked two jobs since I was 15. My struggles have helped me to better understand my own strengths and weaknesses, as well as those of our society and our social welfare system. My work with the Institute for Family Centered Services in XXXX MD from 2009 through 2010 opened my eyes to many important family issues and stole my heart as well, energizing me to help at-risk families in my community. Our goal was to preserve families and my job was to do assessments, develop and implemented treatment plans with individuals and families, and to help provide 24-hour crisis intervention. I prepared holistic assessments and made practical recommendations for clients, collaborating with service providers, probation officers, therapists, case managers, and social workers. From 2010 through most of 2011, I also worked for XXXX Charities of the Archdiocese of Washington DC as a Fortitude Housing Case Manager providing outreach, intake, assessment, employment search, and case management services. In this position I learned a great deal through my collaboration with the Department of Human Services and the DC Housing Authority. In 2011 I began working with (SOME) So Others Might Eat, Washington, DC 2011-2012, as a Service Coordinator independently managing a housing contract with the Department of Mental Health including all statistics, data reports, phone conferences, screenings, intakes, and move-ins for two of SOME’s largest housing properties. I remain dedicated to helping the homeless in our city and one of the highlights of my life has been to attend the National Alliance to End Homelessness Conference in 2010. I have also served as an advocate for homeless individuals at Washington DC, City Council Meetings.

Weaknesses and Essential Strengths: According to what my friends, family, and co-workers tell me, I am often “too nice” or friendly, take on too much work, and need further instruction in how to say ‘no’. But apart from my own children I am a workaholic and I thrive on helping people. My greatest and most essential strength is probably my professional experience. In addition to the experience described above, I have been enjoying my two current positions enormously for almost 2 years now, with DC’s CFS as a Substance Abuse Coordinator and the XXXX working as a Life Skills Trainer. I find this latter position to be especially beneficial on a human level in the development of my leadership skills in crisis intervention. In my work as a Substance Abuse Coordinator for CFS, I often feel as if I am half scientist and half detective, laboring to determine the most clinically appropriate treatment supports and options available to families being aided by the District of Columbia's child welfare system. 

Contemporary Social Issue: I hope to put my experience to work in your program and focus much of my research on child abuse and neglect as it results from or is exacerbated by substance use and abuse. I am pleased that my BS Degree is in Psychology (2009) as this background helps me to understand the fundamentals of many of the dynamics involved in the psychology of substance use and abuse. The father of my oldest son who is now 8 years old loves him dearly and the boy loves his father. Unfortunately his dad is high on marijuana all of the time and lets my son do whatever he wants to do so that I have to re-program my child every week. This has also helped me to appreciate the profundity of some of our challenges in this area as a society, since it is close to home on a regular basis.

Mission: I want to be a successful Social Worker that keeps families together by providing support and services that are offered in the DC area. I would like to become a leader in our field and serve as a Supervisor or Program Manager for Social Workers at a Child Welfare Agency. I am particularly interested in the statistics on removals and other related issues in child welfare including but not limited to substance abuse, domestic violence, education truancy, and child cruelty.

Financial Aid: I am a white woman raised among mostly black people and this is why I attended an HBCU as an undergraduate, XXXX University, in Baltimore, MD.  The fathers of my children are black, and we all struggle in our own ways. I want to continue my education in a predominantly African-American academic community because the wonderful black people with whom I have shared my life over the years have taught me to admire and find joy in struggle for advancement.

I am applying for financial aid through FAFSA to finance my graduate education. I thank you for considering my application to XXXX’s distinguished MSW Program as I feel strongly that your University is the best fit for my personality, drive, capacity, resources, and extremely high level of motivation and I thank you for considering my application.