I am the oldest of four children. My parents are immigrants from Mexico who have been living in the United States for about thirty years. I am the first member in my family to attend a university and graduate with a bachelor degree in social work from Sacramento State. I have also been the only member to continue my education and I am currently a master student in the social work department at Sacramento State. I am very proud of my family and of my accomplishments and now that I am working on my masters degree I am aware of the necessities of my community and therefore, I would like to assist the Latino community in anything that I can.

I am currently involved in an internship at the Yolo Family Service Agency that has helped me identify my next step in my career. I would like to work with as many minorities as I possibly can but I would like to focus on the Latino community. By being bilingual I would be able to help not only English speaking clients but I would also help Spanish-speaking clients. By interning at this current internship has given me the opportunity of translating information for a Spanish speaking parenting class involved in CPS and also translating information for the agencies monthly newsletter. I believe that being bilingual will allow me to help a larger population. In my internship I am involved with the Latino community and I co-facilitated a Spanish parenting class. By working with the Latino population I have discovered that there is a great need for bilingual social workers and I want to be one of them.

Like many other children in the United States whose parents migrated to this country for a better life I had to become a translator at a very young age. I am fluent and proficient in both Spanish and English. I had to learn English at school and try to keep up with the rest of the native speakers. I had to help my parents communicate with those who did not speak Spanish. I helped them communicate with cashiers at the store, teachers, operators, social workers and even doctors. My parents have tried to learn the language but on occasionally I am still asked to help them translate. At my current internship I am in charge of completing the Spanish intakes and I provide mental health services for the Spanish speaking community. I have also found that there is not a lot of information for our Latino community that has been translated. Therefore, I have also taken the time to translate information that can be of help to the local Latino population. This helps them to be aware of the resources and opportunities that they have in their community.

A belief that I have held through out my life is that it is important to offer social services and provide options to individuals in order to empower them to improve their present situation and living conditions.  Social Workers have the important role to serve and advocate for individuals who need to be heard.  Through strength based practices, I believe we can improve quality of life so that individuals can be contributors in creating a better society for all. After graduating from the Masters Program in Social Work I look forward to working in various areas of the CPS Department. I am well aware that CPS is in dire need for qualified, caring case workers who can serve and meet the needs of diverse populations. I envision myself graduating and obtaining employment with CPS in the court services. I hope to have an even greater impact in the well being of children, especially on the Spanish speaking families, by working directly with CPS after completing my masters.

Currently, I am interning at EMQ Children & Family Services (EMQ). When I initially started to interning at EMQ I did not realize the impact we had on the families we serve. I take pride in that the agency’s main objectives are to promote family-centered programs that help children recover from trauma, severe depression, and thoughts of suicide. I believe that it is important to be in this position long enough to really learn about the resources that would help me empower families. Helping children that suffer from trauma, depression, and thoughts of suicide is a difficult task. However, I know that it is a rewarding experience when resources, information, and therapy are provided to those who need it most or when a family is helped through intervention. Sometimes families face obstacles because they are not aware that social services such as, counseling, medical, or even help with basic needs such as clothing, aid with utilities and transportation are available. This is the area that I believe will make a significant impact on lives of families. I strongly believe that through information, education, and therapy we can empower families so that they can protect and always put the welfare of their children first. 

I am one of two Spanish speaking social workers in the entire agency. Therefore, my role as an Intern at EMQ has had an enormous impact on families that I serve due to my bilingual skills. I am able to provide services and support to Spanish speaking families. While working with the Latino population I realized that they trusted me more than they other workers. When I asked the Latino clients personal questions they confided in me, especially when it came to their legal status in the United States. I felt that they had a connection with me because of the cultural connection and language. The Latino population that doesn’t speak English needs social workers to provide them with social services and resources in their native language. I also have come to realize that many working professionals that work in social services understand the Latino population. There are many misconceptions about the Latino community. I feel that there needs to be more representation on behalf of the Latino population among the social service professionals. There is an enormous need for Spanish speaking social workers that understand the needs in the Latino community. Being Mexican myself I have gone through some of those hardships and I know what it feels like to not have people understand my needs. My internship at EMQ Children & Family Service has given me a stronger reason to become a professional social worker who knows and understands the needs of the Latino community.

I am a proud Mexican-American woman. I come from a family of five, in which, my sibling and I are the first generation Americans. I belong to a very close family unit who taught me the importance and value of a family. I learned very early on in life to take on the role of assisting my parents with the language barrier. It began the day when my eighteen-year-old brother left the home to go to college and said to me, “ Now it is your turn to help mom and dad.” At the time, my mother was a housekeeper with a first grade level education and my father was a construction worker with a sixth grade education.

At the age of nine, I became the primary English-speaking interpreter for the rest of the family. My parents promoted the importance of pursuing a higher education. They wanted my two brothers and I not to experience many of the difficult struggles they went through in life. My admirable parents did everything in their power to put me through college at California State University, Chico, where I graduated with a Bachelors of Arts degree in Child Development back in 2003.

I began working with Early Head Start (EHS) in Butte County soon after graduation. At work I was the only bilingual Family Educator and therefore, the Spanish language was in high demand at work as well. I was assigned all the Spanish-speaking families plus English-speaking families. I tried to obtain as many resources for my Spanish-speaking families as I would for all my other families, but in reality, not as many exist for the obvious reason. My home visits were obviously conducted all in Spanish and I had to translate some of the paperwork into Spanish to make it easier for the families to understand the paperwork and developmental screenings. But the best experience I had working at EHS was being able to assist my Spanish-speaking families with breaking the language barriers, connecting them to community resources, or simply being present in their lives as a support or friend. It was at that point that I knew that I wanted to continue to be an advocate for my people.

I have the privilege to be the first of my family to attend graduate school. I wanted to pursue a career where I could reach out and help the different Latino communities. I was lucky enough to have found that here in the Social Work Program at California State University, Sacramento some of the positive attributes that I can contribute to the profession of social work are my strong desire to help improve people’s lives. I care about working with people and trying to make a positive difference in their lives. I want to continue to provide others with the resources and tools to assist them in becoming self-sufficient.

I obtained my Bachelors in Social Work on December of 2006.  I am a hardworking and motivated individual that has always understood the importance of striving to get to the next level.  My family has always emphasized a good work ethic and supported me with my decision to put other things in my life on hold until I have reached the position in school that I feel will prepare me for my career goal.  When I was in high school I did not believe that college was the right thing for me but I knew that I had to stick with it until I found something that I enjoyed and was successful in.  This was true and has paid off because I was able to graduate. Aside from the fact that some form of postsecondary education is considered essential to enhance intergenerational social mobility, the fundamental transformation of society from the Industrial Age to the Information Age, to my understanding will require increasing levels of education and training.  My true passion in the upward mobility of our human race is one other force that is driving to pursue a Master’s degree in Social Welfare.

I have always had a passion to work with people and I find working with people to be rewarding especially with my previous experiences with field placement in undergraduate and volunteer work.  Since my admittance to the Master’s program my career goals now begin with enhancing my clients’ potential and to meet the needs of my clients to the best of my ability.  I would like to work with families with little or no resources and limited knowledge about services, especially families who have just entered the system, as they are at higher risk.  I enjoy helping families find hope in the system, guiding them to better opportunities and providing them with enough resources so they can have a second or third chance in living healthy, successful lives.  Currently, my interest is in working with students and families in the educational system.  I am exploring school counseling, crisis intervention, and high school retention programs.  I understand the need in our communities for monolingual Spanish speaking families to have access to the same resources as everyone else. I am also interested in improving my skills in the Latino and Spanish speaking communities in order to better serve them.  I learned that even though I come from a very low economic background there are people who have it worse than me. Therefore, I am willing to give my all for the difference.  I am willing to learn, improve my skills, and expand my knowledge on the professional infrastructure to improve our community needs and advocate equal social mobility of the human race.

I have chosen my field of study because I would like to work with the underrepresented Hispanic population, and represent a voice for our children. Being a Hispanic myself, and growing up in a world that was difficult for my parents to understand, I find myself pondering how I could make it easier for them.  Having been immersed into multiple issues that affect many Hispanic families, I have been working on determining ways in which I can guide them to the community resources that have been established to assist them in this country.  Therefore, becoming a Child Welfare Social Worker will give me the opportunity to assist these families in need.

During the 2002-2003 school year, I volunteered as an Americorps member, which is a non-profit corporation for national and community service.  I became a part of a program called Project Scholars at Bellevue Elementary School in Santa Rosa.  Through this program, I was involved in tutoring four at risk elementary school students in reading and writing.  Throughout my tutoring sessions, I noticed the lack of parenting guidance and neglect the children were receiving at home.   This experience has thus sparked my interest in becoming a social worker.  My desire grew even more to work within the public child welfare system.

As an undergraduate student during the Fall 2005 and Spring 2006 semester, I interned with DHHS, Child Protective Services.  As a parenting educator intern during the Fall semester, I worked with both voluntary and involuntary parents that were involved in the Child Welfare system. Additionally, translated documents and revised the curriculum that was taught to the Hispanic parents, as it wasn’t equivalent to the information that was provided to the English-speaking parents.  During the Spring 2006 semester, I interned with CPS, Adoptions.  As an Adoptions student intern, I assisted with conducting home visits with families that were the foster parents of the child and interested in adopting that same child.  I was responsible in assisting with any issues or concerns the family may have been experiencing throughout the adoption to facilitate the process.  I have also interned with DHHS, Child Protective Services, as an Emergency Response worker.  As an Emergency Response worker, I was responsible for investigating complaints of child abuse, making assessments of the family’s needs for services, making referrals to other CPS programs or community programs, removing children from high-risk unsafe abusive situations, and continuing ongoing investigation after removal of a child to determine if a child can be safely returned home. 

I will be interning with DHHS, Informal Supervision this Fall 2007 and Spring 2008 semesters.  I will be working directly with families and case management.  Through this program, I will be offering families that are at high risk of having their children removed from the home, intense services.  It is a preventive program that will allow me to work directly with families to see what services they will benefit from.  My past and current internship have provided me with extensive experience that will assist me in developing my professional self as a child welfare social worker.  It has exposed me to families that are currently in the system, both voluntary and involuntary clients.  It has also made me aware of the many community resources that are available to assist these families, to strengthen them and build partnerships with.  Upon completing school, I plan to work for DHHS Child Protective Services.  My career objective in social work is to assist abused and neglected children by advocating and providing justice on their behalf.  This career objective fits within the ethics of the social work profession in which I will be promoting social justice and change for the underrepresented population, primarily abused and neglected Hispanic children.