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Pleased to share with you all that I finally got my degree in the mail and framed it so I'm gonna put it on the wall in my office. Augh thinking about all the effort it took to get this piece of paper kind of drives me insane but that's eurowestern academia for you. I am now a Bachelor of Social Work. Social sciences, you know.
My question for you all:
Are you in university/want to go to university? If so what majors are you most interested in?
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Ronnie :>
Congrats!! take a big break and rest u earned it
im currently going to college but im def thinking about uni im a bit worried about it cause its a big step but im trying atm for a bachelor's in criminology/criminal justice but according to my current prof i should bump it up to a masters
Aw thank you! I'm definitely trying to take it easy haha!
That's very cool! And yeah if you're really enjoying criminology it's definitely a good idea to go for the masters usually. It's scary in the debt sense but I can't imagine there's no work for criminologists? Up to you if you wanna work for a few years at the bachelor level, like me, or go straight to the masters! I just needed a dang break! Lmao.
by vergil; ; Report
akira
hey, congrats on the diploma-- you definitely earned it! i'm currently a uni student getting my master's of public health, so i'm back in the academic fray for the next year and a half oTL
would you ever want to go back for your master's or phd?
Oh man, I feel for you, I'm a bit scared of going for a Masters! But public health is a great field so I imagine it's at least interesting learning! What sort of courses do they have you take at that level? O: Besides the dissertation time and research. Are you going to do a dissertation?
I'm probably gonna work a few more years before I go for my Masters but I'd like to in the future. There's several different specializations you can take in Social Work when you do your Masters, like Mental Health or different population groups. Also where I live it's possible to get a Masters in Indigenous Knowledge which I could also go for, as I'm Indigenous myself and have taken a Lot of Indigenous studies courses.
by vergil; ; Report
all my kvetching about workload aside, i genuinely love my program! everyone in my cohort is incredibly motivated and came in with at least a few years of work experience, so there's super broad range of perspectives and areas of expertise!!
my classes have been a mix of stuff, but it's a lot of focus on program development, community needs assessment, healthcare system analysis, and some soft skills related to public health leadership-- the goal of the program is to prep people for work that ranges from governmental to NGO to philanthropic, so the idea is to focus more on systematic understanding than on any particular field, which i enjoy! my concentration in particular is focused on international health work, so the concentration-specific classes focus on cultural humility (not as cursed of a class as it sounds) and grantwriting, and there was a mandatory intro biostats course for everyone in the MPH program as well. overall, it's a lot of really high-level practical skills, which i'm having a ton of fun with ;3
i dunno if i'm going to do a dissertation, but i'm required to do both a practicum (200+ hour work experience over the summer with a public health org of my choosing) and a thesis, so i'm psyched for both! my practicum's going to be working with a local mobile health unit run in part by the emergency services department and i am still undecided on my thesis topic, but i figure it's gonna be good ;P
that sounds amazing, though!! what kind of work do you want to do for the next few years, and what would a masters-level program in Indigenous knowledge look like?
by akira; ; Report
Good to hear your classmates are friendly! That makes it so much easier to do well! Gotta take advantage of the study solidarity. :)
Wow! That sounds very cool! Community needs assessments were actually an alternate option for practicum for my degree! Because some Social Work positions are more activism and advocacy instead of therapy and counseling! That cultural humility class sounds right up my alley actually lmao. But international health sounds like a very interesting specialization. O:
And oh I think thesis and dissertation can be used interchangeably for the same thing a bit- I also meant the long ass paper you have to write haha! It's awesome that practicum is also part of it! I had to do 2 practicum already for bachelor's so I imagine if I did any Masters programs I'd also have to do that too! They're so fun though!! Like it's just nice to try out a field you're interested in and learn a lot.
Currently I'm working in substance use and recovery as a community-based counselor. I work with people who feel they need help with managing their use of substances, basically. Whether that means 100% abstinence or harm reduction is really case by case but my work is very client-centered and voluntary on the part of the participant. I work at a treatment center so I often refer people to our in-patient program and non-medical withdrawal management services. So I'll be doing this for a while I imagine! I like it a lot more than I thought I would but I'm happy with the environment and supports.
A masters in indigenous knowledge is about handling the social injustice and intergenerational trauma that came from colonization in my country. So the focus is on learning traditional indigenous methods of healing and culturally sensitive research methods. Basically, practicing anti-oppressive and anti-colonial social work for the betterment of the Huge indigenous population in my country. It's very appealing because it likely includes a lot of land based and practical teachings which is so cool. O:
by vergil; ; Report