Study Plan

To start with, I would especially like to elaborate on future goals for which I have longed in terms of my field my study, Social Work. 

Firstly, with respect to the principle purpose of Social Work profession, the pursuit of the well-being of people, I have chosen to major in Social Work in the hope of making social change possible by means of advocacy.  Discussing in the scope of Cambodian context, I am convinced, through the practice of advocacy mechanism, social and environmental issues will be resolved more effectively and be heard attentively by the relevant bodies.  However, to achieve such a time-consuming goal and to simultaneously be skillful at advocacy, consciously I have to comprehend much more profoundly the knowledge of policy and its implementation, which is crucially important to be taken into account. Reading the SUSI program description, I am genuinely curious about how local grassroots activism and civic initiative are practiced in the U.S. in response to social and environmental issues, thus, of course, inevitably making me more deeply understand how effectively the federal government policies are implemented. Additionally, providing there is an opportunity for me, I will bring the lesson learnt back to put into practice in both classroom environments by discussing with friends and community activities by encouraging more people to involving social and environmental issues in my home country.

Secondly, concerning the scope of Social Work practice, particularly in policy level, having leadership qualities is the foremost goal I have been pursuing through theories in books and through practical experiences gained from the involvement in both class activities and community engagement. In order to establish the leadership skills, not only have I been exposing myself to in-class activities such as teamwork and group discussion, but also been taking part in public seminars and workshops frequently so that I can learn more from diverse individual leaders from civil society and governmental institutions. In this regard, I am of the opinion that the four-week academic residency will surely provide me with considerably more hands-on experiences regarding leadership by opening opportunity for me to meet with community leaders and representatives from non-profit organizations. Finally yet importantly, I am convinced the experiences gained during the program will give me more insight into how different between leadership practiced in the U.S. and in Cambodia is. 

In terms of personal development, I aim for the enhancement of my interpersonal skills and of a deep understanding of cultural diversity. I do acknowledge that skills and knowledge having been learnt in class are considerably important. However, a potential person is not only adept at working, but is also required to communicate effectively with people and to be knowledgeable about how to behave in cultural diversity properly without showing any prejudice, stigmatization, and discrimination. By this reason, I really want to expose myself to diverse learning environment and to diverse groups of people so that I could learn more about all those differences. Therefore, I think it is the time for me to achieve my goals through the program so that I can put what I have learnt and understood into practice.  

Written by Kuy Kakada,

A SUSI shortlisted candidate