Guest Speaker from SafePlace -- Diane ________

Sorry, I didn't catch her last name, but the guest speaker on Wed. was great, and her overall presentation was interesting.  I thought that it was especially good because she invited our participation, via questions and ideas so that we'd get a glimpse of the crital thinking skills needed in the field of social work.

Regarding the Social Justice ("Strongly Agree" vs. "Strongly Disagree") activity:  I enjoyed it for its thought-provoking aspect.  I stayed on the "Strongly Agree" side with each topic because I feel that even though an issue may not affect me directly and personally, the services needed by the one who is directly affected may need government funding in order to be successful.  So, as a tax payer, I am affected.  And, the bigger the issue/problem, the more people are involved.  People = Society (a.k.a. "Social").  Several years ago, I didn't think that many of the topics should be considered as social justice problems.  But, as I've taken more sociology, psychology, and social work classes, I'm now able to see that if individual problems/issues aren't addressed early on (micro level), they eventually become problems for the broader community/society (macro level).  And, at the macro level, several aspects are involved:  increased research, funding, human (and, general) resources, etc.  We all feel the crunch at some point, whenever there's an increase in taxes, retail prices, decrease in program funding (transferred to other areas), etc. etc. etc.

I'm glad that we're getting exposed to a variety of people who work in the "real world" so that we know more about the options we have after graduation (or, grad school).  Thanks, Prof. G.!  :-)