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My name is Abi and I'm in the graduate school for the School of Social Work, concentrating on mental health.
I did my undergrad at the University of Minnesota and then I worked at a nonprofit in
Minneapolis for a year,
working with a lot of families and teen moms and
I really realized that I liked that
direct interaction with them. I just liked the variety and values that social
work possesses.
I wanted to stay in the midwest and I knew Madison had a great program.
I just looked up
general rankings of different schools to start, and I definitely looked at the
Field program and just the options of
incorporating field both years simultaneously with classes, I thought was a good set up
for the program.
I think field is probably the most valuable experience. Last year I was
placed at the mental health center in the Latino clinic, and then this year I am
and at Meriter Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.
seeing the progress from the first year to now, and having like breakthroughs
with clients and really gaining a better understanding of
situations in the real world, I think I like the most.
I generally go from one thing to the next.
Leave my house in the morning like eight-ish, I guess and then don't get home until
umm..
five or later.
I'm also doing some
research with
the psychology department here, so I
do that on Wednesday nights
and
I volunteer where I had my placement last year actually, at the mental health center still, so
I do that Thursday nights, so those make for very long days but,
it's very busy-I stay busy, that's for sure.
Advice I would say is don't be afraid to contact faculty and people in the
program. I think that
as an undergrad, especially going to a bigger school, I was intimidated
and a lot of times people were so busy that I was like-oh, they probably won't pay
attention anyway-they probably don't care-they have a ton of other things to do, but
I think a lot of the faculty here really want to portray the message that
they're accessible.
So I would say contact students,
contact faculty, and really just get a
better understanding of
what the university is like and what the school is specifically like.