Chapter 8

1. What are your experiences with suicide, either personally or professionally?
I haven't really dealt with suicide on a personal level but I have known people that commited suicide. My friend's dad shot himself, one of my dad's friends shot himself, a kid that was a year ahead of me in highschool shot himself, my boyfriend's friend overdosed on prescription pills and died. So I have known people to kill themselves, but none that really affected me personally. I hope I never ahve to deal with that.
2. Do you feel that you have good writing skills? How can you improve your writing skills?
I feel that I write fairly well. There are certain times when I have to look up what to do and how to use punctuation.
3. Do you think that 12 step programs are effective? Why or why not?
I feel they are effective as long as the person as outside support. Without the support of family and others I think it is very easy to fall back into old habits.
4. Are you prepared to register for classes for next semester? If yes- great! If no- what can I do to help?
Yes, I am. I have a list of classes I would like to take and back up classes just in case I can't get into the ones that I really want.

Chapter 7

1. Could you provide a pregnant teen with information about pre-natal care, adoption services, or abortion services in an objective manner? If not, do you think human services workers should offer unbiased advice?
I believe I could povide this information in an objective manner. I am very against abortion, so I would try to inform the teen about other options such as keeping it or giving it up for adoption. Also, I feel that all of this information is important for the teen and her unborn baby. The child should not be at risk because of the mothers decisions and they should both still have the proper care that is needed.
2. What is the greatest problem in the United States? Why?
I believe the greatest problem in the United States right now is the unemployment rate, which also in my eyes is increasing the poverty rate. Many people are losing their jobs, which makes it hard for them to support their family. Also, with the economy the way it is right now, it is not very easy to find jobs, which also makes living harder. My boyfriends parents both lost their jobs within 2 months of eachother. They worked at 2 different places. Now they have a lot less income, they get paid unemployment but that's no where near what they were making. They also lost all of their health insurance which is making them very worried. They are still living and have sacrificed things that they want to be able to afford what they need, but others are not as fortunate. The saddest thing about this, is all of the children that are effected.
3. What is the greatest crime one person can commit against another? Why?
This is a tough question. I believe murder would ultimately be the worst crime, because you are taking a way an innocent person's life. I think it is even worse if the victim is a child, because no one really knows the real potential of that child.
4. If you were tape recording the sound of violence, what sound would you use? Why?
I would use a child bawling and screaming, because it would impact a lot of people and tear their hearts apart. It would be a sound that people don't want to hear, just like people don't want to be victims. The victims are also helpless like a crying child is.

5. Time to purge...Tell me anything else you want to share with me. What is making you happy? What is making you sad? How is school going? Can I help you with anything?
I got another grant for my financial aid and it couldn't have came at a better time. I have a lot going on right now, between classes, and work, now my boyfriend and I are looking for a place of our own. I hope we can afford it!

Chapter 6

Pros:
1) The Bill of Rights allow Americans to have a lot of freedom
2) You can be who you want to be, your not forced to act a certain way
3) Religion can expressed freely

Cons:
1) Even though we have a lot of freedom, we still have a lot of discrimination and prejudices.
2) Even if your not American you can still reep the benefits and job opportunities in our country.
3) Americans have a lack of patience when they want something they want it now.

B) If I were able to change the American culture I would keep how much freedom everyone has and being able to express yourself the way that you want. However I have a problem with all of the illegal immigrants that are living here and working here. I feel that they are in a sense stealing what is rifely ours. The businesses are also at fault for this because they are allowing the illegal immigrants to work here, more than likely because they will work for cheaper wages than others will. My biggest problem with the illegal immigrants is that some are here to better themselves, while others are here making a living and having all the freedom that they want, but also harming Americans. I think the reason why I feel this way is because my friend was raped, abused, and murdered by an illegal Mexican man living in Wausau. If our borders were stronger, he wouldn't have been here and she would still be alive.

2) a)George- is now worried that he wll be steretyped as a promiscuous gay man and that his parents willreject him considering they had a hard enough time accepting that he was gay.
b)Elena- is a practicing Muslim and feels that her parents will hate her if they find out that she had sex before marriage. Another problem that Elena is facing is that her boyfriend is the only person she has had sexual contact with so she's thinking she contracted it from him. However, she is uncomfortable talking to him about it at this point. On top of that all she has already made the comment that she sees no choice but to kill herself, which could also make her suicidal.
c)The Wilsons- with them being an African American couple they feel that Jack does not understand who they are and what they've been through. Also, with them both being heroin addicts it adds even more to the fire because they feel like they will be judged even more.
d)Thomas- is Latino. He seems to be the authority in the house, he doesn't think highly of women. He sees his kids as important, but that's about it. Jack brings up a good point about telling him that with the medication he and his wife can live long lives and be there for his children.
e)Fred- is an elderly man who thinks he contracted the disease from a hooker that he was with a couple months ago. He seems to be suffering from ageism as he is afraid of dying and may feel that because he is older and now has this disease that he will be less accepted by others.

This week I learned that it feels amazing to be ahead in your classes instead of waiting until the last minute to get everything done

Something good that happened to me this week is that I found a place to volunteer and they have plenty of hours and different activities for me to do.

Chapter 4

1) Unfortunately yes I get bored very easily and most often when I am sitting in class, especially a general class. This is kind of why I decided to take all my classes online, because I can do the assignments and reading on my own time and I can still occupy myself so that I don't get bored. Also, I'm not big into football and when people are talking about it I tend to stare into space or atempt to change the subject.
2)It depends on what I am doing. I am horrible in class I was in high school and I thought college would be different but I have a very hard time paying attention during class. However, when it comes to someone telling me a story or talking about something important, or wanting advice then I become very interested.
3)As you can tell from above, very often. Reading this text has been to bad because I'm interested in what I am reading.
B) I try to get involved in the conversation if I'm in class otherwise if I'm reading I'll take a break, maybe walk around for a bit and then I'll be ready to continue.
4)My boyfriend does this quite often. I'll try telling him something important or just try talking to him and usually he's so into his tv show that he's watching all i get is yup or okay or oh. It's very frustrating and irratating. It also makes me feel like what I'm saying isn't important to him.
5)My mom and I are very close and she's always been the one that I vent to and vice versa. When I'm having a problem and need someone to talk to she drops what she's doing and will listen and give me advice. She also gives me eye contact and focuses on what I am saying not anything else around us.
6)I don't think I'm beginning to know anyone personally but I'm beginning to learn about their opinions and what they feel strongly about.
B) I don't really know what could be done to get everyone to know eachother better. I, myself am busy and trying to get all my class work done that I don't really have time to try and get to know everyone in class.
7)I'm just wondering, do you need to make an appointment before going to one of the job seeking skills workshop?

This week I learned that I still have to figure out how to manage my time to get everything done that needs to be.

Something good that happened to me this week was that I ran into an old friend and got to catch up with her.

Chapter 3

1) I would like to be helpful and admired in my community. I try to set an example for my younger relatives and for the kids at the day care that I work at. I enjoy helping out whenever I am able to whether it be in my community or in another community. In 2008, I went to New Orleans with a group from school. We got a lot of publicity and people knew why we were going down there. Once people found out that we were going there to help clean up the mess that Katrina left, people were very willing to donate everyday things, in order to help the people. I feel that I was looked up to at this point in time, and I felt very appreciated. It was a wonderful feeling to get the community involved even though they weren't coming to New Orleans with us. I would like to continue in helping and trying to get the community involved.

2)I would be interested in providing an educational program for teen pregnancy. I have quite a bit of friends that got pregnant in high school and struggled a lot. Some have even gotten pregnant during college and have been struggling. I think an educational program for teens about pregnancy could really help the at risk teens to prevent pregnancy, use protection, and wait until they are ready and can financially support a child.

3) Again I would like to work with at risk teens. I don't think a lot of teens would want to seek out the services that I may provide. We were all teens once and I know that I didn't want to listen to anyone no matter what advice they were willing to give me. Teenagers are more about being right and not needing help from others. I hope that I would be able to find a way around it and get them interested in what I would like them to know.

4)I'm pretty satisfied with my work in the class discussions. I feel that I contribute enough, but I'm sure I could contribute more. I think I am beginning to know my fellow classmates, may be not personally, but I can tell what they think and topics they feel strongly about. Along with what they want to do in the future.

I learned that with not working as much I really need to start budgeting my money and hopefully that will help me throughout the semester.
This week I turned in my scholarshiop application and began to get a head on all of my school work. It feels amazing to have my school work done instead of procrastinating and waiting until it the very last day to get everything done.

Chapter 2

1.
a) Elementary school was not a very pleasant time in my life, not because of school itself, but because of what was going on in my life. I went to Washington Elementary School in Stevens Point from kindergarten through 2nd grade. Then I went to Rothschild Elementary School for the remainder of the time. I loved being at school, but when I started at Rothschild we were still living in Stevens Point. Both of my parents were working in Wausau and we were in the process of selling our house, so we commuted everyday. It became very hectic and I began getting migraines, which caused me to miss school and be at the doctor's office quite a bit. I've suffered from migraines ever since then.
b) I loved high school at times. Once I was a senior I was just ready to be done and I began thinking how am I ever going to make it through college when all I can do is count down the days until I'm done with school. I learned a lot during this period of my life. I was a good student. I played fastpitch softball, which I love! I began to realize who my true friends were, which were the ones that didn't start drama or get mad at me for every little thing. This is also when I found out what true love is. I met my boyfriend the summer before junior year and we've been together for over 3 years now. My senior year, I was in Family Careers and Community Leaders of America, this will be the one thing from high school that I'll never forget. I made some awesome friends, we went to New Orleans to help with the reconstruction of Hurricane Katrina, I got out of school at noon to go work, and I learned a lot about the "real world" and how to write resumes, cover letters, and resignation letters, important things that I will always need in the future. During this time I was also working at Liberty Mutual and learned that there is no way I could ever work at a place where I sit in a cubicle and work on a computer all day. I have way to much energy and get ADD just sitting around.
c)College a has been a fun point in my life so far. I started my college experience at UWSP. During my second semester at UWSP I was also attending UWMC. Once I decided what I really wanted to do and UWSP didn't have it as a major I transferred to the NTC. So actually college has been pretty hectic so far. The hardest part is getting everything transferred from school to school and now my Financial Aid is messed up because I had already filed for it at UWSP and then when I switched to NTC it needed to be reprocessed and it's taking along time to receive it, and I need it really bad right now, because I'm only working part time at a day care, which has helped me to realize that I definately would like to work with children.
d) Same as above
e)I'm motiviated externally by knowing what the outcome will be for others and how it may help them. As for internally, doing certain things makes me feel good about myself, which makes me motivated to do things even if I don't want to do them. An example would be now, I have a lot of online classes and its easy to just put things off to the last minute but internally I know that I need to get things done and that once I finish I'll be able to relax a little bit and have some fun.
f) I am fairly confident in myself to begin with. So I would say I am pretty confident as a learner. I usually try to figure things out on my own and if I have problems I'm okay with asking others for help.
g)I would like change how I organize myself, I could do this by buying a planner and writing down everything that I need to do during the semester so that I wouldn't forget or get behind in my work.

2. This week I began another class, and I learned that I have to manage my time even more with having 5 classes. I also learned how hard confrontation can be, but it's just something you have to do some times.

3. I received a letter of recommendation from one of my high school teachers and it made me feel very good about myself after reading it.

4. One of my friends told me about some of the things she did for her volunteering hours and one of them was participate in Make a Difference Day, How can I get involved in this?

Chapter 1

Chapter Review Questions:
1) A generalist approach is very flexible and tries to use different theories and methods when trying to help a client deal with their problems.
2)Eclecticism is necessary for being an effective human services worker because it uses a variety of models and interventions to deal with clients which is important because some clients may have a few problems and one method may not solve all of their problems.
3)Differences between an intern, volunteer, and an employee are that volunteers are not paid, an intern may or may not be paid, and an employee is paid. Another difference is a volunteer does it because they truly want to help people, where as an intern may want to help, but it may also be a part of a course credit. Also, the three different types of workers do different kind of jobs. A similarity between an intern, volunteer, and an employee is that they all are they to help their clients.
4)Two reasons to work in human services is to have a sense of pride and have a variety of job duties
5) Two reasons not to work in human services are to meet your own emotional needs and to be able to control people.

This week I learned exactly what Human Services is and different jobs that they may work at.

One good things that happened to me this week is I got paid at my job!!!!