Perkins Loan - No Longer My Obligation

I finished graduate school in September 2003 with the same thing most MSWs graduate with - a pile of debt. You see, even with a half-tuition "Urban Scholar" scholarship, Boston University's tuition fees were pretty steep. Therefore, I had to apply for loans. One of the loans that I received was a Perkins Loan, which would be forgiven if I worked in social services for 5 years following graduation. Being as I was attending graduate school for Social Work, this requirement didn't seem like it would present much of a problem. So, every year since 2004, I have faithfully submitted all of the paperwork necessary to substantiate my work in social services and have my loan forgiven. Each year, bit by bit, the loan repayment grew smaller.

You can only imagine how excited I was to receive a letter in the mail this afternoon thanking me for "completing my loan obligation"!! (Okay, so it is pending verification from the lender, but whatever. The loan requirements have been satisfied.) I am so excited, I wanted to share my letter with you all:

Okay, now I know you are super psyched, but don't get too out of control!! See, I still have a few thousand dollars left in Stafford loans. My goal is to hunker down and pay off the rest of my school loans by the end of 2009. So, at that point, I'll be 100% debt free and we'll really party then, okay?

May 19th Special Election - My Opinion on 1D and 1E

At first glance, choosing how to vote on Props 1D and 1E can seem so hard. . .it is like asking a mother to pick which of her children she likes best! But here is my opinion:

Essentially, Prop 1D will take money from early childhood development programs (First 5) and put it towards foster care and children with disabilities. My take on it is this: If we reduce our early childhood intervention (which includes parenting classes, home visits to new parents, etc), we are essentially creating a bigger problem for ourselves 3-5 years down the line because we will be generating an even higher # of kids who are either in foster care or have severe medical/developmental issues that could have been addressed (and possibly reduced or eliminated) if they had received appropriate services early on.

Prop 1E takes money from adult community mental health services and puts it towards child, teen, and young adult mental health services. First of all, adult community mental health services are HUGELY important in reducing homelessness, incarceration, illegal drug use, etc. Not to mention that they help to stabalize families by assisting mentally ill adults with children (of which there are many) to be more effective parents. If we reduce these services, we are really going to see the impact within a short period of time. Also, mental health services for children, teens, and young adults are federally mandated, so the state HAS to pay for them.

The state financial situation is truly heinous right now, however, I do not agree that cutting crucial services will help the situation. By doing that, we are only putting the most vulnerable people at greater risk. To fix this budget issue, I suggest that we become far more innovative in our thinking by looking at issues like prison reform, job/skill develoment, and legalization of marijuana.

Now get out there and VOTE!

Social Work as a Profession: No Way to Get a Man

Being a social worker is exhausting.




Well, that statement was going to be the entire blog, because, honestly, I don't really have the energy to compose much more text at this point in my day. It is nearly 8pm, and I am ready to climb into bed. How do social workers ever manage to get married? When is there time to date? Well, okay. If I really examine my schedule, I see that I do have some time on Saturday mornings, around 11am. (But not this Saturday because I am volunteering at the food bank with the Young Dems.) All other times, I am either booked up with appointments and meetings or my brain is completely fried from inane incidents with clients, or, even worse, other social service professionals. The only men I meet at work are birth fathers (who are in the process of pulling together their lives to regain custody of their children), foster dads (who generally have a co-parent already), or other equally stressed-out social workers. In the past, I have considered doing my social work job in a half-ass manner so that I can reserve my precious energy for man-hunting/dating. But you see, the idea of doing the job in a half-ass manner is pretty incongruent with the profession itself. I don't know if you were aware of this, but social workers don't really get paid very much money. Instead of monetary compensation, social workers are compensated by the satisfaction of doing good work (at least, this is what they tell us in grad school when they give us our student loans, which won't be paid off until we are 50). Ultimately, if you decide to do half-ass work AND you aren't getting paid very much money, then there's really no reason to be a social worker (even if you do have increased energy for man hunting.) So, I will push forward in the pursuit of satisfying good work, and I will hope that one of these days, while en-route to a Team Decision Making Meeting, I run into a handsome, liberal man whose multi-million dollar renewable energy corporation is installing solar panels into the county offices.

Hey, even social workers are allowed to dream.