Motivation For Social Work

My motivation for becoming a social worker emerged from my past experiences growing up. Witnessing and experiencing families in crisis through my years of adolescence taught me that negative events are sometimes necessary to bring a positive outcome or lesson to our lives. At age 16, instead of leaving the dream of celebrating my sweet sixteen, I experienced the worst nightmare I could have ever imagined; a nightmare called “the divorce of my parents.” The separation of my parents had a profound effect on me because it changed the way I perceived others and myself. Before, I felt indifferent about the issues of others; however, this event turned me into a more responsible and empathetic person towards those who like me at one point of their

The social issue that concerns me the most is poverty and I am certain that social work is the perfect profession to fight and advocate on behalf of those who need the most. Experiencing the struggles of low-income communities and learning about aspects of poverty, I became to realize that poverty involves more than money. Therefore, in order to understand poverty, we must understand that there are many factors in relation or that cause poverty. I am convinced that the social work field will not only enrich my knowledge about poverty and its causes, but also it will teach different approaches to combat this social

My past experiences have taught valuable lessons and had empower my desire to progress. My life changing experience happened when I just turned 15 years old. Persuaded by the dream that this county is the “land of opportunity,” my parents decided to leave everything behind in my county of birth, the Dominican Republic, to offer my brother and me a “better life.” Even when I had the love and support of my parents, this change had a great impact on me emotionally and academically. During my first years in this country, I faced the problem of fitting in a new environment, especially with the language and meeting new friends. For instance, in the process of learning English, I was very shy and refused to talk to English speakers. This fear not only delayed my process of adjusting to this new society, but it made me insecure, which resulted in a low academic performance in my second and third years of high school. In addition, I was also facing the divorce of my parents, which affected me emotionally. However, witnessing the efforts and the struggle that my mother was going through to support my brother and I, made realize that she needed me stronger than ever, and there was when I set personal and academic goals for