I will be starting my MSW program in the fall at the University of Kansas, and I am so excited to start this new journey. I graduated from K-State in 2020 with a bachelor's in human development and family science with a minor in conflict analysis and trauma. After graduation, I went to work as a permanency case manager in my hometown. In my current role, I serve as the legal guardian of the child while they are in foster care and collaborate with caregivers of removal to reintegrate the child back into the home. I also was promoted last year to continue my work as a case manager but also train and support newly hired case managers. I love my job and have realized that I want to continue to support social services professionals from a supervision and policy perspective. As a result, the next step is to go back to school and get an MSW. Although I am excited to start this new journey and pursue my passions, I am nervous to go back to school. My undergraduate studies were difficult for me as that was when I was diagnosed with my mental illnesses. Everday things that were once easy for me became difficult. I struggled to go to class/work, eat regularly, keep in contact with friends/family, and often even basic hygiene practices. On top of this, I often had to balance going to school, working full-time, participating in student mental health organizations, and go to my scheduled medication and therapy appointments. I really struggled to the point that my illness almost cost me my life. Now that I work in social services, I can appreciate my diagnoses. I've worked in child welfare for the past 4 years, and it has helped me in more ways that I can count. I often reflect on the feelings I felt, and what people told me when I was at my worst. It's helped me learn what is helpful to hear and learn the importance of being present and listening to someone instead of trying to "fix" them. My journey has also helped me in learning what is not helpful when working with someone with mental health concerns and phrases to avoid that were once said to me in hopes of being helpful but had the opposite effect. I also believe that I have more empathy when working with someone with a disability. I can empathize with difficulties in keeping appointments and maintaining a life that supports parenting children appropriately. It also reminds me of how resilient people can be and how far they can move forward and grow with their disability and trauma history. My mental illness also makes me more mindful of accessibility for workers in the field. I'm mindful of the stress that social services put on the mind and the body. I often am frustrated by the lack of resources and support for the workers, especially those with their own diagnoses and disabilities. It's ironic to me that our work focuses on advocating for others against systems of oppression when often the workplace does not support workers with their own struggles. That view is what pushes me to get my MSW, so I can go into policy work to advocate for workers in the field to make it more accessible and equitable. My diagnoses do not what define me, but I also am not ashamed of my story because it helped me enter the social services field with the insight that I would not have had otherwise and learned further about what I want for a career.

When I was an undergraduate student, I was highly involved on-campus with a mental health organization while struggling with my own mental health. I gave presentations on mental health, created pamphlets about community resources, and created campus-wide events to promote mental health through the university's counseling services office. I was advocating for mental health on a micro and macro level, but I didn't address my own mental health until I started really struggling. At one point, I would go to work at the Counseling Services Outreach office and then go to the other side of the building for my weekly therapy sessions for the last hour of the day. For the past three years, I've worked in child welfare working with young adults experiencing mental health struggles. In doing so, I've grown to appreciate my own mental health struggles and how it's helped me empathize with their experience. I've gained a better understanding of what I needed to hear when I was feeling low and what words would often make me spiral and think they didn't understand my experience. I've also been frustrated by the lack of access to mental health services and barriers that exist to care. I'm also frustrated by the lack of prevention to address issues before they become crises. It's overwhelming and hard to think about the impact you can have, especially when you are an undergraduate student without a degree and letters behind your name. One of the biggest moments in my mental health journey was when I had a friend over to my apartment when I lived alone. He had come over to just pick something up and ended up staying to chat with me when he noticed I was struggling. I remember telling him what I was going through, and it was the first time someone validated how I was feeling instead of telling me how I should feel. It was the first time I didn't feel alone during that experience. All of this to say, I think there are different impacts a person can have in the mental health field. I think advocacy and community education can make a positive impact on the macro level and help people understand where to go in times of crisis. There is a great amount of student led organizations that students can get involved with, or they can even collaborate with offices to create an organization that helps educate other students learn about community resources and how to identify and support someone through mental health. However, small moments of impact should not and cannot be overlooked. I think that having open conversations about your own struggles can help others to not feel so alone. In addition, being there for someone to truly listen and validating their feelings while holding them accountable can reduce internal stigma someone may be experiencing and may encourage them to get the help they need. The field of mental health is a hard path with layers of poverty, racial and social injustices, and intergenerational trauma that one single person cannot fix despite their educational or work experience. However, there are multiple ways to make a positive impact whether that is through advocacy or being supportive to those around you. Regardless, it's important to recognize that both matter in making a positive impact as a college student, and everyone can make an impact in one way or another.