Hello All,

Welcome to the wonderful, soul searching, possibly dangerous, World of Social Work! My name is Sharon and I'm really honored to be able to share my experiences as a first year, graduate level social work student with you. Since we're going to be friends, thought I'd share a bit about myself:

I have a wonderful husband named Chris, and, since this is usually the 1st or 2nd thing people ask me, I am half Chinese and half Irish and technically a first generation American. I moved to Maryland just over a year ago to marry my husband. Before then, I lived in Maine, Connecticut, and 5 different cities in Pennsylvania, the most recent being Washington, PA where I was a youth and campus minister. Therefore, maple syrup must be real, ice cream must have 3 times the legal limit of fat, it must be called "water ice," and ketchup must be Heinz. After becoming a Social Worker to counsel teens and their families, I hope to become a professional ballroom dancer, a carpenter (and electrician), master a martial art, take theology courses, and be in a Batman movie. But, those other things will have to wait.

I am taking the standard foundation courses for full time students: Human Behavior, Social Work Research, Social Welfare/Policy, and Social Work Practice, which goes along with my field placement at the New Foundations School. I just started my placement on Tuesday (just a week later than everyone else. But hey, New Foundations was on summer break and the Field Education office gave me the wrong contact phone number anyways. It's all good now.) and I already can tell that it is definitely going to be an interesting year. The school is all boys, all of whom have been kicked out of other schools for whatever reason and so they end up here. I have started sitting in on two group therapy sessions, which have been fairly calm, considering there were 2 fights already in another group session. Eventually I will also be meeting one-on-one with two of the students each week. Trust me, I've already started praying about that!

So that's my new life in a nutshell. Tune in next week to read more!
Have a great day!
-Sharon

(Title Quote from Napoleon Dynamite soundtrack)