What's it Like to Study Social Work?
Jeanine Stewart talks to Riah Safady, a social work degree student, and Jennifer Stucker, a social work professor
If you love the humanities, pursuing a master's degree in social work may provide the framework you need to keep following this passion in your career. It has done just this for student Riah Safady and professor Jennifer Stucker. Their social work master's programs delve into the fascinating connections between individuals and society, giving them expertise that prepares them for a fulfilling career.
A Student's Experience
Riah Safady, graduate student, University of Washington
Safady's days at the University of Washington's School of Social Work are busy and rich. She parcels out her time between four commitments: attending three to four different classes, working as a graduate assistant in the Admissions Office, reading an average of 300 to 400 pages per week, and completing her practicum requirement of gaining work experience in the field.
Safady welcomes the challenge. She feels particularly privileged to attend the University of Washington, where the most highly prized value is one she too holds dear: social justice. Classes examine this topic through three lenses: micro, an individualized approach; mezzo, a community approach; and macro, a policy approach. Essentially, students get to wear a lot of different intellectual hats, thinking like psychologists one day, community organizers the next, and political scientists the day after that.
With this degree, you could go in a wide range of directions, from working in politics to working in mental health, and that's part of what Safady likes about it.
“If there is anything people need to know about this program, it's that you can do a wide range of things with it...it opens a lot of doors,” she said. The University of Washington's program description includes a long list of possible career options, includi ng administrator, case manager, school counselor, family advocate, substance abuse counselor, community worker, social services manager at community agencies, teacher, public policy analyst, researcher, and social welfare scholar.
As for Safady, she is most interested in careers that use the community-oriented mezzo approach. That's the approach she used in her first job after college.
“I think it's really important to understand the importance of collaborating with people,” Safady said.
As she completes the rigorous load of textbook and article reading assignments, she enjoys learning about all areas of the field, noting that the influence of policy decisions trickles visibly down to benefit communities, and so also individuals.
But as much as Safady enjoys her career, she warns it is not for everyone. “This can be a really tough field to work in, and there is a lot of burnout. It's really important that students have had some experience doing this kind of work, doing volunteer work, working with populations around social justice, because it can be really tough.”
Learning About Social Work in the Field
Safady gained her experience in the field immediately after graduating from the University of Oregon, working for the Oregon State Service Corps as part of an AmeriCorps position. AmeriCorps is a federally funded program that places recent college graduates in service-oriented positions for the year after graduating from college.
In that job, working for a program called College Dreams, Safady worked with students in grades six through 12 to help them succeed in school, graduate, and be successful in applying to college. She took high schoolers on hundreds of campus tours, assisted them with college applications, and helped them understand how to utilize their strengths.
As a first-generation college student herself, Safady had always had an interest in helping students like her jump through the hoops to get to college, but working in this program made her realize that she wanted to incorporate that interest into her career. That job launched her into her next job at Rogue Community College, where she helped students gain access to the resources and information they needed to pursue bachelor's degrees.
Safady's hard work has paid off. In addition to getting into the University of Washington, which is ranked fourth in the nation among social work graduate programs by U.S. News and World Report , she has secured a position as a graduate assistant for the School of Social Work's Admissions Office. This position pays for her tuition, provides health insurance, and includes a stipend.
She helps students navigate the world of admissions, covering the various steps of the process from financing their education to transitioning into college life. She stresses the importance of giving first-generation college students personal rather than automated responses to their emails, and would like to continue to work with first-generation college students when she graduates.
Safady plans to return to her hometown and her boyfriend in Oregon, and begin working at a local community college. Equipped with an MSW from the University of Washington, that job could lead to a host of others. Her goals are to work as a counselor, an instructor, or the director of an access program at a community college.
A Professor's Advice
Jennifer Stucker, Eastern Washington University
When asked what qualities are most important for social work master's students, Professor Jennifer Stucker said that people with a range of interests apply to the field. Introverted or extroverted, lovers of reading or of working directly with people, the range of career possibilities for students varies widely, from careers working directly with people to careers in politics. But all of these paths require two essential qualities: curiosity and compassion.
In Stucker's classrooms, an interest in history helps, too. She teaches about the history of social work and social policy. To ensure the information has a practical application, she conducts seminars relating the historical information what students may experience in the field.
Stucker's favorite class to teach is Societal Contexts in Practice , which gives a broad perspective on how the U.S. has dealt with poverty throughout its history, delving into issues from child welfare, family, and healthcare to mental health and crime.
“We're trying to look at trends, and also how the profession has changed over time,” Stucker said.
Her class on poverty teaches the idea that “the personal is political,” Stucker said. “In essence what it's getting at is that what happens to the individual has a larger cause and that the individual is part of a larger system, and what happens on an individual basis is important for society, and what happens on the society level is important for the individual.”
Personal Inspiration
This theory has personal resonance for Stucker, whose father was in prison during her childhood. She saw the system fail first-hand when her mother was left to raise four children on her own, without a support system to help her move forward without the family breadwinner. The situation was difficult, but it helped inform her approach to her career.
“That experience makes me sensitive to the challenges of the underdog,” she said.
In addition to that experience, Stucker grew up with a sense that she wanted to help people in society. “I always felt that some things in society were unfair – that people were poor or that people were discriminated against – and that it was part of my role in life to try to do something about that.”
Her passion lasted well into adulthood. She majored in social work as an undergraduate before going on to get her master's, and then her Ph.D. Stucker's career path is testament to the fact that social work careers do not always involve working directly with underrepresented populations.
As for career options for her students, Stucker encourages people to factor where they want to live into their considerations. Community development jobs tend to be in rural areas, as do jobs working with Spanish speaking populations; jobs in healthcare are more often in metropolitan areas.
Jeanine Stewart is a freelance writer who has written for The Santa Maria Sun
and The Cipher, and is currently studying for a career in psychology.
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