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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 an...
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San Francisco Pride

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Happy Monday! Here goes another week!

Yesterday was the annual SF Pride Parade. While I didn't attend the parade, I saw parts of it as I was walking towards the bus stop to go to another event. When I came back to Downtown San Francisco later that evening, clean-up crews were sweeping the sidewalks and taking down street barriers.

As I continued wandering San Francisco's Union Square area, I couldn't help but notice how the place was decorated. Above me, rainbow flags flew from windows, light posts, and flag poles. Different stores had unique signs and displays commemorating the weekend (which I doubt would be found anywhere else, except maybe New York). For instance, The Body Shop had a window display where its soaps were arranged according to the colors of the rainbow. Another store, Lush, had a sign in front of its store which read, "Support the Respect for Marriage Act". Inside the Westfield San Francisco Shopping Center, there were Pride Weekend displays in front of stores like Nordstrom.

It was amazing to see this support towards the LGBT population. While I'm sure there are other places that are just as accepting, I have yet to hear of another city rally around this community as much as San Francisco. I mean, even the SF Giants baseball team has contributed by releasing its own "It Gets Better" commercial against LGBT bullying. The Bay Area is really a special place because of its diversity and tolerance, and I can't help but think of how lucky I am to be living here.

Comments

  1. VikieJune 28, 2011 at 5:12 AM

    I'm originally from Sacramento and spent a lot of time in SF. It warms my heart to hear about how the businesses there are rallying in support of the LGBT community. I now live in a small Eastern KY town and most of the LGBT people here are on the downlow. It's so sad. There was a Pride festival about 75 mi west of where I live and it paled in comparison to the events I've been to in CA.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Cheap Social WorkerJune 30, 2011 at 11:33 PM

    Living in the Bay Area I sometimes almost forget that there are other parts of the world, and this country, that are not as accepting of diversity. We can only hope that this will continue to change with time.

    Thanks for visiting my blog!

    ReplyDelete

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