alesso

This conversation is everything wrong with academia and those who profess to encourage and exhort learning and public discourse but do so only until their personal threshold is crossed and all their "respect" alarms warnings go off. Once in awhile you get the person who always thanks you for your participation--but still no honest evaluation or a "I will consider all you say . How interesting." Frankly, you both have made yourselves suspect. I am just coming from the Me-Generation Madonna school of life perspective. I am a product of the 80's and that makes me a SME-- Subject Matter Expert-- on taking oneself too seriously! It reeks of childhood issues.lol Did no one ever tell you that you were valuable and did not have to earn worth ? I am probably less intelligent than both of you but IMHO we do not need to "sell" good information or fight its battle as if it were a fort under attack. We present what we know with confidence and proper support and the rest is out of our hands. You have a choice here. You need to ask yourself why in the world you would use this time from your life doing this? What is there to be gained? Who do we serve? Would my mother find me embarrassing? Does this prove the students right in their comments on Rate My Professor? The best way to move past those who seem to arrogantly challenge us, we believe are wrong and are unaware of just who they are dealing with is to remember that Marx was pretty sure of himself too! it is silly to die on these hills and fight for the old while hip hop and STEM dollars make this as quaint and relevant as the Amish. I had always been told that books are alive. The information is always in the present. This was information from 30 years ago given to me by Miss D- a 7th grade English teacher who made me diagram sentences and recite poetry. She is dead and has no thoughts on the current media. <3 chillax.

Does it matter if it confidential?

Just a thought for you. I am 50 and I have always had a passion for helping others and slowly I started to meet up with women in bad situations to help mentor and encourage- that led to their teens and now I am interning with the mentally ill. The volunteer hours in counseling /mentoring I thought would solidify that I was meant to do direct services but it actually led me to see the systems in place in a new way. The direct services helped me see that what I wanted to advocate for initially was pointless without other changes that were structural. I had no one in direct services agreeing and saying "go for it' so I thought maybe I was being an egotist. I mean all these other people cared just as much as I did and they didn't see it as significant. I started to research and there is a professor at Berkeley who writes on exactly all the things I feel strongly about and he teaches how to implement the change! I think my time in micro was critical in knowing what I wanted to do. I know you want to get it going but it saved me time in the long run and I have a solid focus. You have so much to draw upon and you could do so much to help. You could consider talking to those who are leaders in international social work (I know Berkeley has one of the leading professors in that area) and maybe gauge how it connects to your vision and experience that you have. It might be a direct hit. I would be cautious of getting into a direct service program emphasis with out any previous work with that population. Like I tell my children it isn't so much where you study it is who you study under. You are obviously meant to do big things and you should be matched up with the right people to help you get them done.

I am just really putting my application for Berkeley together. I am 50 and I live in the Antelope Valley. I am graduating in the Spring but I have been preparing for this for a lifetime. My GPA is 3.92. I am not sure if that will mean anything to Berkeley since it is from CSUB; not rigorous/ prestigious. I am interested in the MAP concentration. I have always told my children it isn't so much where you study but who you study under and one professor in particular has done research in all the areas I feel I need to know. I am looking at others but I am not sure if my husband will just move anywhere!! lol The five kids are grown. 3 have graduated college and two are at UCSB . If I show up there for anything my daughter will kill me! Hi honey can I go to college with you?

It is a tricky slope. There is also a humbling aspect as well. While we hold on tightly with a closed fist some elements we need to be able to be teachable in so many others. The main thing is that we are authentic. Sometimes I am authentic and rejected and it's because I got in the way of my project . Often that is because I am pretty sure I know everything I need to know and I really only want someone to tell me I am wonderful. hah That's not fun as I realize my ego closed a door rather than opened one. Your passion is contagious and wow congrats I am not even close to writing a book. I still struggle with anything over 8 pages!! That discipline is impressive to me even if the whole thing was a mess. I don't have anything I want to say or that I know enough about yet that would fill a book!!

Durkheim- Anomie more of the strain that came later but that is pretty much the go to theory for all abberant behavior. It is a reaction to not being able to obtain what one desires through normal means

I agree with the words of these other respondents,.good job and it all counts!! Maybe, I would stress the seven years of faithfully doing the services in the church and develop them a bit differently. That is if you try for the MSW or if you need to get a job to build a little more service experience. You don't need to apologize for being young..you have some good things on there. You seem to have used your time well so far. I am not sure how the experiences in college for you went and that might tell you if you are ready to jump into a MSW work. Were the opportunities haphazard or sought because it ties into what you want to do. Also if you are going to go for it and you want to write about your experience like its been said, embrace the good work you just did!! Find the quality you have displayed thru these experiences that is relevant to social work. I also have a lot of church volunteer work so I know what you did was far more important than the words "welcome desk" convey. The ability to integrate new people into a community by ignoring your fears of awkwardness and concentrating on how they are feeling is a mature act that not many are willing to do. Integration and inclusion is a huge issue in society I also know that when I consistently did something like that for a couple of years that I had an obligation to be there because quite a few people who had no other friends and who were a bit lost would count on me being there to help them and talk with them. Good luck

I was writing my scholarship statements last year and I called my son who is gifted in writing and asked how I should do it. His response significantly changed how I approached my statement and I received the department's scholarship as well as the one from the school I was leaving. He said "mom, just lay it out what you want to do. Clearly state your vision. Don't play games with it. It's ok if someone doesn't want to participate or fund your clearest explanation but if you cast one that is manipulative or tailored to meet their parameters then it is compromised. And frankly, I thought also. if I cant explain what I want without fear of rejection, then I am not ready to do it anyway. This was a check point.. . It was a little shaky as I have faith based desires that can be alienating. but I have never been so encouraged and filled with confidence after I found out that I had been given funding and community recognition for my work. .I now know that not everyone will be able to see the value in what I feel so strongly about as important, but there will be the right people who look at me and say..we want to help you get that done.

I just aw the date. I apologize if this was not needed.

I am a college CRLA certified writing tutor which doesn't mean I am James Joyces but I can recognize fundamental issues quickly. You didn't answer the prompt so I didnt get any further. The main benefit of the study of history is to dispel the illusion that people living now are significantly different from people who lived in earlier times. You discussed why it matter that we recognize that humans are the same by saying history repeats itself. You also give us a basis for that to be significant but you do not ever directly make the claim that this is because people are the same today as they were in the past.... That they were evil then and evil now. They are driven by greed then and nothing has changed now..they all still have blues eyes. You then do not state that these similarities which are demonstrated by all the rest you bring up as illustrations are why you do not believe that there is a significant difference. The wars are a symptom of the sameness but you can not state that war is fought today for the same reasons as it was in the past without bringing in your argument on why that is true. and by what basis has man cause it to happen then and again today. Dont forget what you are arguing. You write beautifully. That is what I saw as the problem and that would be a auto fail. . Just my observation. Read the prompt and look what you are to argue. I hope I didn't misread or that I have not helped I wrote quick.

It just so happens that I was just reading someones opinion about this topic one tab ago : ) Good luck. .

If it helps I was able to get a couple of larger department scholarships last year after someone helped me to see that what I thought was inspiring sounded common or complaining even. The wording to describe life has to be such that it begins with the outcome not the struggle. This is over the top but it makes my point: "An appreciation for quiet time was developed as I pondered equations during my two mile walk to school. That time is time I still take everyday to reassess the order of operations. It reminds me to be humble and check my work for errors. It is ok to have an error and to stumble. Being wrong doesn't mean someone is from the wrong side of the tracks. I am fearless when it comes to looking for the new solutions in a seemingly impossible situation. There is kindness in strangers and even when abandoned in a rail station I knew that the solution would be in the next smile of the first policeman I found. I am all bout finding the answer." If it doesn't have a point that it has equipped you and that it is exactly why they want to invest in you then don't put it. That's the formula that I have seen work.