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Showing posts from June, 2014

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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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The Best/Worst Graduation Speech I've Ever Heard

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You know it's graduation season when your social media feeds are inundated with videos/text from various graduation speeches. A number of well-off engineers I know shared this particular speech, which resulted in strong, conflicting mixed reactions on my part. I haven't felt this uncomfortable reading something since the Any Chua Wall Street Journal article . Here's a copy of the "speech" here: Dear graduates: Don’t follow your dreams (A commencement speech for the mediocre)    I can't decide if this is the best or most arrogant commencement speech I have ever read. Basically, author Tim Donovan states that people should err on the safe side when making career decisions and not pursue non-financially lucrative dreams because they will most likely not succeed. In his opinion, it's better to live a stable life than risk failure, and that passions should be relegated to hobby status. To a certain level, I can understand where Mr. Donovan is coming from.
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Obama Says He Wants More Young People To Become Social Workers

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It's been a while since I've made a social work related post!  I'll try to do a better job of throwing in social work related material among my product reviews and shopping/deal/travel articles.  I am still a social worker after all! --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Nice feel good article from  Social Workers Speak , but certainly easier said than done: Obama says he wants more young people to become social workers | Social Workers Speak Let's face it, despite the increasing demand for (geriatric) social workers, there is decreasing incentive for students to go into the social work field.  In this economy, why would a practical student take on loads of debt to get a graduate degree in a field with low returns? If we want more social workers, then we need to provide financial incentives for students to enter the field.  For me, that would include reducing student loan debt (which President Obama
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Thank you, LUSH Cosmetics!

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I love getting mail! As mentioned in my previous post, I won LUSH's #freshnewlush contest during Generation Beauty .  My prizes came in the mail, and I thought I'd share some pics and thoughts on each product! LUSH sent me 6 full-sized products!  So generous of them! LUSH sent me a total of six products: African Paradise Body Conditioner, Zeste Medium to Short Hair Gelly, D'Fluff Strawberry Shaving Soap, Granny Takes a Dip Bath Bomb, and bar soaps in Parsley Porridge and Mangnificent.  Since LUSH products tend to have slightly shorter expiration dates because they have no preservatives, I went ahead and opened them up! Granny Takes a Dip Granny Takes a Dip is an invigorating bath bomb with lemon oil, ginger, and pepper.  Its psychedelic look reminds me of a bubble gum flavored popsicle I used to eat as a kid!  I still need to clean and disinfect my bathtub before I try this out, but in the meantime check out this video of it fizzing here: Granny Takes a Dip
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Proactiv Skin Purifying Mask

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My skin was not in good shape last week. The combination of Amtrak/bus travel, lack of sleep, and new products tested on my face has caused me to break out so badly that I was questioned at the dinner table, despite wearing concealer. It was time of an intervention, even if meant a mask so I could eat my dinner in peace. Going through my Generation Beauty haul, I found a sample of Proactive Skin Purifying Mask. I've pretty much struggled with acne for as long as I could remember. My childhood consisted of numerous trips to the dermatologist, tubes of various creams smeared on my face, and bottles of antibiotics down my throat. Recently, I've gone as far as having costly, painful, but effective acne extractions to keep the pesky red bumps at bay. Given the cost of acne facials and topical antibiotics (which I must pay in full thanks to my health plan), I've been looking into lower cost over-the-counter options. The Proactiv mask seemed promising because it uses sulfur,
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Much Needed Self-Care: Generation Beauty 2014

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Wow, am I behind on posts!  I think for the sake of keeping at least one blog somewhat updated, I will just write here from here on out!  I may consolidate posts from other blogs in the future, but for now I will just link to them as needed. It's been a rough couple of months, mentally, physically, and financially.  After an emotionally draining trip to the Philippines I promised myself that I would not cancel any of my planned trips for this year, even if it meant a big dent in my bank account.  One of those trips happened this past weekend, when I attended Ipsy's Generation Beauty in Los Angeles with one of my good buddies! Generation Beauty is essentially a cosmetics convention with workshops, branded booths, and meet-ups with popular beauty bloggers and youtube personalities.  While I wear makeup and spend way too much money at Sephora and Ulta, I consider myself a novice when it comes to anything cosmetics related.  I figured this convention would be a learning expe
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