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Hi, it is me,  Karina!
I will tell you how these two past years have been like... Crazy! Everything started on "Orientation Day" when I was very confused because everybody was talking about registering the classes on-line. What in the world they are talking about? there is not such of thing in Colombia, so I felt embarrassed, but I had to asked what they meant with that…and everybody laughed ☹ Oh yeah it was the most two challenging next years of my life.

I was not wrong at all, and not because I was not going to be able been able to make to the end, it was because I was afraid to start a new professional journey in another country, learning in a different language that I was not very proficient with, knowing that I will probably surrounded by teenagers with better English and better chances than me to graduate.

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All my life I have had a passion for helping others. When I started the Social Work Diploma program, I was quite sure that everything was going to be easy. However, I have learned that social work touches on and has changed if different ways all my values, beliefs, and my cultural background. I have discovered painful truths like the one around residential schools, or the struggles of not having clean water in indigenous reserves, or how so many people are victims of human trafficking, and this makes me feel terribly angry towards people who inflict some much pain to innocent souls and parents.

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Acceptance is one of the characteristics that I thought I was good at it, but the social work program has made me realize that I have a lot to learn. There is a Spanish saying that says… Do good without looking at who! I see myself in the future in an everyday journey learning how to accept people no matter their circumstances, or who they are. I have a lot of compassion, although I have been putting that compassion in a test to see if my compassion is not guided by my personal bias. I know I will do great; I am just in the learning journey aiming to become a compassionated and non-judgemental professional. because what I am now, I will not be in 2 or 3 years from now. I am proud of myself, for finishing this program to allow me to see how strong I am.

My beliefs are that compassion must be spread and people deserve equal opportunities. My practice will be based on pursuit social justice for the most vulnerable, respecting peoples dignity as the Code of Ethic states in its value 1 & 2 (2005, pp. 4-5), therefore, use my training as a tool to reinforce social justice whenever I can.

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The knowledge and experience I learned from my practicum were priceless,  for a person like me that did not have many experiences in social service before, everything was new. The learning in interviewing class; from the affirmation words when you are in an interview with clients like …. “uh ha, I see, it should be very hard for you”; to SELF-CARE, a word that I had hard time understanding because I never had time to take care of my mental, physical and emotional health, and now I have a better understanding of how social work can impact my health. By shadowing other social service providers, I gained skills like public speaking, and feeling confident about it. I learned that even though I am not 15 years old anymore, I can have amazing bonds with 15-year girls as this happened during my summer camp practicum. I learned that I practice emotional intelligence when I keep my opinion to myself even when if I do not agree with somebody else’s opinion. I also learned not to judge a book by the cover.  I learned that ACE’s is so powerful that people’s live are based on the experiences they have during childhood. I have learned the beauty of building strong friendships with your classmates in two years, Laurie, Jojo, Carla, Rakhi & Beryl (I love those amazing girls).

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What helped me to see things in different way now?

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What helped me to see things in different way now?

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I am passionate about advocating on behalf of human sex trafficking victims.  I read an article a there was a quote by Saver (2013), that really instilled how bad the issue of human sex trafficking was and how very unreal it was to me. This quote made me realize how humans can be so cruel to other…  "... You can sell a kilo of heroin once, you can sell a fourteen-year old girl 20 times a night 365 days a year" (As cited by Bauer et al., 2019, para 7).

The Truth and Reconciliation commission of Canada (2015, pp.37-43) is one of the most shocking documents I have ever read. The testimonies of the residential school survivors still resonates when I see a person from the indigenous community in the streets, and how much suffering they have experienced. When I see an Indigenous person, I see them differently,  Because I understand the generational trauma that have been hunting them.

ACE’s was another topic that hit me very hard, because I personally suffer from adverse experiences in my childhood, and it made me realize how much it has affected my life as an adult. ACE’s can have negative impact in the life of a person when have negative experience in childhood (Campbell, Walker & Egede, 2016, p.344).
Self-care was the most repeated word in the last two years at school. yes self-care is what as students and social workers must to practice. Zellrnann (2016, p.38), explained how  burnout and vicarious trauma can affect social service providers in a negative way.

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My role as a social worker in regard of social justice, oppression, and diversity

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My role as a social worker in regard of social justice, oppression, and diversity

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Having always in mind that our role as social workers is to respect and value each person’s dignity, with education and experience, I have learned to see beyond skin color, an addiction problem, or gender identity or people’s situations. I will support my clients keeping in my mind that individuals need my help, and not my judgement. I will advocated for them to ensure that their rights prevail and their voices are heard.

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Changes have absolutely occurred since the day I stepped in on my first class. I see how much my culture and my beliefs were strongly unwavering to the foundations I had before I started in the social work Diploma program, however, by making mistakes and by listening and educating myself I have learned how passionate I can be in others areas, and how I can navigate in areas that I am not comfortable with, and still feel happy and in peace. I have gained a better understanding of what is acceptance; I finally understood what a good friend told me long time ago… “Love is to look at people not with our own eyes, but with the eyes of love that God looks at them”.

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I struggle a lot in finding the perfect words when doing assignments or when I cannot  remember the meaning  or the proper spelling!

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Special things happened in those two years... 

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Special things happened in those two years... 

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I married the most amazing man in the world...  sometimes I feel sorry for him for marrying this extrovert Latin women.

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After two years of a lot of reading, sitting for extensive hours in front of my computer, my desire is to take a sabbatical year. In a personal level, I want to spend time with my son, my husband, and my furry baby. After that I am planning to pursue my social worker degree at the University of Calgary, because I want to be a better social worker, and because I want to ensure as a family, we have a better financial stability.

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I am excited to have a break from school, and spend time with my son! He deserves the world.
Nico  is an adorable child that struggle in life, but he is strong as an oak.

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We spend a lot of time cuddling with this amazing fur baby. it is the one that always greet us with so much happiness when we have shorts or long exhausting days. He is part of my self-care plan!