Experience of a single mother about being a student - Term Paper Example

Experience of a single mother about being a student

I have realized that I innately possessed much strength that was extended a formal direction by this course. However, I have also identified some weaknesses on my part as a student that I plan to work on, with sincerity and zeal. I graduated in 1982 and after being divorced I remained amply busy as a single mother to a 14 year old son and first as a county caseworker, and later on as a credit analyst with At&t. Initially I feared that I had come a long way from my dream. However, since I joined this 1st class, I realized that my past experience as a mother and a full time employee has endowed me with much insight into the essentials of Family & Community work. While studying for my undergraduate degree in social work, back in ’82; my only thought and passion was to help others. I had an innate conviction that a career oriented around working with children, families and communities will be really fulfilling for me. For 15 years I worked as a caseworker with the county, helping families to get and continue on the food stamp program and Medicaid services. Later on, I shifted to the corporate world in quest for a better financial scenario, considering my responsibilities as a single mother.

To put it simply, education and its associated elements like reading, writing and research are lifelong processes, and their scope extends much beyond this class and my academic life. I know I have served well as a single mother and as an employee. ...
Being away from a formal academic environment for such a long time, I face some difficulty with the essentials and nuances of academics, which are writing and research. Initially, when I joined this course, I was confident that my writing skills were at par. However, soon I realized that my past writing experience was primarily limited to professional and official writing. So writing is one aspect of my academic life that I need to work on religiously. To some extent, I feel the same about my research skills. To begin with I believed that in the current age of computers, search engines, online libraries and databases, and the internet, I will rarely face any problem locating and researching the required sources. However, it was a surprise to know that all the information published on the internet is not credible, and a credible online source needs to be affiliated to reliable bodies of opinion, government organizations, academic institutions and authentic publishers (Deane, 2010, p. 41). One more thing I need to focus on is my referencing and citation skills. Well, so far as my writing skills are concerned, I know I need ample practice and hard work. It is my belief supported by my teachers and superiors that the more I write, the better I will get. I am also working on my citation and referencing skills and talking the help of the concerned texts and experts. Through research and interaction with my teachers, I have realized as to what constitutes plagiarism and how one can avoid plagiarism in one’s academic writing. I well understand that it is vital to credit a source accurately while pursuing academic writing (Deane, 2010, p. 4). Also, it is a must that the cited source is credited as per the expected formatting style. I am confident that with my Read More