My First Impressions of Sacramento State

For my very first class in my program, It is called Social Work and Diverse Populations. The teacher starts talking about how we will experience triggers in our life and our professional career. We will be working with a client who says something or is experiencing something that will trigger us. She explained the importance of knowing how to handle our triggers in a professional manner when working with a client.

 A trigger can be a word, action, image or sound. A trigger is anything that causes a reaction. Everyone has their unique triggers based on their experiences.

She then explained how the purpose of this class was to purposely trigger us so we would know what triggers us and why. We are talking about diverse populations and the fun "isms". You know what I mean right? Sexism, racism...It is going to be a class where we are talking about touchy items. We had to discuss how to create a zone where everyone is heard, respected and validated. We need to have this foundation of respect when we are handling student's triggers.

At first hearing this made me feel really nervous. We are purposely going to be feel uncomfortable in this class? Did I really sign up for this program and pay to feel uncomfortable? But I am in a weird way excited to talk about these touchy topics. The ultimate goal is for all of us to become the best professional social workers who are ready to work with diverse populations. We need to be aware of other's triggers and how to handle them which includes our self.

So for example, this is what it would look like to have someone's trigger go off. For example, we talk about the idea of sexism and different ways that sexism affects individuals. A student experiences a similar situation as someone else in the class that makes their emotional trigger go off. There goes a heated discussion where we are dealing with someone's personal fear/trauma/history. Now there is a possibility of offense and emotional pain. Now dosen't this sound fun? haha. Welcome to my new life of social work.

In a weird way, this stuff is really interesting to me though as I am learning more about social work. I can already tell that this program is going to stretch me. Sometimes the things that stretch you are the hardest but best things for you. I am so used to BYU and my little "bubble". I have done internships with mental health and I have worked in special education. Starting this program where I feel like the miniority and am required to go out of my comfort zone will be a big change for me.

In general, I am noticing differences between BYU and Sac State. I know that I can't compare my experiences here at Sac State to BYU. I am excited that this will be a change to what I am used to. I need to be able to be open minded and work with people from all over when I do social work. This will be a good preparation.

From my first week of this program, I am just learning about the expectations of the program. I am learning the dynamics of the cohort and the teacher-student relationship. Sometimes I feel like a freshman as I walk around campus. I am still getting know where buildings are. I am getting to know the general atmosphere of the campus. There are so many trees, so it is a pretty campus. My cohort is a lot of people who went to Sacramento State for their undergraduate, but there are quite a few who went to another California school. There are a variety of undergraduate majors and lots of diversity in the backgrounds. All I can say is that it has been an interesting week, but I have enjoyed it so far.