I am starting my FINAL year of Graduate School today!

I am entering my final year of graduate studies in Social Work! I’ve decided to go full-time my last year so I can finish up start a family. So, that means 4 classes (12 hours/wk) and 20 hrs/wk of internship. Of course, this doesn’t include the countless hours spent reading textbooks (my psychopathology textbook is over 1500 pgs long!!), writing papers/presentations and studying for horrible exams.

Fall Semester courses:

• Psychopathology (SCARY!)


• Advanced Evaluation (MORE SCARY!)


• Advanced Practice with Children and Adolescents (Excited for this class)


• Field Practicum (Not a strenuous course)

In addition to my courses, I will be interning in a Domestic Violence program. I think I will mainly be working with the children, but I definitely have the opportunity to engage in the full spectrum of services. To save on study/reading/writing time, I decided to do 2 – 10 hour days. I am freaked out about this, but I’m sure the days will go by fast, and then I will come home and crash hard.

Mon-Thurs is jam PACKED. 6 hours of classes (until 10 PM!) Mondays, back-to-back 10-hour days at internship on Tues/Wed, then 6 hours of classes on Thurs. I will no doubt be a ZOMBIE!

I’ve also taken on a position in the Social Work Student Association. I am the Communications and Marketing Chair, which means I run the Blog, Facebook page, email communications, etc. It’s a strength of mine, which is why I was asked to take it on. :) I look forward to it, honestly. We have a fantastic team of people and we are going have some stellar professional development and community service events. All good for my future in Social Work.

Ciao!

International Literacy Day

Yes, Literacy. Something I think we all take for granted in the U.S. However, I had the opportunity to tutor reading skills to children at the Boys & Girls Club while I lived in Tampa. I was appalled at the skills these children DID NOT possess. While the U.S. may be on the forefront of industry and technology, our country still suffers from many of the same situations of the 3^rd world countries. Literacy is only one of the many. Literacy is a HUMAN RIGHT! All human beings deserve to be able to read. Without this skill, a person can never truly be independent and care for him/herself.

According to the C.I.A., over two-thirds of the world's 785 million illiterate adults are found in only eight countries: Bangladesh, China, Egypt, Ethiopia, India, Indonesia, Nigeria, and Pakistan. Of all the illiterate adults in the world, two-thirds are women!! Around the globe, 72.1 million children are out-of-school and many more attend irregularly or drop out. Many of these children are girls. These extremely low literacy rates are concentrated in three regions, the Arab states, South and West Asia, and Sub-Saharan Africa, where around one-third of the men and half of all women are illiterate (https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/fields/2103.html)

September 8 was proclaimed International Literacy Day by UNESCO on November 17, 1965. It was first celebrated in 1966. Its aim is to highlight the importance of literacy to individuals, communities and societies. On International Literacy Day each year, UNESCO reminds the international community of the status of literacy and adult learning globally. Celebrations take place around the world.

In case you need some perspective.

***DO NOT PROCEED IF YOU DO NOT WANT A SLAP OF REALITY***

If you start to think life isn't fair because you could not buy those stellar Christian Louboutin's that were on sale (because they still cost $585) or because you had to sit on the highway behind gramps going 40 miles an hour, read this.

"On one of the trips I took to Darfur with Samantha Power in late Spring 2004, we met a woman, Amina, cooking on the ground. She had fled her village during an attack. Her husband had been shot as soon as he left their hut. She had two of her children on her back and the other two in her arms as about Janjaweed chased her on camels. First they ripped her five year-old, Adom, from her, and when she stopped running and begged for her child, they told her they would shoot her. So she continued running away from her village that was up in flames. The Janjaweed then tossed Adom into the fire. He was screaming and calling her name, but she just kept runing. Despite her speed, her seven year-old, Asam Mohamed, was taken then and shot, once in his side and once in his back. She was never able to bury her children." - John Prendegrast, Not on our Watch, 2007, p. 80

I will admit that I have momentary lapses of the important things in life. I won't deny that I like little gadgets and video games and books and food, etc. I am an American and I am allowed these little pleasures (if I can afford them, that is - but that is an entirely different post). However, we really need to grasp reality in this country. Get our heads out of our asses and start taking notice at what is going on immediately around us, and off in the distance. We should all take part in making this world a safer, happier place.

Choose what it is you care about and DO SOMETHING. The world (and the planet, for that matter) is counting on you.