My experiences convinced me to switch majors to Social Welfare. How is it going?
By Netanya Weiss and Jim Stellar
We are back after writing a blog over the last summer on how NW’s freshman summer experience and her sophomore year class experience resulted in a change of major. Now, after getting into her second term in the Social Welfare college, it is time to check in. So, how is it going?
All is well, it has been an interesting experience so far particularly in my practicum courses which consists of just social welfare majors. The classroom environment is strikingly different from any other that I have experienced here at UAlbany. We have created a space that is open to discussion, formatting trust, engagement, respect, and openness. It is a space where the students can voice their fears and excitements, relating to but also teaching each other. My professor works as a social worker, providing insight and inspiration. I am now starting practice 2 in the spring term, which is diving deeper into the previously learned concepts, along with learning new ones, getting us ready for the internships we will have in our senior semesters.
As you know, I am a big fan of the educational benefits of practice in a college education. In fact our first blog was about your practice experience at City Mission. In this regard, I think it is excellent that your Social Welfare professor is a practitioner of social work. So here is another question as you start practice 2 this term. Do you feel the conversation among the students is different now that you are all on this track toward becoming practitioners? Do they seem more mature and more serious in the classroom as well as being more “open to discussion, formatting trust”?
I feel that the conversations among my classmates are definitely different now that we are on track towards becoming practitioners. I see the growth within my classmates’ thoughts and application of learned concepts. We now all understand social work’s missions and values. With now having foundational understandings, there is more maturity in our discussions. For example, when we do in class scenarios, we work together to apply certain concepts in how we would approach these situations. The in-class work is more serious, that is less thoughts of possibilities, but more use of application. With the formation of trust, there is no judgement in expressing confusion. I appreciate these changes that have developed within this class, it has made me see growth in my peers as well as myself.
I always say that the difference between a refined college education and the real world is chaos. By that I mean that things happen in the real world that are not planned and can drive creativity. Your practitioner professor brings that experience to the classroom. Do you feel that influence, especially since you have direct experience (e.g. our first blog)?
I feel what she (the professor) has to say. For example, no situation in social welfare is ever the same. Each is its own thing and past practice needs to be modified for the current situation which is never exactly the same as before. While using approaches that work for similar situations can be useful, It is a mistake for a social worker to look at a situation and think it is the same, having a preconceived idea. My practitioner professor does a good job at giving us a variety of scenarios that are alike but different and sometimes all-around different. With studying how to engage, and assess individuals and families, we do a good job at applying approaches learned, with understanding that it is okay to learn through our errors.
I have to ask if you think after all of our work together whether the reactions you are having and the challenges you are meeting in the classroom come more from your gut reaction (emotions) or from the facts-and-theories learning you have done in the classroom.
Reflecting on what is driving my responses and challenges in the classroom, I would feel that it is my gut. Going back to the little personal experience that I have, I’ve learned to trust my gut. Of course, using academic knowledge is driven by what my instincts are, so it has to be a combination of both. However, like I said before, every situation is different, using your thoughts you know what is best applied and what you need to do. I have so much to learn and experience, but in the classroom we have shared our worries, and sometimes the response is that in the moment you will know what to do, trusting your gut. In itself that is a practice to be a good social worker. There is never expertise, there is always learning to be done, whether it is from mistakes or from new experiences. We are all humans who have these gut instincts and reactions, and I think as social workers we are learning to understand and reflect on these reactions as valuable tools.
In this particular series of blogs with NW (and in the entire blog postings), one can see how the cognitive planning for a career after college is affected by the experiences one has along the way. We refer to those experiences as emotional, but that is really a simplification. They come from the full presence of being in a real-world work-related situation. For example, go back to the first blog we wrote about NW’s freshman experience volunteering at City Mission. It is in this presence there with all of its components (other people and their reactions, the nature of the operation itself, …) that caused NW’s shift in major. It is happening again in a more refined way now as her current classwork emulates the professionalism of her future social work career. We think that this is how one grows (at all ages, including JS’s age) what we are coming to call the development of Professional Wisdom, or at least the beginning of it even in college.
