SWRK 1001H: Introduction to Social Welfare

This class was a filler. After dropping from my Arts & Science course in second semester, I needed one more class to ensure I had a full courseload. At the time I thought social work could potentially be a career path for me. It made sense – working with individuals, helping them with the various difficulties of their lives, those were both services I could see fulfilling me. Plus I had a good friend of mine in that class as well.

The professor was engaging and interesting, and interspersed lectures with personal stories from his own time as a social worker. I found his stories incredibly engaging, interesting and telling to the power a social worker could potentially have. Unfortunately, I found the content of the course incredibly dull. As to be expected of a first-year introductory class, it was incredibly general and most of the subject matter had to do with policy and practice. This was the first class where I could see my marks slipping simply because I did not care about the content and couldn’t find it within myself to care enough to study as hard or as long as I did with my other classes. This resulted in this class being the lowest mark of my first-year classes. It was a bit of a blow to my academic ego, but more so I felt like I had just wasted my time. Now I can reflect and say, yes, I did not enjoy the class. But it also helped me realize I in no way wanted to become a social worker. It was one more discipline that I knew I wasn’t interested in and could seek something new that would fill my cup in a more desirable way. Cross that one off the list – Jess Malcolm was not going to pursue becoming a social worker.