It’s been too long, once again, since I have updated my blog. I have yet to really talk about my field placement, so I figure this is probably a good time to do it . . two months in.

As mentioned earlier, I am working at an adolescent girls’ group home in CT. One of the biggest things I have learned over the past few months is how out of touch I am with pop culture. Admittedly, I haven’t had a working TV for years, don’t really make it to the movies often, and my taste in music doesn’t necessarily coincide with that of mainstream tastes.

So what have I realized in the past few months? Well, among other things, I barely understand significant amounts of slang being used by the girls in the house, though they enjoy explaining their word usage to me. Media images and messages seem far more explicit (in every possible sense) than I would have expected. (And, here, I’d like to insert the fact that I’m commenting on this as an observation, not a judgment call of any type – I truly believe that some “shock value” allows art to push limits and further the boundaries of the observer’s experience). It’s also amazing (though not surprising) how much technology has become part of the adolescent social experience. Texting, IMing, and Facebooking permeate every second of their existences, and the number of misunderstandings and dramas that result from electronic communication compound their already-convoluted conversations with peers.

On the other hand, I have also been reminded of some things that seem quite universal. Among them, the girls seem to really enjoy having snacks made for them when they arrive home from school, or aren’t feeling well. And though I often seem not to understand the slang and messages contained within, the girls also seem to enjoy teaching me about their latest favorite songs, artists, movies, and so on.

All in all, I can say that now I’m (slightly) more hip than I was two months ago. Among other things, not a bad take-away from the first two months of my field placement!

After having been at my field placement for two months, I thought I'd comment on my intial reactions to the agency, as a whole. As mentioned earlier, I am at a group home for adolescent girls in Fairfield County, CT.

After having spent a decade working for Fortune 50 companies (and a hedge fund), I have been exceedingly impressed with The Agency, as a business. It has certainly defied any stereotypes I may have had about working for a non-profit organization.

Three key areas of the agency have led to my initial positive experience with The Organization:

• Strongly Run Organization: When people describe The Group Home, they likely discuss the organization’s mission or results rather than the business aspects, themselves. However, given my professional background, I thought this would be an appropriate (and possibly unusual) place to begin. Many people assume that Non-Profit organizations lack business acumen and professionalism, instead preferring to focus on the “fuzzy bunny” aspects of the organization (a description used frequently by one of my investment banker friends). However, The Agency seems to be impressively business savvy. With their successful annual birdhouse auction fundraiser and positive organizational culture proven to retain caring and experienced staff for years, they have the basis necessary to run a successful organization.

• Caring, Nurturing Staff: The dedication and caring demonstrated by the staff of The Group Home personify the extraordinary mission of this organization. I have never seen another workplace where the cultural attitude is truly selflessly “all for one, one for all” (to borrow a phrase from some well known “Musketeers”). What’s more spectacular, perhaps, is that each current staff member seems to have given buy-in to this notion. The nurturing environment created through the open communication, dedication, and perseverance of the staff forms the basis for The Agency's healing setting.

• Welcoming House: The Agency’s warm and inviting house also serves as a strong foundation for the organization’s success. The safe environment invites its inhabitants (and guests) to relax, enjoy a snack and good conversation while serving to recreate a family home environment. On a warm Saturday morning in spring, upon my first visit to The Group Home, I was greeted by the scent of fresh baked muffins, music, and girls lounging around enjoying the weekend. Every one of my senses was immediately excited by the comfortable, welcoming environment and the possibility of being a part of The Organization's community.

Overall, I have enjoyed my (brief) time interning with The Agency, and am extremely impressed with the strong set of assets that allow it to wholly serve its mission.

As mentioned in my last post, I have been hesitant to post about my field placement due to a really rather unexpected reaction I experienced after the starting work.

First of all, I should start by saying that I *love* my field placement. It is the work I wanted to do with a population that interests me in an agency that has an ideology that strongly matches mine, people who are fabulous to be around, and the greatest supervisor. I really am in my dream job (and though I have said that in the past when starting new jobs, it isn't a sentiment I would have expressed over a month into the work). I can actually see myself (hopefully) being associated with this agency for years to come (in some capacity). So, where am I and what am I doing?

I’m working in a “PASS-level” adolescent girls’ group home in Fairfield County CT, which has a wonderfully relational and individualized approach to working with the girls. For my field placement, I work 21 hours a week (officially, though I seem to spend much more time by the end of it).

So, if I love my field placement and it’s my (current) dream job, what was throwing me off balance? Apparently the shock if working in a highly nurturing environment where I am invited to sit down to a formal dinner with a table full of other people, not to mention the general warmth of the home, was just a little too much for me. I suddenly found myself wanting to go running back to the familiarity of financial services. Not that I didn’t love my new environment, but boy was it posing some frightening and new challenges for me. I longed for the fast paced (and cold?) work environment to which I had grown accustomed. I also missed some of the business side of the work, itself. This, however, was quickly rectified. I talked to my agency and asked if I could become involved with some of the fundraising or business aspects of the agency (for which I would volunteer my time beyond the 21 hours of clinical experience I get each week). I was promptly invited to be on the fundraising committee (where I am able to contribute my professional network). I have, also, been able to be involved with other aspects of the agency that allow me to use my knowledge and skills gained over my past two (brief) careers. This has given me a chance to feel as if I'm contributing important and unique knowledge of my own too.

At this point, I feel like I’ve regained some sense of balance, and I’m really enjoying the change of pace. I’m sure I’ll likely stumble several more times as I hit moments of panic about being in a nurturing environment, but I also realize that I am extremely fortunate to be working in my dream job at the moment!

A quick note, and another apology for a sparsely populated blog as of late. I have been on an interesting roller coaster ride since my field placement started over a month ago, which I will post more about shortly. I wanted to have a little more of a sense of balance (with regard to my schedule and my life) before posting anything about my placement. I have, however, been updating the articles linked from my blog (to the right), and I encourage you to check back regularly to see what new articles have been linked. There are quite a few interesting (random) articles there.

If any of you have an interest in the topic of blogging for Social Workers, there is an interesting article here. It also (briefly) references the Silver Schools' student blogger project!

It has been some time since I have written a post, and I apologize for my tardiness. My semester is now in full swing with my field placement, classes, and life speeding up drastically. Though I’m enjoying the beautiful fall weather, I’m in denial that it will be followed by another winter. (My true hope is that another summer is just around the corner, though experience and knowledge tell me otherwise). With that said, I have been searching for something interesting to share . . preferably with a good dose of levity. Unfortunately, levity seems to have been too been too high of a bar. After two weeks of pondering, I’ve decided to share some random thoughts instead.

A few weeks ago, a family friend started his freshman year of college and asked if I had any advice for freshmen. It was an interesting question because I was a college freshmen 13 years ago, and yet I find myself starting yet another career path and feeling, in many ways, like a freshmen again. (Granted, this time I have significantly more experience and less fear.) I realized that my advice to the freshmen family friend is equally valuable to me at this point in time.
This advice consisted of several separate pointers that I developed during my time in undergrad, and handed out every time a freshmen asked what advice I had (a more common question than one would think). And now, in a way, I’m both handing it back to myself, and passing it on to any of you who care to hear it.

1) Get involved. Don’t allow yourself to become so engulfed by academics that you miss the friendships, experiences, and opportunities offered by University environments.

2) Don’t miss it. Life speeds up as we age and time seems shorter every year. It’s worth trying to notice life as it happens because before you know it, you’ll be graduating (again).

3) Enjoy being a beginner. This is great advice for both college freshmen and for myself. I tend to like and expect to be in control and to be an expert. This mentality, however, comes at the cost of truly enjoying being a beginner. It’s worth remembering that there is a beauty and wonder to being new at something for a while.

4) Live by your own rules. Enjoy classes and clubs that interest you. Don’t spend all of your time chasing a major, career, classes, etc that others tell you to pursue. Figure out where you want to go, and make it happen.

Well, that’s the advice. It’s good to have it written down for my own future reference, and perhaps something in there will resonate with some of you.

This is going to be an amazing semester! All of my classes interest me (as opposed to certain past degrees during which, at times, I was merely going through the motions). My largest class this semester has 9 students, magnifying the opportunity for students to easily share their personal experiences – an environment that is deliberately being fostered by each professor.

I think the Grief, Loss, and Bereavement class will be particularly interesting, if intense. It really provides such an opportunity to discuss parts of life rarely (comfortably) addressed by our culture. When my step-mother passed away several years ago, it suddenly became clear to me that people had no idea how to interact in a time of grief. A startling number of those around chose to disappear from sight after the funeral, seemingly lacking the appropriate words or actions (or ability) to collectively deal with the loss. Then, last spring, one of my MSW classmates and I started discussing the HBO series, Six Feet Under. How brilliant! A show that addresses loss and death as a normal phase of human existence!

I wanted to learn more, and am glad to be enrolled in this course. During the first class, we did several participatory exercises including reading individually meaningful lyrics, poetry, or prose about loss. I read a poem, Death is Nothing at All, which I found shortly after my step-mother’s death. Immediately prior to the reading, I had commented that I felt strangely unaffected by the death, though the intense emotion contained within my voice as I read the poem proceeded to take me by surprise. Amazing how much little things can teach us about ourselves! It was also interesting to hear the selections by other students, and their reasons for the choices. This semester looks like it will be filled with amazing learning experiences. . now to get to that homework . .

“Learning to be a social worker is learning to be yourself on purpose.”

That was the quote that greeted me on the whiteboard the first day of Policy class one year ago. The quote made sense to me at the time, though I’m now starting to understand the implication of the statement more fully.

On the first day of both my MSW and MBA programs, we were told (in each case) that the program would both affect and change us as people. Perhaps I’m just stubborn and dislike being told what will happen (and those of you who know me in person know that I’d rather just experiment and think through concepts on my own), but I can’t say that I thoroughly grasped or believed the statement in either case. Regardless, I now see the truth in it (hence I’m dedicating a post to the quote).

However, the ways in which each of these programs affect its students is completely different than the other. If “learning to be a social worker" involves "learning to be yourself on purpose”, than I’d suggest the parallel concept that business school, then, trains students in the art of “impression management.” (A term very artfully suggested to me by one of my former MBA colleagues who is, herself, considering a career switch similar to my own).

I think it’s powerful to have experienced and understood the respective personal changes learned through each of these two academic programs. Not that I’ve, by any means, mastered either, but rather that I can see the combination to be a strong one once fully learned.

Time flies when you’re having fun, right? Or, well, maybe time just flies? Either way, I can’t believe my classes start tomorrow. My summer of fun and relaxation is nearing its end. It has been a good ride, I must say, and as with all endings, a nascent adventure sits just around the corner.

I’m currently in Chicago visiting one of my best friends. In early July, I decided to spend my summer in the CT/NY area, and systematically turned down invitations from friends and family to travel all over the world. For a variety of reasons, however, I decided to cap my summer off with a short end-of-summer visit.

This vacation has been incredibly low key – long walks and conversation over decaffeinated skim-milk lattes. While traveling, I have enjoyed having the time and space to re-read Many Lives, Many Masters by Brian Weiss; a book written in 1988 by a psychiatrist about his first (and accidental) experience with past-life regression therapy (including his acquired insights into reincarnation and the purpose of physical existence). It is a book I thoroughly appreciate, as I have long felt that the information contained within its covers align closely with my own intuitive beliefs. I am not opening this as a forum for spiritual debate, but rather stating that it has been wonderful to have to time to consider the contents of this groundbreaking work.

As I ponder this book (and the meaning of individual lives, lessons, and purposes), I look forward to starting a new phase of the MSW program this week. I, particularly, look forward to the “Grief, Loss, and Bereavement” course that will be fulfilling my elective requirement this semester. My re-read of the book has certainly seemed to be well timed, and as the summer gives way to a new school year, I look forward to seeing how my thoughts develop through this semester.

Speaking of good friends and CSA Veggies . . The CSA (Community Sustained Agriculture) in which I have a share is located in Putnam County NY, and every Thursday this summer I have driven up to the Cascade Farm School to pick it up. If I'm going to drive an hour each way for my veggie pick-up, why not multi-task? Which friends do I have in Westchester County? Why, my Social Work classmates, of course!

So this summer, Thursday afternoons have turned into a (somewhat) regular gathering with a few of my classmates. As mentioned in an earlier post, one of the most fantastic surprises about the program has been the close group of caring, smart, like-minded people I have met through class. Last school year, all of our evening classes at the Westchester campus were held on Tuesday evenings, and we would finish class around 10PM. At that time, anyone who could make it would head over to Applebee's to unwind. During that time, our class became close. It has been fantastic to continue similar gatherings over the summer (at much more interesting establishments), and I look forward to the Applebee's visits this upcoming semester (which will take place following our Grief, Loss, and Bereavement course . . . and, I’m sure, it will yield some cheerful conversation afterward).

One of the unfortunate features of school summer vacations is that they are rarely bestowed upon adults. (With the obvious exception of teachers, professors, and the current mass of unemployed Finance Services people). I am a semi-occupant of that last category for a variety of hazy reasons. First of all, I technically quit my job, so I’m not sure I can call myself unemployed. Beyond that, I’m mid-career-change, and not currently looking for another financial services position (though that's subject to change in the future). Regardless, I think I’m trying to say that I was fortunate to have a summer vacation this year.

Granted, I’m not sure I exactly had two months “off.” I’ve been working on setting up my own business, and catching up on various other neglected areas of my life (such as in-depth house cleaning. Wahoo, exciting life here). I have, however, had the luxury of setting my own schedule this summer, which has resulted in the most personally satisfying and productive summer vacation of my life.

I decided to forego a summer of exotic international travel to hang around the CT/NY area. I’ve had ample time to see good friends, cook my locally-grown organic CSA veggies, and sit at the beach watching waves. I can’t even conceive of a more wonderful way to have spent my summer.

As the school year came to a close last Spring, it became evident that I needed to make various job changes for the sake of my own sanity. I decided to quit my investment management job at a hedge fund due to a personality/environmental mismatch that was causing me a great deal of stress. Though I loved both lending and investing, I thought it best to consider taking a hiatus from financial services. (It is entirely possible that the hiatus may end up being permanent, though it’s a little too early for me to commit to that at this point in time . . or should I say that it's too early to admit that I want to commit to permanence? Does that even make sense to anyone other than me??)

Part of my decision to take a hiatus was to allow myself the weekday availability necessary to work at my top choice field placement this school year. I greatly enjoy adolescents, and wanted to work in a setting which would provide me an opportunity to be around them. When my advisor mentioned an opportunity to do my first field placement at a group home for adolescent girls in Fairfield County, I was quite interested. This field placement opportunity, along with my general state of unhappiness with my last work environment, caused me to decide upon the aforementioned hiatus.

In addition, I started to consider starting my own business as an MBA admissions consultant a year ago. Over the previous four years, I had helped numerous colleagues with the application process, and had received some complimentary feedback. I decided to formulate a “back-up” career plan for myself during the summer of 2008, as the economy’s stability started to wane. Out of this, my business (now called MBA Unlocked) was conceived. All of this is to say that along with school, my field placement, and my financial services semi-permanent hiatus, I am also working on launching my own business. Certainly never a dull moment!

Over the next 12 months, many career could go in one of several disparate directions. As to which path will win . . stay tuned.

My first evening of class was interesting, to say the least. I had skipped the orientation held before the class. This was mainly because my workday typically ended around 10 PM, and I was already having to make excuses to leave early in order to make it to my evening classes on time. At that point in time, I wasn’t yet ready to make a commitment to the career switch, and as miserable as I may have been at my job, I wasn’t ready to leave it a year ago, either. (I have since left that job, worked at another hedge fund, left that job also, and founded my own company. It has been a heck of a year!)

At any rate, I walked in to a beautiful cozy classroom surrounded by three walls of large windows, a large round table, and 9 classmates sitting in a circle (who over the course of a school year ended up becoming good friends). I had planned to walk in, sit by myself, not speak with anyone, take notes, decide the program was not for me, and walk out in silence. That was my way of anonymously deciding whether taking social work classes, even as a non-matriculated student, was “right” for me.

However, the moment I walked in (late, since I only semi-successfully extracted myself from work that evening) all of my classmates were incredibly friendly. I was coming from a workplace where no one bothered to say “hi, how are you” and no one would have cared had I volunteered that information, and suddenly I was in a room full of the most wonderfully friendly strangers! (And, being fairly friendly, myself, I couldn’t resist being drawn into the enthusiasm in the room).

I may have been incredibly scared by the prospect of being in “social work” classes (gasp, not *me*! I was a scientist, a business person, but not a social worker), but I adored my classmates and couldn’t wait to return the following week to a room full of people who said “hi, how are you” . . and actually cared to hear the answer! That was something I was used to hearing from close friends, but not future colleagues. Maybe I’m rambling right now. Maybe the magnitude of the contrast is lost if you, the reader, are not coming from the finance world. What I am trying to say, however, is that the classroom setting, the professor, and my classmates made me feel welcome and excited to be there in a way I hadn’t anticipated. At the end of the day, the subject matter and prospect of a career as a Social Worker did suck me in as much as anything else, but my overall experience was a wonderful surprise too.

By the end of the semester, I was hooked! Social Work School felt so right to me, and I was at home among my classmates. I officially enrolled before my second semester, and am now looking forward to attending full-time during my 2nd year in the Program!

Once my friends suggested enrolling in a class last fall, I started looking into various programs. I have several friends who were either social workers, or in social work school at the time, and each of them indoctrinated me on the reasons an MSW would be right for me. Reasons included flexible course programs and career paths, a socio-political ideology that matched my own, and the idea that an MBA/MSW could be a strong background in the non-profit world. (Boy, do my friends know how to sell me on something – it never hurts to mix the practicality of resume building with a passion for political policy). Once I started researching MSW programs around NYC and CT, it became clear that NYU’s program met my need for flexible night courses at multiple campuses, and also had a strong clinical focus. I was sold!

The next day, I called NYU’s part-time program and asked if I could enroll in a class (which happened to start the following week). I was encouraged by an advisor to start the part-time program as a non-matriculated student, and I ended up registering for two classes, Human Behavior I and Social Welfare Programs & Policy I, at the Westchester location (with classes being held at Sarah Lawrence’s campus).

Perfect . . I just needed to sneak out of work once a week, evade questions about why I was repeatedly leaving before 10 PM (gasp), and fight traffic on my way to Bronxville. Was it worth it? Absolutely! Class night was the greatest joy in my life last year – four hours for myself with people I respected studying something that actually (for the first time in my life) truly interested me.

Welcome to my MSW blog. I should probably introduce myself, or at least tell you how I became a social work student. It's certainly not a discipline I ever thought I’d study. In fact, as I sit here looking forward to my 2nd year in NYU’s 3-year part-time program, it's hard to imagine that exactly a year ago, I had no plans to enroll in social work school. What a difference a year makes!

Of all of the descriptors people have used to explain my career path, I never in my wildest dreams would have imagined “social worker” would ever have been one of them. Engineer? Yes. MBA? Yes. Investment Manager at a hedge fund? Yes. But a social worker??? If anything, I set out to be a doctor when I was in high school, and my career track seems to have been hijacked many times since then.

After making the “right” career choice to go into engineering, and then getting a full-time MBA a few years later, I ended up working in financial services. The challenge and prestige of financial services lured me to it, I won’t lie. (I am a Midwestern girl, and the idea of working in New York City in financial services held its own mythical appeal . . who didn’t read Tom Wolfe’s “Bonfire of the Vanities” and dream of being a “Master of the Universe”? Or watch the movie ‘Wall Street’ and convince herself that Gordon Gecko wasn’t “that bad”? . . . and as much as I wish I could sit here and say “Just Kidding" the truth is that it was, at one point, my dream career). That said, I think I’ve learned my lesson. I think . .

As much as I enjoyed the challenge of the work, and managing my own investments, I began to realize how bare the work felt to me. I found myself enjoying my 3 hours a week of volunteer work with children (and the 10+ hours of preparation I was putting into it) significantly more than my day job. I eventually started to feel a strong pull toward working with people in a more direct manner, which could no longer be ignored. Ultimately, I missed the idea of working with people in order to make the world a better place. A cheesy cliché, perhaps, but after several challenging and successful careers, I’ve come to realize that I want to spend the rest of my life doing work that’s personally meaningful.

So, that explains that I believe engineering, financial services, and perhaps even medicine were the wrong careers for me. How did I get to social work?

Really, it was all quite accidental, though it has also proven to be one of the best things that has ever happened to me. After speaking with friends who suggested that I consider registering for a night course to see if (yet another) career change may be in order, I enrolled in a few classes. And, as they say, the rest is history.