For this assignment, I decided to interview Christa Countee, Director of Field Education/Lecturer California State University East Bay department of social work who has a Master’s degree in Social Welfare from the University Of California Berkeley (MSW). Her specialization is child welfare and her social work experience spans over 17 years. Transcripts of the interview:
My initial question to her was her length of service and experience in the field of social service, which I learned began in the year 1992 which accords her with an experience span of 17 years. She informed me that as a high school student she volunteered in social service programs and after her graduation in 1998 she began working with the Bank of America and attended Trinity College as a part-time student. In the year 1992 social services agency was a table clerk in the human resources department and continued with her part-time school.
She attained her Bachelor’s degree through the PACE program for adult college education worked while she attended part-time school and while completing education she had always wanted to be a teacher and work with children and was recruited by a social work organization after working for 9 years as a clerical worker. Since she always desired to be a teacher, she began working with the social services department and was transferred to the children’s department because where she could pursue the cause of children and their education. This service gave her the experience of working with children who come to school most often do not have the vital resources due to the economic problems of their parents. Most parents don’t have jobs and do not work, and some children are homeless and come to school with all these problems. As a child welfare worker she worked with these neglected children and she found that one of the biggest challenges working with these children was their inability to graduate from high school. These children are much older and are not able to successfully graduate from high school and go back to their homes and families without any substantial skills, education, and abilities.
Today, she has immense knowledge about the problems which children face in their lives and welfare workers are expected to teach children to emancipate and be ready by the age of 18 years to take up a job and earn a living for themselves, which becomes impossible with some children who cannot support themselves by the time they are 16 to 18 years of age. She found this a challenge and decided to work for the school district which helps children to graduate by helping them in every way possible so that they can emancipate. She finds it extremely rewarding when children are given the resources to graduate successfully from school, which is one of the primary outcomes of the services which social workers provide children with. She particularly remembers one incident of a young 9-year-old girl, who had 9 other children in the family. This girl and her sister had to go to a foster home where the foster mother decided to keep the sister and not her. The girl then fell in love with a man who was a pimp and forced her into prostitution and the girl faced many problems and was really angry.
The general salary of a social worker is about 71000 annually and with the current recession, she feels that there is likely to be a cut in the allocation for social workers which would definitely affect children and families. She feels that education is the best way for people to get out of poverty and her current focus is on higher education and working with community colleges. Child workers earn about 71000 dollars annually and her advice to all social workers is that if one gets a job to work for the government, it is the best job in the world and one should look no further. To be a social worker an MSW degree is important and it is really important to do the job one loves to attain true job satisfaction.
The interview was highly informative and I learned that love of the profession and work is of crucial importance in the field of social work and it could be mentally challenging to be encountering the numerous problems which children and families face in their lives. I also learned that job satisfaction is important for success and that social work provides inner satisfaction which comes from helping people achieve their goals. I feel that I am ready to take up the challenging work of a social worker and would like to help as many people as possible in the course of my work. Since the salary received by a social worker is decent, the job would also support me financially.