Reflection

For the senior capstone project, a child protective social worker was my mentor. At the beginning my mentor and I communicated good, talked at least once  week. Towards the end of February, it got hard for me to get ahold of her. So communication between us was not good. But around the middle of April, we were able to meet again and finish the hours. 

Personally, this experience has helped me grow as a person and as a foster youth. I learned about the opposite side of the septum. I have a lot more respect for social workers and their job. I became a lot more aware of the challenges some foster youth face and learned more about the system that I didn't know before starting this project. Without this project I don't think I'd be ready to become a social worker. With this experience, I'm really to further my knowledge and become a social worker to help foster youth like myself.

Challenges I had with this project was the hours and completely them. This communication with my mentor was rocky and we weren't able to communicate for a good month; completely my hours was my biggest challenge. But I was able to call her colleagues and email her almost everyday till she responded and she did!! Another challenge was the confidentiality thing. I wasn't able to go with her to visit families or talk to her clients. But I overcame that by using my own experiences in court, in foster homes, in transitional meetings to help complete my project. I also talked to my roommates who helped give me a different look and told me their story.

Overall, I loved this experience and I'm glad I got the opportunity to do it.