Ever since I can remember, I have wanted to improve the lives of people around me. The earliest instance I can recall is from the first grade, when I noticed the different educational needs of my fellow students. I felt uncomfortable seeing my friends struggle in the classroom, whether it be with the curriculum or simply paying attention to the teacher, because I wanted them to succeed and enjoy their time in school as much as I did. Though I did not yet know I could make a career out of supporting my community, I had known that was how I wanted to spend my life. Initially, I thought this would be accomplished most efficiently by becoming a teacher myself, but I realized in high school that social work was more aligned with my goals. Since teachers are greatly limited by school policies, I knew my plan had to pivot to be more involved in the lives of others, as well as be able to impact more populations than students at a particular school. I was introduced to the concept of social work late in my freshman year, particularly because of the COVID-19 pandemic and my consequential increased engagement with life on the internet. I was exposed to the lifestyles of many people that both differed from and compared similarly to my own, including social workers of many kinds, since our society was abruptly flipped on its head. As a result, I have aspired towards social work in hopes that I can make a hectic life more peaceful for those in need. My career goals are oriented towards making people feel like the unique individuals that they are, rather than the mere statistics that society paints our minority groups to be. Ideally, my professional life would be full of confident people who have been shown or reminded of their power and influence on our world. My field of practice can positively influence this outcome by allowing me to be the guiding light in these people’s lives through the provision of resources and a receptive role model. In addition to the vulnerable populations that I will work with, I also aspire to improve the lives of social workers themselves. As it stands, social workers are underfunded, underpaid, and overworked because of flaws in the systematic structure, which decreases the effectiveness of the hard work they commit and minimizes the positive impact. I envision my field of practice influencing this outcome through my engagement with the system: familiarizing myself with its mechanics, developing proposals to combat them, and effectively implementing them within the institution. There are a multitude of steps associated with this goal, including a great amount of research and subsequent sociopolitical persuasion, but I am dedicated to the cause because of its sheer importance.

I have suffered from social anxiety for most of my life, as early as 9 years old. This has made it difficult for me to pursue new opportunities and relationships with others, even in situations where my heart longed to make these connections. On account of my own challenges with mental health, I want to pursue a career in social work in order that I can help other people with their experiences. I aim to work with children and young adults in particular, since I have seen how stagnating these detrimental thought processes can be. As a Black woman, who comes from an impoverished family, I thrive to be a diligent and thorough role model for people who have experienced my circumstances. My own inability to access the utilities and support I needed to work through my mental hindrances resulted in distrust of the current state of health facilities and having to address my issues alone. In the Black community, issues regarding mental health and instability have often been belittled and misunderstood by adults and health professionals, leading to the continuance of our suffering. I want to develop into a leader, who can guide young populations to the proper resources and information necessary to help them, especially since I grew up craving that same attention and care. A similar phenomenon occurs within communities that are less wealthy: members are not taken as seriously and/or the proper precautions are not provided in an accessible manner. The COVID-19 pandemic’s beginning in 2020 was the most disruptive and startling event I have ever experienced. Its abrupt and expeditious spread covered the last half of my first year in high school, in which I was meant to garner the expectations and behavior for the next four years of my life. Every aspect of my life -- social, educational, familial -- was broken down and reshaped and there was not enough time to process any of it. As my friends tried staying close over social media, my family was barely staying afloat with the struggle of balancing work life and health. The birth of my youngest sister and unstable wellbeing and vocational states of my parents, I had to look within myself for emotional support. Even though my parents continue to struggle, I had regained a strong foundation for our education, even as my family juggled with poor internet connectivity and resources while learning from home. Though I found it hard to remain connected and fight loneliness, along with staying attentive and retaining information solely through a computer, online classes were one of few constants in life. Thus, school has become an emphasized portion of my life; as it seeped and melded with my leisure time, strengthening my education has become a way to ground myself and productively measure my time and development, both as a student and a growing young woman. Although my social anxiety remained uncontrollable, I found and continue to find ways to stabilize myself through my education. Throughout my current undergraduate studies, I am still learning how to process my anxieties and locate the deep-rooted problems within my own psyche. I continue to struggle with forming and tending to my relationships, despite how strongly I cherish them, so I am trying to use the new environment of my college campus as a means to address my social fears. As I study sociology and social welfare, I am using my past experiences, that have fueled my curiosities concerning social situations, as steppingstones to my post-secondary education and hopefully a long-lasting career of civil service.