New Tattoo

Amid graduation events and happenings, I wanted to share my new tattoo! 

"Sisu" is a Finnish word that doesn't directly translate to English (I lived in Finland for a year, if you didn't know). It means determination, bravery, resilience. Taking on and conquering against odds. Courage and resoluteness in the face of adversity. Guts. Something inside that drives you. Perseverance. Survival. Getting it done. It is all of these things but none of these things exactly. It is housed within your spirit and character. I believe this is the spirit of world changers, and of so many of the people that I chose to surround myself with. I can't think of a better word to capture what I hope to do and be with this one life of mine.

Grad School Party

Last night a bunch of my social work cohort had a little get together to eat catch up and play Cards Against Humanity, which is probably the anti-social work game if there ever was one. This semester we are all at our internships just about full time, so we don't see each other regularly. It was nice to relax and take an evening off!

^^there were veggies and pulled pork sliders, but they didn't make it on to the table^^

^^Dani explained the very simple rules^^

- S

DC, I Can't Quit You

Folks, I'm so excited; I'm going back to Washington, DC in March for the Anti-Hunger Policy Conference!! The conference is put on by the Food Research and Action Center and Feeding America, two awesome hunger fighting organizations. Guess what I've already learned? Conferences are expensive! I guess I've only been to free or $20 ones before, but these legit, professional conferences cost between $300 and $400 for registration alone. So I thought for a while about whether I should go, but I decided yes. This is what I'm really interested in, I love DC, it will be a great learning experience, and a great networking opportunity (even though the thought of networking is slightly terrifying; at least I already have Baylor business cards ready!).

Here's some details on the conference:

The National Anti-Hunger Policy Conference draws anti-hunger and anti-poverty advocates; federal, state and local government officials; child advocates; representatives of food banks and food rescue organizations; and nutrition and anti-obesity groups, for three days of training, networking and Capitol Hill advocacy.

Participants share information and learn how to strengthen the quality and reach of federal nutrition programs, learn best outreach and program practices from other states and localities, fill in the gaps in food service for millions of low-income children, and identify creative ideas for new and innovative approaches to ending hunger. Members of Congress, Hill staff and key Administration officials attend the conference, provide comments as part of plenary sessions and panels, and join participants at receptions and special events.

Awesome, right? I can't wait to hear who is going to be speaking and attending. The conference is March 2-4, and I'm planning on staying in the area for the rest of the week to visit my dear friend Abigail (who lives in Baltimore and I visited last year before my trip to DC!), visit my youngest brother who is an undergrad at Georgetown, and enjoy springtime in DC (and do some work and maybe job searching)! I will surely blog about my time at the conference and in the city; Sarah Does DC: Hunger in America Part II, perhaps? :)

- S

My Last Semester of Grad School Starts Today

- S

Community Practice

For the second year of the masters program, you pick one of three concentrations: Children and Families, Physical and Mental Health, or Community Practice. I chose community practice, and so did twelve other wonderful, beautiful people. For our practice class, we worked on one giant project for the whole semester. We were tasked with looking at volunteerism and community engagement in the five counties surrounding McLennan County (Bosque, Falls, Freestone, Hill, and Limestone), and coming up with a plan to address these things, all to be presented to the Heart of Texas Council of Governments (HOTCOG) and Heart of Texas Efficient Towns and Counties (HOTETC). This was not just another class project for a grade, we were working under a HUD grant, as a group of professionals working in the field. We came up with recommendations and a work plan that could potentially put into place, put everything together into a written report, and today we presented to HOTCOG/HOTETC (it was rescheduled due to the bad weather last Friday). We are done! I am proud of this group and thankful for our amazing professor, Dr. Yancey. 

^^featuring my photo on the cover!^^

- From the desk of Mrs. M

Saturday Night

Just me and some wine, working on creating some flyers for a fake organization's fake fundraising event. Typical grad school Saturday (/any day of the week, really)... four more weeks!

Story Time with Jay Z

I played Jay Z's song December 4th for my class this week. I wanted to explain that I didn't just play it to be a badass, though I did feel I had earned some cosmic cool points in addition, and like, two people in class would probably think I was cool, right? Each member of our class is supposed to lead "centering time" one week of this semester. That is really just sharing anything you want at the start of Tuesday morning 8 am class. Students have shared TED talks, you tube videos of  Dr. Seuss stories and Jesus healing the sick, shared prayers and overall inspiration and wisdom. I've enjoyed this time and getting to know what motivates my classmates. How do I get centered in the morning? I listen to Jay Z really loud on my 35 minute drive to Waco. So, sharing that was my first thought. My second thought was a genuine questioning of how people might react if I blast Jay Z in a class at Baylor. I briefly thought about playing an edited version with the "bad words" cut out, but I have heard edited radio versions and they are nothing like the original, and I don't believe in censoring someone else's art or their story. Next came humor and excitement, oh man, that would be something to see. I ended up coming full circle, back to the fact that if I'm leading centering time and I'm told I can do whatever I want for it, I'm going to share with you what centering time looks like for me. I haven't yet changed who I am to fit any Baylor mold, so why start now.

But there had to be more than that to it. Apparently my number one strength is Maximizer- I make things that are good, great. I am far from a perfectionist in many aspects, but I'm not just going to accept mindless work or do something without meaning behind it, and I hold myself to that standard as well. So I actually thought a lot about Jay Z and sharing this story in class. I didn't just want to play any song, not at all. It did have to have a good beat, though. I did a lot of listening and settled on playing December 4th. I picked it because Jay Z really shares a recognizable story in that song; there's a beginning, a middle, and an end (be it open ended). I think all of his music is storytelling, but that song is one particular story that I think social work students can tune in to more so than some other songs, if they gave it a chance and listened to the words (yes, even the "bad" ones).

So in introducing it to the class I said "I'm going to share a story with you today. It's by Jay Z and it's called December 4th."

Afterwards, I explained a little more. As social workers, it is our job, at the very least, to listen to stories. That is the very least we can do. But I think we put too many limits on what that looks like. A labeled, hurting individual coming into a therapy session (in my experience there is usually not a couch, but you can picture one there if it helps). A group of disgruntled citizens participating in a focus group (the promise of free food did 75% of the work in getting them there). It should be in a language we are familiar with, and words we are comfortable using and hearing. And if we're uncomfortable, we don't let it show, we sit in that discomfort and reflect on it later, letting our judgments fill up the rest of the space in the room. Sometimes, more often than not in some contexts, we are shocked by what we hear (at least as a novice social work student).  Did they really just say that? Is that really this persons life? Damn.

But storytelling isn't always going to look like that, it shouldn't always look like that. If that's all we think storytelling is, we are missing out on a lot of interesting people. A lot of wisdom. A lot of pain, strength, and creativity. Because don't we do this for ourselves, as well? If you think I'm doing any of this solely out of the pure goodness of my heart, you must have heard the wrong story somewhere along the way, and I am not that good a person. I believe the way someone tells their story is just as important as what the story is. If we restrict that to one or two options, how can we get an accurate picture of a person? Of a family? Of a community?

I did not have a great understanding of or appreciation for (one naturally follows the other) Jay Z and his music until I heard his story in one of these two options we tend to give people. I read his book Decoded this past summer. And then I got it. Because it was a book, and I learned to read a long time ago. Books tell us stories, educate us, impart knowledge and entertain. Music does too, but I didn't grow up listening to rap the way I grew up reading books. So it took a book for me to get the music. Not just to get it, but to appreciate it, and to crave it. And only then did I start to "get" Jay Z, the person.

It took a while and I took a longer route, but I finally started to hear his story. It took me too long, and it took me hearing it first in a format I was comfortable with. But now I have learned a valuable lesson, and now I listen to Jay Z loud on my 35 minute drive to Waco.

So all of this to say, simply, that people tell their stories in many different ways. At the very least, we can give them a listen.

- Sarah

NASW TX Conference: Weaving Resilience and Advocacy

Last Saturday and Sunday I went to the National Association of Social Workers Texas Branch Conference in Austin. I attended a variety of sessions based on my interests and future career goals, and I think I picked some really great ones. Here's a little bit about those sessions!

"The Texas Model for Addressing Disproportionality and Disparities: A Cross Systems 
Approach"
This session was about institutional racism and disparities across systems, and it was my favorite. It was more like a group conversation, which made effective use of a PowerPoint presentation to show graphs and charts of some startling and touching statistics. I like that they defined and differentiated between "equality" and "equity," stating that by striving for equality, that discounts the individual and their need, while equity rather is that everyone have the opportunity to attain their potential. The session began with a talk about how we (individuals/groups/communities) are all socialized, we have our boxes and our way of seeing things, as do institutions. "We can only act from what we have been socialized to believe." We talked about the oppression that people working inside of systems face, as they must adhere to the boxes that employ them, leading to little change; we stick inside our box much to our demise. Then we briefly touched on the problem with charity, which allows us to quietly donate money while remaining quiet about the real issues at hand. For a large part, we have been socialized to focus on and worry about the individual, but we have to understand how the people we work with are impacted by other systems, not just the one we work in, in whatever capacity. The part that really struck me the most was when we looked at figures of disparity based on race/ethnicity (this also really goes to show how impactful well presented data can be). The fact that there is a significantly higher infant mortality rate among black women, simply due to the stress accumulated from their years of being a black woman in America? The fact that an educated, well paid black woman still has a higher risk than an uneducated, low income white woman? That is crazy to me (White 5.1%, Other 6.9%, Black 11.3%, Hispanic 5.2%). Not only that, but the HIV infection rate for Black youth is much greater than any other race (White .8%, Black 7.1%, Hispanic 1.4%), and the life expectancy for the Black population is about five years less than Hispanics (which have the highest life expectancy of 79 years, White 77.9, Black 74.1). The reasons for these statistics are not what people tend to think they are, and they are unforgivable.

The Texas Model (for changing the system and hopefully these statistics), as the title refers to, is the following:
- Data Driven Strategies
- Leadership Development
- Cultural Competent Workforce
- Community Engagement
- Cross Systems Collaborations
- Training Defined by Anti-Racist Principles
- Understanding of the History of Institutional Racism and the Impact on Poor Communities and Communities of Color

Many of the systems we have set up now, to assist and serve people, were not set up for people of color, and so white people have the best outcomes within these systems, while others are not being served well. We spoke about the need to revise policies and systems that have these unintended consequences. "We all make decisions that sustain disproportionality," whether that is driven by a sense superiority for Whites, or inferiority by Blacks. Anyway, I will wrap this one up here. It gave me a lot to think about. I apologize for not providing citations. Figures are from notes I took during the presentation.

"Women's Issues Committee: Focus on the 83rd Texas Legislature for Women"
This session was a helpful review of what went on regarding women's issues in the TX legislature. The whole country heard about Wendy Davis and her filibuster attempt, so this session was probably a bit more popular than it might have been without the exciting recent events. The format was also guided by a PowerPoint, but there was a lot of discussion. There were questions raised about whether the NASW Committee could and should be more involved and active in advocating for women's rights, in ways outlined in Social Work Speaks, the book which catalogs the NASW's position on issues. You might think it would be only expected, since the NASW has stated their general position, for an NASW Committee to advocate in line with that position, but it is apparently more complicated, as they are a group that also represents a diversity of opinion. I understand that, but the feeling in the room was pretty obvious, and at some point for progress to happen you have to pick a side to stand on and rise up.

"Exploring Career Trajectories of Macro Practitioners"
While I am very confident in my decision to pursue macro/community practice social work, it was still nice to hear some evidence based reassurance and learn more about what career pathways might look like for me in the future. If you're not familiar with social work, it is a broad field, and the majority of people end up taking a more clinical/micro-oriented route (Baylor has 13 students currently in the macro concentration), providing therapy and direct services. With the path I've chosen, however, my jobs likely will not have the title "social worker" in them, and they will probably be jobs that business and public health folks will go after as well (among others). In this session we reviewed a study that the presenters from the University of Houston conducted, where they surveyed macro practice alumni, to find out about their career path, salary, job responsibilities, and things like that. Here are some interesting things they found.

- Macro practitioners had a wide range of job titles, including but not limited to: CEO, Associate Executive Director, Director of Public Policy, Program Manager, Fund Development Manager, Staff Services Administrator, Research Coordinator, Professor, Community Outreach Liaison, Consultant, and Grant Writer.
- Their most frequent job responsibilities were: administration, program planning and development, program and project management, advocacy, program evaluation, coalition building, organizational development, and budgeting.
- The average salary was $63,750.
- 35.1% had no social work license. 42.3% had an LMSW. 96.8% passed the LMSW exam on the first try.
- Fun fact: their salaries are higher on average than the general population of social workers! 21.7% macro practitioners earn $90,000 or more a year, compared to 12% of social workers nationally (just one of the statistics on this).

Sounds good to me! I came into social work not even knowing social workers did these kinds of things, and I'm glad I had my foundation year to figure out that (for now at least) macro practice is for me.

.....

Anyway, those are the three I think were worth writing about. I heard mixed reviews from others about the conference, but I would say it was worth it for me.

- From the desk of Mrs. M

This Semester

I knew this semester was going to be a pretty busy one (past students have all warned that this is the worst semester of the program; you could almost hear ominous music start to play in the background whenever the topic came up in conversation last year), but hearing myself tell my sister everything all at once the other day really made me realize the enormity of everything I've taken on...and I'm excited about it! Here's a look at what I'll be up to through December!

I have 5 classes: Administrative Practice in Social Work, Research Seminar, Introduction to Advanced Internship III- Community Practice, Frameworks and Perspectives for Community Practice, and Advanced Practice: Community Practice. Each have big projects and assignments and readings throughout the semester, of course. As a couple examples: I will be planning a research project to be carried out this winter and completed next semester, hopefully something that will be a benefit to the agency I will be working with, too. As a class, those of us in the community practice concentration will be working to come up with a plan (something from almost nothing) to increase volunteerism and engagement among residents of five more rural counties surrounding McLennan county (that's huge! our class of 13 working in 5 different counties). We will be presenting our plan in December to the Heart of Texas Council of Governments, so it's not just a school project, it is almost like we are hired employees of the City, giving us real experience and holding us accountable to the people and clients we serve, not just to a grade. I like the graduate Baylor program because I can every day see the value in the readings and assignments we are tasked with, that extends far beyond the classroom and these two years in the program. We are learning for life, now, and that's learning of the best kind.

I also am still working as a graduate research assistant for the Texas Hunger Initiative, 20 hours a week. I got this position in February; I was brought on to work due to a grant that THI received, and with this comes full tuition remission and a good hourly wage. So, I will do whatever they need me to do. :) In all sincerity, though, THI is a great organization doing wonderful things around the issue of food insecurity in Texas and the United States, and I am truly honored to be a part of it. And for that reason alone I would do whatever they need me to do.

Next week our internships start. For the fall semester it's 7-8 hours a week of orientation and training, preparing ourselves for working full time at internship for our final semester in the Spring. My internship will also be with the Texas Hunger Initiative, at their Waco Regional Office (they have, in the last year, expanded to 12 regional offices around the state of Texas!). So I will be doing different, hands-on things in the Waco community, in contrast to the more research/office oriented work I do as a GA. I am in deep with THI, you might say.

I am also the treasurer for the Graduate Social Work Student Association. There are four of us officers, and we will be planning and executing service and social events through the semester. We have our first event, a welcome back picnic this Saturday, and we just found out that we got a spot for our tailgate at the homecoming game! We also have meetings twice a month, more as needed for event planning and such. The Baylor School of Social Work community is a great one, and I hope to help others find their place as I have.

I also, on my own and due to my own curiosity, desire to help and need to be involved (and not sleep, apparently), have been in touch with the Executive Director of Temple Parks and Leisure Services (the Leslie Knope of Temple, I like to think), about the possibility of creating a community garden. I walk my dog at Lion's Park in Temple often (every day before school started, and on the weekends now), and they have large, open fields. I've seen little baby trees watered through some irrigation system. So I got to thinking and wondering about what might be required to add a community garden to the many offerings of the park, or perhaps elsewhere in Temple. At the start of the summer I also spoke to the Nutrition Director of the Temple Independent School District about how I might be able to help them with their summer meals programming for next summer, so I plan to stay in touch with that as well. I am looking forward to learning a bit more about this community in which I am currently pretty isolated.

In addition, I have a dog and two cats to take care of! I wake up during the week at 4:45 am to go jogging with Luna, and leave for Waco between 7 and 7:15. My animals are the best, so it's all good there.

I also, and most importantly- because without this my life would be unbearable- have made and grown very close to my wonderful friends and cohort at Baylor. I always tell people that I really loved high school, because it was basically getting to go hang out with my friends all day, and that's how I feel now (the school work is more intense, though). I get to be with smart, passionate people that I really really like, learning and engaging in great conversations, with professors I really admire, and making a difference of some sort in the world. It is still rough at times and I still feel out of place now and then, but I have fallen in love with the life I have at Baylor and in Waco, and that is the best feeling. I haven't felt this sense of joy in community since my theater days back at American University in '08 and '09, and I didn't know how much I missed it.

So, yes, it's a lot, but whatever this semester has to bring, I say- bring it on! (and maybe also bring me a 5 hour energy or two)

Washington, DC: Hunger in America Day 8

Day 8: Saturday, May 25. For the last weekend we were participating in a "retreat" through the church we were staying at. On Saturday morning we started with a relaxed pancake breakfast, followed by a silent hour long walk through the downtown area, in which we were to observe, reflect, and just have some quiet time in the city. We were then sent to take a short walk up to a park where there are often homeless people, but we came upon a Monsanto protest right at one end of the park, so there was a lot going on. The rest of the day we had free until dinner. I took my friend Jem to explore around Eastern Market for a bit, where we talked to some strangers and I got yelled at for taking a picture (and unfortunately I didn't notice my camera was on a weird setting so the photos aren't great, but you still get an idea of the colors and character of Eastern Market). We had a chill evening back at the church, going to bed early (technically, not actually) as we had an early morning for our last day in the city!

^^creative cooking^^

^^my second ever Pitango (first was in Baltimore)^^

^^Tracey made frito pie for dinner, which is apparently a Texas thing. It was tasty!^^

Day 7
Day 6
Day 5
Day 4
Day 3
Days 1 and 2

- From the desk of Mrs. M