Alyssa Locascio

In the middle of going through a hard time in high school dealing with bullying, health problems, and family issues, I felt hopeless. Everything changed when my parents decided to bring me to a social worker on a weekly basis. Before I met this social worker, I had the impression that social workers were people who just sat there and listened to you for hours, didn’t actually do anything to help their clients, and also just tore families apart. This stereotype is what I was expecting when I began therapy, but his motivational talks began to get me thinking. Therefore, I decided to give my all. It wouldn’t hurt to try? 

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In each session, I gave the therapy my all and put my trust in the social worker. I even completed all the exercises and homework assignments he gave me without pouting although they were challenging or uncomfortable at times. The social worker cared about my well-being, gave great advice, helped me come to term with things and made me realize others, was patient with me, was always there for me, believed in me, taught me how to deal with stress in healthy ways, and helped me find who I am. I was wrong about my first initial thoughts of social workers. I’m very grateful to have worked with a social worker as I have come to realize based on my experiences from then on that social workers are caring, down to earth, genuine, intelligent, reliable mentors that want nothing more than to support you and see you happy.  

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After this first actual experience communicating with a social worker, I knew I wanted to help children the same way the social worker had helped me as a child. I wanted to show children who believed in the negative stereotype of social workers that they had nothing to fear because the stereotype couldn’t be more wrong. Many children that are helped my social workers have lost hope in feeling happy again as they have been torn down so much already in life because of disorders, bullying, losing a loved one, seeing their parents fight and become divorced, having trouble learning in school, emotional issues, etc... My goal is to make them happy again, put smiles on their faces, and touch their hearts forever just like how the social worker did for me when I was a child. I would love to continue this ripple effect and inspire children who are struggling.  

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I absolutely cannot wait to make a positive impact on their lives, but first, I must work hard to earn a bachelors in social work and learn all the skills that I need to help these children the most I can in the future. There will be many mountains to climb and hurdles to jump along the way, but there cannot be progress with struggle. It is okay to struggle; what matters is that you get back up and keep going because there is no progress without struggle. This is what I am learning myself and what I hope to teach children in my practice one day.