A Letter to My Graduating Social Work Field Education Students
by Aimee B. Chung, MSW, LSW
Dear graduating field students,
Congratulations! You are about to complete your degree in social work. You’ve worked so hard. You’ve survived the group projects, written the papers, presented the presentations, and (most importantly) put in the field hours. You are joining the ranks of the mere 7% of the world’s population who have a college degree. We are honored to know each of you and be witness to your field education journey. We are humbled to have walked this path with you, as you navigated ethical dilemmas, wielded your newly learned theories, applied your social work tools with skill, fessed up to your mistakes, and exercised your shiny new professional boundaries. We are duly impressed!
We observed as you persevered in your field sites. For most, this growth seldom presents entirely as smooth rainbows or pretty unicorns. Along the way, there were academic barriers, competing life demands, and oh, also that nasty unpredictable global pandemic and that ever-expanding world-wide endemic racial injustice. Despite all these challenges, you did not stop. You persevered. When you encountered overwhelming moments or miscommunication with field instructors, or when you were consumed with self-doubt and questions about your place in the field, you did not stop. You persevered. When crisis and loss in your personal lives threatened to disrupt your education, you did not stop. You persevered. When you were covered in frustration and tears with no idea how you would complete your field hours, you did not stop. You persevered. As individuals and as a cohort, you accepted the challenge, found strength in each other, and rallied for your community. You persevered.
You are the embodiment of all we hope social workers will be—caring professionals who are known for their warmth, empathy, and genuineness. As burgeoning social workers, compassion is evident in your field work, in the connections you have with each other, in your personal self-care plans, and in the advocacy you practice. You have become ambassadors for justice and champions of change, not only for your clients, but also for yourselves and each other. You are kind and authentic humans. We are proud.
You are a smart, flourishing cohort, already leaving indelible marks on us as faculty, staff, and field instructors. As you graduate, you take with you the metaphoric fingerprints of your teachers, field instructors, and coordinators. As you close this chapter, you bear the deep impressions left by relationships curated with your field clients and new colleagues. You take with you the battle scars of balancing class time, field hours, homework, employment, and family obligations. You have come to intrinsically understand the adventurous art of self-care. Being a social worker is not a day job. It is a lifestyle. It is a way of being and existing in this world. It is a navigation system designed to center, ground, and guide you well.
Congratulations, graduates! The time is right! We are honored to call you colleagues in the ever-evolving, demanding, yet greatly rewarding, profession of social work.
Aimee B. Chung, MSW, LSW, is a Field Education Coordinator at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, Thompson School of Social Work & Public Health. Her experience and interest areas include field education; self-care; trauma-informed frameworks; power-based personal violence; and culturally diverse, indigenous, differently-abled, economically disadvantaged, marginalized, and underserved communities.