MALLETE, ALYSSA JANE A.

BS SOCIAL WORK 1
REFLECTION PAPER ABOUT SOCIAL WORK
I believe the basic purpose of the social work profession is to help individuals, families, and communities
to enhance their individual and collective well-being. Social workers are change agents and because of
that, they aim to help people develop their skills and abilities to use resources provided to them to
strengthen and improve their lives and communities to resolve problems. One of the main goal of social
workers is to improve the well-being and lives of the most vulnerable populations, fight against poverty,
unemployment, domestic violence and the underserviced population by emphasizing on the person-in-
environment and social justice model. The social work profession, considerers the individuals’ internal
and external struggles, while working with the individuals to examine their relationships, family, work
environment, community, and other things that might impact them and identify ways to help address
problems and challenges.

I have experienced crisis and a lot of pain that had a profound effect on me, after a process of soul
searching I have decided the best use of the skills that I have acquired which satisfied a need to give
back to my community. I therefore have chosen to become a social worker. While traveling around the
world I found that I am capable of dealing calmly, sensitively and supportively with people in fraught and
stressful situations. With this in mind I believe that a MSW would best suit. me as it would allow me to
use those skills in order to help and support people. My goal is to continue on to post graduate studies
at which point I would like to specialize in health and mental health issues that are faced by military
veterans while understanding the policies that impact the military, veterans and service.

I became interested in social work because of my social work 101 course. Growing up, I always knew
that I like helping people. I would assist my family, friend and neighbors when they needed assists. so
when time came to or me to decide what I wanted to do in live, I chose become a nurse.I thought that
nursing would be the right professional for me. After attending college and taking some nursing classes, I
felt that it was not the profession that I wanted to be part of. This lead me to social work. I did not know
much about social work. However as I attend lectures, I began to listen to what the profession was , its
values, and ethnics. Also listening to my classmates, their stories, and reasons for becoming social
workers.

here are many reasons as to why I decided to pursue a degree in social work. One major reason is that I
'm interested in helping individuals and making changes. Another reason is I became more educated
about the social work profession. After learning what a social worker was and what they do, I felt that
this was the right profession for me. In addition, another reason is I believe as a social work, I can
become more competent about individuals, society, social injustice and how to help individuals who are
vulnerable. My expectations of the social work education is to be able to apply the knowledge that I
have learned to my work. So, that I can better work with individuals.