First week of the second year of grad school

I am from Humboldt County with a few brief interludes in Arizona, the bay area, and Sacramento area. My undergraduate studies were in Native American Studies and sociology. I originally wanted to be an elementary school teacher. However, after a year of volunteering in my little sister's class, I realized there were many more challenges facing the students than struggling to learn. Many of the students in the class were from socioeconomically challenged backgrounds. Later, I took a wonderful sociology course with Steve Stamnes called the Sociology of Altruism & Compassion. During this course, I realized that I greatly enjoyed direct work with people and started looking more seriously at the MSW program at HSU. I liked the focus on working with Native American populations and the great breadth of a generalist program. Now, I am entering my second year in the program.

For my community work class this semester, it is required that each student has a social work blog. I'm not sure how I feel about having to maintain a blog every week and being graded upon those entries. Admittedly, I was rather leery of coming back to school after the summer. Last year was a rather difficult year personally and professionally. Now, I am back in the swing of school. This year, I am interning at Humboldt County Child Welfare Services in the family reunification and family maintenance section.


Aside from the academic setting, I really enjoy art, music, movies, and literature. I can be a bit of a pop culture junkie when I am not completely overwhelmed with school.