Economic Lifestyle

Luckily I am doing Volunteer Hours right now so I was able to interview Chrissie Petersen, who has a Bachelors of Social work from USF. I talked to her about the Social Work profession and the good news is that Social Work is such a generalist degree that there are job open almost everywhere. You can work for the government, public agencies, or private agencies. You can work with almost any population of people and different agencies are always looking for more help.
A problem with being a social worker however is that if you work in a publicly funded agency you are not going to paid that much. To really make a good income you have to get your Master's degree in Social Work which is an extra 3 semesters I will be in school and not working.
If you are working in a publicly funded agency you always have to worry about whether your funding is going to be cut and if you'll have a job for the next year. Even in a private agency with the way the economy is going, no one can be certain that they are going to be able to keep their jobs. When looking to advance in the Social Work field you have to put in a lot of time to gain experience and a lot of time to gain education. There is only so far you can with a BSW before you have to get a MSW, and to go even further you can get you PhD of SW to do more research and teaching or become a Licensed Clinical Social Worker which allows you to do the most in depth counseling with clients.
To ensure success in my career while I am still in school I must get good grades and when I go to do my internship i have to work hard and be a dependable student. If I do well in my internship I could possibly get a job at that agency or use them for a recommendation and experience history when I do apply for a job in the field. Chrissie told me that if I work hard and make connections with different people in the field through my teachers, employers and intern supervisors I will do good in the field because it is about working with people and the more people you know the high up you can get.
Overall I feel pretty secure in the profession I have chose to go into after I graduate. I will be going to school for my Master's degree right after my BSW is completed next year. After that I feel like I won't have a problem getting a job and starting a career, even if it is hard to keep the same job for a long time due to public funding.

Ecological Lifestyle

I looked up my ecological footprint and I take up about 16.1 acres of Earth's productive area and 3.6 Earths. It looks like I can change this by eating less meat, taking the bus more often, and recycling more, even though my apartment complex doesn't have a recycling center. I'm going to work on finding somewhere nearby that I can recycle, having a salad for dinner, and seeing if there is any kind of bus transportation around me. I'll work on it and get back in 24hours.

So I finished my 24hours and I really did look around for somewhere to recycle but the closest are is about a 10 minute drive so I don't know if the gas I use driving makes up for the bottles I put into recycling. Also, there isn't a bus to take me to school and work. I would have to drive about the same amount of time it takes me to get to school to get to the bus stop, so I would effectively hurt the environment because I would be using the bus for no reason. In addition, I like meat and don't want to stop eating it. I already eat a lot of fruits and vegetables and refuse to supplement my meals with tofu instead of chicken. Overall I don't think I am destroying the planet because I try to be very ecologically sound in my decisions, from the car I bought to the food I eat. I did turn off my air conditioning and open the windows but I don't think that will be possible come April.

Challenge

One challenge that my family is currently facing ad will face for the next four years is the state of the economy. Right now, one of my brothers has lost his job because the company closed, my other brother has had his work hours reduced, my mother cannot find a new job after her company closed, and I myself work for a small business that has had to cut my hours and reduce pay because they are not making enough money.
My bills however have not been reduced, and I am continually trying to find ways to pay everything so that I am not in the negative, but as gas prices go down which 'will not last' as the media keeps saying, food prices go up.
This is an injustice because the reason business close is because they don't have enough money because no one is buying their product. No one can afford to buy the products because they are being laid off or paid less, or are stuck in debt because of bad loans. This is a catch 22 and unless something is done soon, we will be in a horrible recession. I think one of the only things to do is to try and help people get out of debt by working on adjusting loans to more affordable rates and getting people spending again. As citizens we ca work with out legislators to express what is happening to us, and to try and manage debt in a smart way so that we do not borrow more than we can pay back.

Technology

OK well I didn't use my phone, computer, TV etc... but I read a good book. I'm off to check my email.

I didn't have that hard of a time with this project because I worked for most of the day and when I got home I cleaned the house, did some homework, and read a book. The hardest part of the day was not being able to use my cell phone to send text messages to people. I work at a daycare and there is nap time from 1-3pm and I usually send text messages to keep entertained. It was hard to have nothing to do during this time, but I did read almost all of the kids books in my classroom. Otherwise it wasn't that bad. Obviously I couldn't do this forever because I need the computer to check email and do homework, even pay most of my bills, but otherwise it was OK.

No Technology

I am starting my time without technolgy. Its 12:35pm.