The weather has been downright insane this past week, jumping from 50 degrees and rainy to 72 and sunny. The "grossness" aka flu and cold have also been spreading like wildfire, but all of my classrooms are well armed with massive gallon-sized hand sanitizer pumps.

Autumn is definitely here, and even if I couldn't see the leaves changing colors, I would know this because of the wonderful mid-semester things called midterms.

I have one at 2 pm today, but needed to take a break from Freud, Erikson, Maslow, and Rogers. If you know who these people are, congrats, you are prepared to take on the midterm of Human Behavior I.

My midterms have thankfully been spaced out week to week so I get enough time to spend on each one without tons of stress.

Okay I should get back to reviewing my notes, so until next time, enjoy stomping on those crunchy leaves on the sidewalk :)

===============

Quote of the week...

Prof. Dolgoff: You're my favorite Thursday class.
Classmate: Aren't we your only Thursday class?
Prof. Dolgoff: That's right.

Posted by Sandy at 10:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I may not have had any useful phone conversations today

I may not have gotten any call backs after leaving voicemails for approximately 10 people today.

I may not have had correct contact information for two victims I needed to contact today.

but today, I assisted the two other social work interns in fixing the copier machine that has been broken/useless for the past couple weeks.

WIN! :)

haha, somedays it's the little things.

Posted by Sandy at 4:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It’s crazy how quickly September has gone by. My schedule has been more hectic than I expected it to be, but in a good way. Basic outline of my week:

Mon: field placement 9a – 4:30p
Tues: class from 2p – 5p
Wed: field placement 9a – 4:30 p
Thurs: class from 9a – 12p, 2p – 5p, 6p – 9p
Fri: free!

If the weather is bad on a Thursday, sometimes I’m in the social work building for 12 straight hours. So obviously, I go to a friend’s to watch “The Office” and just unwind with chocolate-covered snacks. Commuting and field work take a lot out of me, so most of my weekday evenings are not as productive as I wished they were. Friday is (theoretically) my day to sleep in, catch up on readings from the week and get a head start on upcoming assignments.

I was assigned one case/client on Monday and I already feel buried in paperwork. The interviewing process alone was long, but the written reports and analyses take even more time than I expected. Any reports that we (social work interns) need to submit go through some pretty serious editing before they touch the attorney’s desks. Makes sense, but it definitely adds an element of stress that I don’t have when writing papers for my classes.

Earlier this month, I really felt like some of my classes were draaaaaaagging. Maybe it’s because they are foundation courses, but some of the introductory material was either intuitive or review of stuff I have already learned in undergraduate courses. To which my mother responded, “Well then, you should be getting an A+ on everything, right?” Haha. Technically, yes. Things are picking up now though, and I’m sure I will be complaining about having too much new information being crammed into my brain by the end of the semester.

The weather is simply perfect right now though, so hooray for that :)

Posted by Sandy at 1:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It's only been two weeks of field placement, but I have already gotten to sit in on two different court cases! I'm placed in the Felony Family Violence Division of the Baltimore City State's Attorney's Office (prosecution). We've been able to sit in and observe the whole legal process and how social workers play a role. While I am legally bound to not disclose any identifying information about these cases, I can definitely talk a bit about what I've learned so far.

A few rules that I learned from the mistakes of defense attorneys in court that could apply to most things in life:

1. Get to the point.
The defense attorneys I've been able to observe have either been circuitous in their reasoning, or completely unprepared and mixing up names of witnesses. Who does that?! Your questions should NOT be like that scene in "Legally Blonde" where Reese Witherspoon's character repeatedly asks "but.. you got in the shower?" because she is lost in her line of questioning.

2. Dress like you actually care about your job.
First impressions DO matter. As social workers, it is difficult enough as it is to interact with people who sometimes don't think they even need help. Look professional, brush your hair and save tacky accessories for that 80s party your friend's throwing next weekend.

3. Talk with people, not at them.
I don't care how much experience two people have or how awesomely smart they think they are.. if they are not listening to one another, but instead talking AT each other... nothing is going to happen. Scratch that. Bad things are going to happen. Because communication is key.

4. Perception = Reality.
A wise judge emphasized today that the perception of someone doing wrong is just as potent as someone actually doing wrong (she was referring to appropriate behavior for the jurors, not criminal actions). Any professional's credibility is based on the integrity of his/her character; if one were to even be perceived as doing something wrong, it would be just as damaging to their credibility as if they had actually done something wrong, even if they didn't.

Yes, these are common sense, but they were good reminders for me, so I thought I'd pass them along :)

Hope everyone else is enjoying their fieldwork!

"It doesn't matter how great your ideas are if you can't communicate them clearly." -- Professor Unick (SW Research)

Posted by Sandy at 10:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Hello everyone!

I am a foundation student, hailing from the suburbs of Howard County, Maryland. I've spent the past 5 years of my life here in Baltimore, getting my BA/MHS degrees in Public Health/Mental Health at Hopkins. I've really grown to be fond of this city (GO RAVENS!) and continue to find new things to do, places to see and food to eat :)

Had my first day of class. I only have one class on Tuesdays: Social Work Practice. We went around the class with each person saying what we're interested in, why we chose to enroll in the MSW program, and what some of our goals are. It was amazing to see the broad range of interests and experience. It was also very encouraging to see my classmates so passionate about what they want to study and truly dedicated to helping others.

Things I've learned on day 1:
- I have a mailbox!
- I should memorize my student ID#
- Lexington parking garage is suspiciously further from the campus than my map suggested
- I'm nervous about my field placement. eeeek

Hopefully the rest of this week goes smoothly and I can get back into the swing of things quickly. Here's to a great semester!

cheers :)

Posted by Sandy at 5:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)