Cheryl Clarke
HUS 1207- Human Services Seminar
Professor Parrish
3/9/13
Professional Essay Assignment
My name is Cheryl Wendy Clarke; I was born on July 18th 1975, in Trinidad and Tobago in a small town called Amira. My parents were Pearl Clarke and Michael Liverpool. My mother had another daughter which is my older sister, but we have different fathers. My father had six children including myself, my mother and father never married. My mother, sister, and I immigrated to Brooklyn, NY, on October 31st 1983, when I was at age of seven years old. I can recollect that day very well because it was my first time ever experiencing cold weather and Halloween. The kids in the neighborhood were throwing eggs at each other and at cars passing by for fun. I was in total amazement, because I thought that people only ate eggs and in my culture I was taught never to throw food. I also encountered my first taste of racism when the children in the neighborhood laughed at my accent; they would “say slow down, you speaking too fast, we do not understand what you saying, why don’t you get back on the bananas boat and go back to your country.” This was embarrassing and very hurtful. I tried to fit in so I started to change my accent in order to sound like an American. I started elementary school where I was introduce to so many different ethnic groups of children, which made me feel much more comfortable about living in America. After a year, my mother, sister, and I moved out of the over crowed apartment which we shared with my extended family.
When we moved to this new neighborhood I was very excited to start school so I could meet new friends. Junior High and High School were challenging and a learning experience for me. It taught me how to be responsible and dependable. I graduated from George Wingate High School in 1993; shortly after graduation I continued my education by attending Hunter College, where I majored in Liberal Arts. After taking a long break from school I decided to transfer to New York City College of Technology, where I am now pursuing a degree as a Humans Services major. While a staff member holding the title of Custodial Supervisor of the Building and Grounds Department. Since I was in Junior High school, I can remember myself always hanging out in the Guidance Counselor’s Office in between my classes, asking all types of questions about their job as a counselor. I was intrigued by their personality, and their willingness to help everyone that came to their office. They had a great attitude toward their jobs, and all the children loved them. The counselors made me feel very comfortable around them. They motivated and inspired me to pursue a career as a counselor. As time passed, I decided to venture into the field of Human Services. I have such a strong passion and love for people and children. I believe if everyone would come together and help one another the world would be a better place to live in. I consider myself to be a leader and a positive role model for everyone around me. I have a lot of leadership qualities, am the kind of person that likes to have control of any situation; not the situation controlling me.
Which I enjoy doing, It makes me feel good knowing that I have people that depend on me for guidance. I am one that takes pride in my career. I am ambitious, open-minded, and self-motivated. I am always willing to go the extra mile for people, without expecting anything in return. I have a lot of respect for myself as well as others. Which is why as I research more about the Human Services field I am gaining a better understanding of the field and now I know that I am moving in the right direction towards my career path. I feel like I can relate to the Code of Ethics, because I already live by most of the codes in my everyday life. This is how I know that I have chosen the right field for me. I have always been intrigued by infants and toddlers. Since I was growing up I always wanted to work with children. When I was younger I envision myself as a pediatrician but as time pass that became a phase in life. But my love and passion for children is still in me. This is why my goals and motivation are to open my own daycare in the near future. I have a soft heart for children especially the ones that have been abused. They are so innocent and oblivious to the problems and the dangers in the world. After witnessing child abuse and the neglect of so many children in our society it made me realize that I am needed in this field because the government continue to blame the problems on loop holes, which to me are all excuses. “Prevent child- abuse was established in 1992 to build a nationwide commitment to preventing child-abuse.” (www.preventchildernabuse.org/). But yet the rate of child-abuse is high, I believe that children should be provided with a safe environment and the right to be nurtured and loved not abused. Many people are not aware of the different form of child abuse, like neglect and mistreatment, sexual, physical, verbal, and emotional.
As Human Services Professional there are signs that you would have to be aware of. Which is why I decided to work with infants and toddlers they cannot defend themselves from their abuser. I believe that the Movement for the law on child abuse has to buckle down and take these matters very seriously with in the last couple of years, but yet according to National Child Abuse statistics “every year 3.3 million reports of child abuse are made in the United States involving nearly 6 million children.” (www.childhelp.org/pages/statistics). According, to prevent child-abuse “the turbulent economy and the budget cuts that has come with it threaten to derail efforts to prevent child-abuse. However, Human Services Professionals are very aware of these issues which is why they are working on child abuse prevention programs in order to educate Human Services professionals with skills so they can identify signs of child abuse and how to handle such cases. According, to Safe Horizon “Becoming more aware of child abuse can help save more young lives.” (www.safehorizon.org.com). “Four children die every day in the United States as result of Child abuse and neglect.”(www.safehorizon.org.com). This is a growing population, which is why Human Services Professionals play an important role with children; they are the voice and the savior for the innocent and helpless children. Since the age of 18, I have always envisioned myself as owning a daycare because of my love and passion for children. I am inspired to pursue my career as Human Services Professional.
I am more motivated to open my own daycare because just the idea that am going to have the opportunity to have a positive impact on a child’s life would be a dream come true. I am keeping the faith that within the next ten years after I graduate I will have a successful career owning at least three daycares, married, blessed and happy. I also intend to get more involved in child abuse prevention programs as well as devoting some of time to helping people that are less fortunate than myself. I was very excited when I learned that we had to do a professional essay, I kept trying to understand the significant of this assignment and how it relates to Human Services, but as I continue to write this paper it became very clear to me. I never realized the kind of person I am and my purpose in life which is really to help people that are in the need of help. It also helps me realize that I have a lot of skills and characteristics that relate to Human Service’s Code of Ethics. I am now convince that Human Services is definitely the right field I want to be involved in. However, before writing this paper I was undecided of what client population I was interest in working with, but now it has become clear to me that my gift is helping people, but my focus is child-abuse. I believe that the children are our future leaders and if I start saving the children we may have a brighter future. According, to Safe Horizon “nearly 80% of children who die because of abuse and neglect are younger than five years old.” (www.safehorizon.org.com), which is why we need to work harder on saving our children’s lives.
Citations
(www.preventchildrenabuse.org/)
(www.childhelp.org/pages/statistics)
Brian N. Baird, (2011) The Internship, Practicum, and Field Placement Handbook
