Donnette Pereira Prof. D. Quinones HUS 1207- Human Services Seminar Professional Essay Assignment
2/24/2012
“People would forget what you say. But they will never forget how you make them feel…” –Maya Angelou (Worth Repeating: More Than 5,000 Classic and Contemporary Quotes (2003) by Bob Kelly, p. 263).
My name is Donnette Pereira, from Trinidad living and working in New York, USA. Reflecting back on my childhood, my parents always figured I would become a Veterinarian, because of a desire to care for all the stray animals in my neighborhood. My parents saw this as a sweet deed, but also as a slight problem to them with the constant additions of animals to our home. Even though I still love animals dearly, people grew to intrigue me a little more. I became a kindergarten teacher and taught for approximately five years. I resigned from that position and began working with the private sector as a billing clerk and a telephone operator. Still yearning for more when I came to the United States I started evening classes as a certified nursing assistant and was successful. The fact that I have chosen to reside thousands of miles away from the homeland, is a testament of my adventurous spirit. I came to this country to broaden my horizons, professionally and personally.
Looking back there were many influences for me to pursue this profession, but I never considered working as a social worker, and I was doing it directly and indirectly providing some form of service or services to someone or animals.
A human services worker covers a broad field and requires you to have a loving and giving heart. In this field you are constantly demonstrating an understanding the ethical basis for human service practices with individuals, groups and communities, as well as commitment, confidentiality, self-determination, and the basic rights of individuals and groups from diverse cultures. One can make a difference and can be a voice for the forgotten population with no two days of work the same because of the dynamics of this field. You are also always guaranteed a job in this profession because you become a ‘Jack of all trades’.
We always strive to model healthy behavior, including the fact that we are humans and need support from our peers. I believe it also teaches us the game of life, not only by working directly with people but with various cultures and diversity.
My decision to become a human services worker, stemmed from my desire to motivate and encourage individuals to grasp the opportunities that life has to offer, in the most effective ways possible. My natural love for man prompts me to want to share my life’s perspective with others, and to learn from them too through word and deed. A job as a human services worker offers the best possible chance for me to so do, thus my current academic position.
I possess excellent interpersonal and communication skills. I seem to have the knack to detect human feelings. Oddly enough, I am drawn to individuals who experience difficulties, as I am always willing to assist wherever and whenever I can. I remember as a child, I displayed caring qualities. I was always the one to bring home stray animals and I cared for them thoroughly. Everyone thought that I would study to become a veterinarian. I used to think of the reasons for people to abandon animals and wondered how they felt to know that someone else was caring for the pets they once called theirs.
As time progressed, I recognized that my interest in human beings became just as strong. My recollection takes be back to the times when I would observe children at play and thought about why the leader of the group emerged as leader and what factors influenced the others to follow. It was amazing to me, the various paths that were chosen by those individuals, to work out their differences – compromise, confrontation, fights or by simply giving way to the most daring of the group. Therefore, I think that through the type of intervention human services workers perform, I am able to satisfy my need to explore the full spectrum of social behavior, whether they meander or skilfully and meaningfully navigate the corridors of life, with me gleaming ‘knowledge’. I am not sure that I have one special or specific client population that I would rather work with. If I had to choose though, I would work with any of the following three groups –adolescents, the elderly and the criminal justice system.
Adolescents are at a very crucial stage of their lives. They are still children in many ways, yet they experience adult realities, such as the hormonal induced bodily changes. This clientele can benefit from my interaction, as I am able to be empathic and I am an excellent listener and can communicate with them at their level. The problem solving relationship between the human service worker and the client is that I can see things from their point of view and relate to them at the degree that they would most likely appreciate. Consequent to my encounters with these clients, I would hope that they would be more progressive, energized and ready to accept the impact of social, economic, political, biological and environmental factors on individuals and their communities and they will be able to effectively handle daily issues that confront them in the future.
I would be able to be an effective worker, as I would have gathered more interpersonal skills; prevention and intervention skills; administration skills; research skills and advocating community organizing and policy management skills. This knowledge of human behavior would help to explain the rationale behind many of their actions, while gathering that knowledge through observation and experience. The twilight of the elderly years sometimes make it difficult to understand and deal with the elderly, I believe that I have the ability to deliver the appropriate kind of care, compassion, patience and to relay information in a way that will leave them inspired and comforted, with the idea that the generations behind them are truly indebted for the posterity they have secured. As a child, my early societal connection with the elderly was always there, because in the seventies in Trinidad and Tobago, it took an entire village to raise a child. It was a tradition for the elderly in the village to have an input into the lives of the younger generation. I had quite a few solid influences by some of the elderly names I can still recall, including Ms. Nimblet, Ms. Edith and Mr. James.
Persons from the criminal justice system are those that I have compassion for. They have not been able to capture the sweetness that life can bring for extremely long periods of their lives. I almost feel a bit of guilt for having the chance to capitalize on my freedom, to live this life as I am able to. I think that I can be quite efficient, as a human services worker, as it relates to this particular client population. I can reach out to this population in a manner that would be meaningful, as I have knowledge in victims’ rights and the criminal justice system. The perspective that I have of life seems to be unique of sorts. I can share my thoughts and ideas of life and use my understanding of the interdisciplinary concepts of practice, community resources and cognitive behavioural approaches in order that persons may be sufficiently stimulated to want to reach out to seek the bounties of life.
My interaction with these populations would enhance the body of knowledge of human behavior that I have been acquiring through my experiences. The benefit of this knowledge should help me to better understand cognitive behavioral approaches to the needs of individuals, which in turn should assist in the decisions that I make about the degree and intensity with which I would perform as a human services worker.
I expect to complete an Associate’s Degree program by 2013. Once I have done this, I will be working to attain a Bachelor’s Degree in Human Services and already employed as a counselor or social worker. I would hope to collaborate with the legal, social welfare, and medical systems, formulating measures that would make the client population lives more meaningful. In terms of the ease with which they access services, the quality and quantity of that would be made available, the number, and organization of institutions to which these clients would be referred. After I have attained by Bachelor Degree, I will move forward to attain my Master’s in Social Work or Public Administration and Public Affairs also to be qualified as a Licensed Social Worker.
