Social Work Statement of Purpose
While some people may be able to point to a distinct time or place in their lives when they knew how they wanted to make their livelihood, for others, the path to a profession cannot be mapped so precisely. My motivation to seek a Master's Social Work (MSW) degree is rooted in diverse experiences in both my personal and occupational lives.
I grew up in a family with a strong sense of community. In my extended family, some members had limited resources but they still found ways to be of help to their neighbors. When I think back to the years of my upbringing, I remember that many people in my family and community communicated their values to me, and expected me to assume a helpful stance in my life. As I grew, those expectations did too, and I learned that an aspect of my upbringing was that I should initiate supportive actions and just wait for adults to direct me. The clearest memories of praise from adults are of those times when I made my family proud through attitudes, behaviors, and actions that represented this legacy of caring, community, and service. This is not to say that I had an idyllic life as a child: I did not -- most of us do not. But it is to say that there were shining examples of selflessness that stood out, and became what an elder referred to as the tapestry you weave that becomes the fabric of your life. I was often reminded that the choices I made each day about how to treat people and how to spend my time were important -- like dropping coins into a piggy bank, the outcome could one day be significant, or not -- and that depended on me and the choices I made....
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