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
