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Hi my name is Kelly Ambrose
I'm a senior here at MacMurray College. I wanted to tell you a little bit about
MacMurray and the social work program . I'll start with
myself: I am forty-four-years-old
I am a mother wife and a nontraditional student.
I chose Mac Murray because
they have a social work program which was mostly what I was
interested in because my whole life growing up
I have always raised children
helped people, and being the in social work
field but without the degree. So
when I looked at MacMurray College it just seemed like the feasible thing to do and
the program seemed, really, like a
really good program.
MacMurray's social work program is a
very good program. The teachers here
are wonderful. I can't say enough about the
teachers here so his anything at all
that would be an incentive for someone to come here,
I would have to say the professors here are extremely
knowledgeable. They have so much to teach you. They are wonderful
and best part about them is when you have
problems with your family life the teachers are there for you
there very understanding and when something to arises in your life - most of us
know that happens all the time, they are willing
to go the extra mile to help you to get through it.
They don't just pass you off like a
piece of furniture - you are a human being and they have great respect for you.
And coming here has been
extremely wonderful. To me it's not just to school
anymore - its family. Great big family.
You've got the whole family backing you up
and it's a wonderful wonderful thing. So
if you're really wanting a good school where you feel like
you really belong, this is the place to be.
I do the Environmental Justice Council
which is gardening and environment.
And helping to reach out to lower income families in poverty
with food and other issues
We teach people how to garden and we raise food here
on the grounds and we take the food
to different agencies. With my internship
now I'm actually working with the Salvation Army
and they have their own food program as well as
having vouchers for the local food bank and redistribute to
places like the Salvation Army the local food back
women's crisis center, JACIL
and a lot of the other social networks that we have
here community to help people that are in poverty to help people feed
themselves so that when they do get their income,
the income can actually go for paying the bills
that's another great thing about
the social work program here is that
the network within the community its one great big network
learn about all the different agencies that are available out there
for the community which was really something I was extremely interested in
which led me here because in working with
families that I was helping with their children and
their families themselves we didn't really
I really didn't know to successfully help them
and it it was almost like a road block so to be able to come to the school
to get the education to learn about the things that I learned about
and to learn how to use the network and all the agencies and meet all the people
just have a huge network opportunity for social work
is it's really amazing its is just a wonderful program
"Tell me a little bit about your practicum experience and what that's
been like for you
developing as a professional" Just before I came here actually
wonderful news - I am interning at the Salvation Army,
here in town, I have actually been there since August - I started my Career
Experience there
back in August worked right on through the summer
and right into my practicum there and
I absolutely love it being able to
really work with the lower socioeconomic community and helping them
to resolve the issues that arise and
when they have serious dilemmas in their lives and
to them you know its tragedy no matter how big or small it is
because to them its just a major tragedy and being able to
work with that individual and really
try it use the social network to
resolve - to help them resolve their problem
is wonderful. And that's one of the
great things the program does - it teaches you how to empower other people
to be able to resolve their own problems to work towards fixing it themselves
and not just giving them what they need but to help them to do it
and given them the strength and ability to do it themselves. It's really wonderful
I do not feel that I would have
ever been able to do a
position like that without having had this experience
this whole experience has
really enabled me to have the professionalism
built into me that I needed to be able to do that, and I hope
I get better as I go, I'm sure I
will. I'm learning in progress which is what I love - the heuristic
behavior that we go through while we're here
things
critical thinking that you have to do it's very wonderful