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Tips for New Social Work Graduate (MSW) Students

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  Happy start of the school year! Perusing social media, I came across a NASW blog article called “Guide for the First Year Social Work Student”. This post provided lots of great information tailored for new undergraduate students interested in studying social work. I wanted to take that NASW post a bit farther and compile a list of tips specific to graduate students pursuing a masters in social work (MSW). In my opinion, graduate school is a completely different experience from undergraduate, so my hope is that these tips will serve to be beneficial. Tips for New Social Work Graduate (MSW) Students -Don’t worry about grades so much When I was in graduate school, one of my professors told a story about a straight A student who committed suicide several years after graduation. His point was that given the people we need to work with, we social workers need to focus less on being perfectionists (as demonstrated by obsessing over grades and test scores) and work on being empathetic and co
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A new beginning...

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Hello, and welcome to my blog! This blog is project I have been putting off for a while now, but how that I've started I hope that I can keep up with regular updates and practice my writing!

The main purpose of this blog will be to document by various exploits as a social work student and ultimately as social worker. Additionally, I hope to incorporate a number about different ways I save money. Given that I am entering a profession that is notoriously underpaid, buying things I want at the cheapest price possible has conveniently become a new hobby of mine. While the majority of my posts will pertain to these social work and money issues, I'm probably end up posting other random things as well. I like to keep my options open.

Anyway, I suppose I should talk a little bit about myself. I am currently in my final year of a two year MSW program. My subject emphasis is mental health, with a research interest in mental health issues among college aged students. My practicum is at a local hospital's inpatient rehab facility, where I do discharge planning for victims of stroke, traumatic brain injury, and other illnesses/accidents. I hope to work for a hospital or the federal government when I graduate next May.

In the little free time I have these days I pursue my other passion in life - music. I currently play percussion in a local wind ensemble and maintain participation in various musical ensembles from my undergraduate alma mater. During my lunchbreaks at practicum, I sneak into the patient dining area to practice piano or play for patients. When I have more free time, I hope to start taking music lessons again!

Well, I guess I'll leave it at that for now. Hope to post more updates soon!

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