Internship Progress

After tomorrow most of my trainings will be complete and I will be able to meet with my field placement supervisor. I will meet with her on January 5th to discuss what I will be doing and what hours I will be working. Since my internship will involve working with children and dealing with sensitive and confidential information, I will limit my discussions about my internship on the blog.

As part of my training I learned CPR, and First. I also have learned how help someone having a seizure. I have also learned about a technique called "Motivational Interviewing" which is used to help guide a client make the decision to change. Many of the trainings I have completed have been highly informative and will be useful in the field through out my career. I can honestly say that I am excited about this internship and feel I will learn a great deal.

Spring Semester

I received word over Christmas break that I will not be receiving any scholarships for spring semester. This saddens me a bit. However, my fall semester grades were not considered for the scholarships because the grades had not been submitted when the committee made the decisions. There were 55 applicants and only 19 scholarships awarded. My undergraduate GPA was a 3.2 and my first semester of graduate school GPA is a 4.0. I shall not let the lack of funding deter my efforts to obtain a 4.0 GPA.

I have been a bit stressed about how to finance my books this semester, as well as my classes. My tuition for spring semester is about $200 over what I have taken out for student loans. I do have about $200 dollars left on my FASA award that I can use to cover the difference. However, I still must buy my books. Fortunately I receive some money over Christmas that will cover my books for spring semester. I only have two required textbooks.

Since I will not be receiving a scholarship, I cannot afford to take summer classes. Please pray that I am able to find a good, full-time summer jobs. I currently do not have health insurance and it would be nice to get a job that will provide me with health insurance. If I find a good job in the field of social work over the summer, then I will have the option to stay with the job Full-time and finish my degree part-time. This would allow me to finance my degree as I work on my degree.

Even though I have thought these plans through, the ultimate path I should take will be up to God. Please pray that my finances get sorted out and that I am able to proceed without stressing over every step. I am just worried because in the matter of 6 months my school loan debit has tripled. I was fortunate to graduate with my BA by only taking out minimal student loans.

BTW, I am not sure if everyone reading this is a Christian. I am open to all prayers and meditation about my journey through school. Basically, I need to learn Peace and Patience. Any thoughts, prayers, meditations, or positive energies directed towards me that will help me achieve these two ideals are welcome.

I welcome positive discussion about the idea of spirituality in the comments below. Please only post if your comment focuses on the positive aspects of spirituality. I will delete any comments that exclude the possibility of alternative viewpoints. Spirituality is different from religion or dogmatic ideals.

Christmas Mayhem

I have been busy the past few days and have been unable to update my blog. It looks like my updates are going to be sporadic until after the New Year. I will try to at least update the calender though.

I had my orientation with my internship and I am busy with trainings. My trainings are both online and in the classroom. Christmas is Sunday and my brother is coming to visit us today. Over New Years weekend my boyfriend will be visiting. I am excited about both visits. I will be joining my best friend for New Year's Eve and will get to spend some time visiting with her. I then will have about two weeks off before school starts. I will update when I get some time. Right now I want a nap.

10 Things I Learned About Grad School

1. There is A LOT of reading. Start reading early.

2. Group Projects are difficult. Relax, they will get done. (Even if not until 9pm the night before it is due.)

3. Always proofread papers and get second opinions.

4. I am not the smartest person in the class. We all got here on our own merits.

5. Most professors like students who participate in class, but less can be more.

6. Technology is a friend and time saver. Know what resources are available electronically and use them.

7. Social Relationships are important.

8. APA Style manual is my new best friend

9. Audiobooks are AWESOME! They are great for the car ride to school and to listen to at night.

10. Stressing out about assignments wastes too much time. If you can't figure out what to do ask someone for help.

My Virtual Report Card

Most of my grades are posted for my first semester of graduate school.



SOCW 5301 Human Behavior and the Social Environment: A

SOCW 5303 Social Policy: A

SOCW 5304 Generalist Micro Practice: ?? Currently an A, but one grade is still out

SOCW 5306 Generalist Macro Practice: A

Whirlwind Reflection Part 2of2

On July 15, 2011 I said good-bye to my full-time job, packed up my car, and drove cross-country to start my life as a graduate student. When I arrived in Texas, I was met with 100+ degree weather. Once I got my stuff unpacked, I started looking for a part-time job. My new job pays me enough to fill my gad tank, cover auto insurance and my monthly cell phone bill. Then I bought my textbooks and various school supplies. Next, I began my anxious wait for classes to start.

    In August I became homesick. This was probably due to the fact I have never lived more than four hours away from a beach. The unrelenting nature of the heat made me long for a daytrip to the beach. I miss being able to drive to the beach at a moment's notice. I also miss my boyfriend, but the distance has helped both of us focus on graduate school. Our daily communications have served to temper the stress that deadlines intensify. We are studying in similar fields, which helps us understand each other's lives.

To Summarize Assignments I Have Completed This Semester: (Major Assignments)

• Case Study- 12 page paper I wrote to apply various theories and concepts to a real life situation and to analyze the situation.
  
• Biopsychosocial- This was written in two parts and was in the form of a standard intake assessment. The subject was from a movie and I included peer-reviewed literature to back up my assumptions and treatment plan
  
• Agency Assessment- This was a paper that analyzed an agency from both a Micro and a Macro perspective.
  
• Created a Hypothetical Organization- This was a group project in which we found a local problem, a population and an environment. Then we created an empirically supported intervention for the problem and the organization to enact the solution. We then wrote a 20 page paper and presentation about our organization
  
• Debate Presentation- This was a group project where we presented the pros and cons of a specific social policy
  
• Social Policy Analysis Paper- This was a 15 page paper in which I analyzed a social policy based on a Policy Analysis Model. This was the hardest paper I have ever written
  

This is basically my first semester in review. I will present real time updates about next semester, instead of waiting until the end of the semester.

Cristkindl Market

    Yesterday evening I went to the

Christkindl market in Arlington, Texas.

Christkindl markets are open air markets

that are traditionally held in Germany

during the holiday seasons. Chicago has

been hosting a Christkindl market for

several years and loaned Arlington twenty wooden huts this year.

This year is the first Christkindl market in Arlington, Texas. The Market runs along the North side of the Texas Rangers Baseball Stadium. Last night was the opening ceremony for the market and the tree lighting was done in an explosive fashion. As the Christkindl Angel counted backwards from ten, fireworks punctuated the countdown. Prior to the tree lighting several speeches were made that outlined the grand plan for expansion of the holiday event. Next year the plan is to have the market for two full weeks and the following year the market plans to run from Thanksgiving until Christmas.

This event is delightful family fun. Anyone in the area should try to attend. There is a tent with Father Christmas, where the kids can get pictures taken. Many of the booths have local artists with various homemade crafts. One artist had beautiful inlaid wooden art. This is a traditional art form in Germany. The artist hand cuts tiny pieces of wood and fits them together to create wooden paintings. His skill is amazing and definitely a booth that you must browse.

I love good smelling soaps. Two vendors sold soaps as well. Skullsoaps.com and delicioussoaps.net were the two good smelling soap vendors. I liked Skull Soaps because they had soaps, lotions and bath salts. Plus, Who doesn't like a skull with a little bow? Then there was Delicious Soaps. I approached the vendor more out of curiosity. Soap isn't edible, but the name is confusing. Basically, Delicious Soaps are made to look like our favorite desserts. Each soap smells so sweet, you want to take a bite. With these soaps you can smell your calories, instead of eating them.

With any open air market, there MUST be food and Beer. I did not try the food because it was cold and I did not want to part with my gloves. If you want to try German food, I suggest you go during the day when it is not so cold. I did try both the Hot Apple Cider and the Gluchwein. I prefer the cider but if you like wine try the Gluchwein. Gluchwein is a hot spiced German wine that is part of the holiday tradition in Germany. There was also beer and cappuccino available as well.

This is a fun event and I recommend it to anyone looking to learn about the German culture.

A Rainy Sunday

    Since starting graduate school I have moved home with my parents so I would not have to take out extra loans. I cannot work full-time with my school workload, so I am unable to afford my own apartment. My parents have graciously given me the upstairs room in their house that is functioning as a mini apartment. However, the room was not equipped with a door. My Father recently found a solution to this problem and spent the morning installing my new door. I am grateful for the added privacy and the noise buffering that this door brings.

    I also weighed and measured myself today. (Yes, I literally weighed myself and measured myself.) I need to lose 4.9 pound in one month to reach my current goal. I really want to lose 10 pounds by that point, but 4.9 pounds is more realistic. I have spent the better part of three years trying to reach my goal weigh. However, my motivation has waxed and waned more that the moon. I have made great strides in weight loss but am getting close enough to my goal that I need to set real deadlines for weight loss. Americans are obsessed with weight but in my case these are not vanity pounds I am trying to lose. I am trying to increase my overall health and well-being in order to live a long and enjoyable life. I refuse to diet or to follow any regimen too strictly. This could be because I am hopelessly stubborn but regardless I will lose the weight in my own way.

    I am continuing to enjoy the book Eat Pray Love. I will complete my review of the book after I finish the book. Overall, today has been a fairly lazy and rainy Sunday. I have to go to work at 4pm tonight and I have classes the next two days. More than likely, this will be my last update on my blog until Wednesday.

Until then,

Phoenix Studying :D

PS If it is raining cats and dogs where you live, be careful not to step in a poodle.

Christmas Coutdown

Sun	Mon	Tues	Wed	Thurs	Fri	Sat
				1	2	3
4	5	6	7	8	9	10
11	12	13	14	15	16	17
18	19	20	21	22	23	24
25	26	27	28	29	30	31

Testing Out Windows Live Writer

Apparently my laptop has a program that will allow me to update my blog outside of a web browser. This is nice because windows seems to be a bit more user friendly when it comes to formatting.
I am playing with fonts because there is a broader selection as well. YAY! Options. LOL sometimes I am such a girl.
If I neglect to say this again, I love Windows 7 and Microsoft Office 2010. I feel like I have been in the Stone Ages of technology and all of a sudden reached the Industrial Age. Granted it could be argued that Technology is in the Modern Age. I feel technology is still primarily being perfected for work use and just starting to mature as an entertainment use. Therefore,  according to my inexpert opinion, the Industrial Age of Technology.

Testing out inserting pictures. :D

Whirlwind Reflection

     As a new graduate school I am often asked "Why do you want to go to graduate school?" Or "Why do you want to be a Social Worker?" These are difficult to answer, and are even harder to answer when asked by professors or prospective internship bosses. These are hard questions to answer because they cut to my soul. They ask me to share part of me that I might not want to share. The questions also ask me to decide right now what I want to do for the next 5, 10, 20 years of my life. I do not specifically know what I want to do, or what triggered within me to finally apply for graduate school. I do know that if I had attempted graduate school any earlier I would not  have been successful.
     I graduated college in 2008 with my BA in Psychology. My professors encouraged me to go on to graduate school. Like many of my peers I declined because of a man. Had I known then that my relationship with him would be over in two year, I probably would have gone straight to graduate school. Yet, it was not until I studied various jobs that I realized Social Work was a better fit for my soul.
     Figuring out what to study and where to study was difficult, but the months leading up to my first semester of graduate school became emotionally difficult. I was moving thousands of miles away from where I had lived my entire life. I had to say good-bye to friends and family and pray my car would make the drive across country. Fortunately, I have family where I am attending school. I am not alone here. I never realized how attached I was to my hometown. It seems sad to me that I cannot visit the local shops I love. Yet, the places that store the painful memories for me are gone as well. Graduate school has marker a new beginning for me.
     The hardest good-bye that I said was to the man I am currently dating. In many ways he is so strong and can hold me up when I need him, even though we are over 1,000 miles apart. In other ways I renew his strength, or at least that is what he tells me. I do not know much about successful relationships, but I do know that he treats me with a level of respect and dignity that I am unaccustomed. We are both in graduate school studying similar fields. It has been nice to have someone who knows me to talk to when my term paper is due and I am worried I will never finish. He is there in that moment with me, and feels exactly the same way.
     Well, I haven't quite answered the questions I posed in this post. The explanation is long and will take time to write. Since Winter Break begins in a week or so, I will have more time to catch everyone up on my story.
Keep reading my blog!

Power Point Tip

If you have Microsoft Office 2010 then the following will help you embed a youtube video into your power point presentation.

If you go to Vixy.net you can download a freecoder program. I would not use this program for anything you are going to make money using. I am not sure the legality of the program. However, the program works great for adding the finishing touch your group presentation needs to wow a professor.

The program will add a new tool bar to your browser of choice. You can access all the tools you need to download the video with this toolbar.
After you download the video, use the converter that that comes with the program. Make sure to convert the file to the windows media player format.

Microsoft Office 2010 makes inserting a video into Power Point very easy. Once the file is downloaded onto your computer click the insert tab in power point. Then click on insert video from a file.

I know there are other programs out there, but this one seems pretty easy to use. 

AudioBooks and Netflix

AUDIOBOOKS
I just finished Duma Key by Stephen King. I really enjoyed the book. There were a few times that I had to stop listening because the books started to scare me. However, I hung in with the story and really enjoyed the ending.

Now I am currently working on Elizabeth I by Margaret George, and Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert. I haven't started either book yet, but will give you my opinion when I get into the books.

NETFLIX.COM
I finished all the updated Warehouse 13 episodes recently and I am DYING for the next season to be added to netflix. For those of you who do not know, Warehouse 13 is about detectives in charge of finding historical artifacts that are creating supernatural disturbances. This is completely science fictional but if you like Eureka you will like this show as well.

I am currently watching Law and Order: SVU. This is sort of an ongoing obsession. It is hard to watch more than a few episodes at a time.

I recently started watching Drop Dead Diva. I avoided this show originally because I never understood the premise. However, the show is really funny. This is definitely a must watch during exam stress time.

An Introduction

I want to create a blog that details the trials and triumphs of being a graduate student. I was accepted into my current program in November of 2010 and offered admittance for the Fall semester of 2011. My first semester of graduated school has given me so much insight into myself. I have been out of college for three years and I am finding that I have really missed the academic community.

Things I hope my Blog will detail:

*Spring Semester 2012 I will have an internship that requires 400 hours. I will give you a countdown and a general overview of my impressions. I cannot give specific because of confidentiality.

*Will give you an accounting of upcoming papers and tests. I will most-likely share my fears and anxieties related to my deadlines.

*I will share any interesting tidbits of research I find. Since graduate school is about lots of research I should have some tidbit weekly. APA citations included, of course.

*Any audiobooks I find worth listening too. Will also include current shows I am watching on Netflix. Graduate school is stressful and we must find time for "me-time".

*Any plans I have to go visit friends or family back home. I moved to Texas, to go to graduate school, from the East Coast.
*Lastly, any tricks or tips I figure out to help with research or presentations.