by Chris Hilburn-Trenkle
Practicum education is an integral part of every unlicensed social worker’s training, placing students in a work environment with professional caregivers and advocates. Each student pursuing a master’s degree in social work first takes on a generalized practicum assignment, and later chooses a practicum assignment specific to their area of interest — either in direct practice care (micro care) or community, management, and policy practice (macro care).
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Social Work offered students a unique opportunity to work in a practicum placement in the Galapagos Islands for the first time this summer. The placement was created through the School’s Global Engagement Office in collaboration with faculty and staff from the Universidad San Francisco de Quito, the Galapagos Science Center, and the Center for Galapagos Studies. Funding was provided by the School of Social Work and a private donor.
We spoke with two students — Kierra Campbell, a third-year MSW student, and Dayana Bermudez, a second-year MSW student — about their placement in the Galapagos. The transcript was edited for clarity.
What made you decide to pursue a placement in the Galapagos?
Kierra: They offered the opportunity in February of this year, and it was the first of its kind to be offered through the UNC School of Social Work, with the requirement being rising specialization students and being a Spanish speaker. I thought “Hey, I want to do international social work. It aligns with my personal career goals and passions,” and that’s why I decided to apply.
Dayana: I’m Hispanic, and I thought “This is an opportunity for me to work with the community and also work on this unique island, because it’s a very small island.” I also applied because I speak Spanish and wanted specialization practice.
How many hours and weeks is the placement?
Kierra: In total we have to do 250 hours and it’s seven weeks. We were here for one week before we started the placement.
What are your specific roles for the organization you’re working with?
Dayana: We’re working for the Ministry of Health [through an intensive outpatient program]. We help with patients who have mental health problems such as bipolar disorder, depression, and also with patients who have substance abuse disorders. We do outpatient treatment and psychoeducation.
Kierra: We’ve also done psychotherapy treatment [and] community outreach. We do home visits for patients; we do onboarding into the program.
Dayana: A lot of different things, like community outreach and working with patients one-on-one.
Kierra: If we had to sum up our responsibilities in a title, we’re clinical social work interns.
Can you walk me through a typical day through your work?
Dayana: Every day is very different. In a week we can have home visits and then switch to therapy sessions, telecrisis to community outreach. It varies.
Kierra: You have to be so flexible because the plan can change in an instant.
How does this kind of work and the unpredictability and variance of it help broaden your perspective and empower you as a social worker moving forward?
Kierra: It’s been very fulfilling in the sense that I want to continue doing international/global development work. I didn’t know that was possible as a social worker, so as a social worker I feel like I have more of a solid grounding of the type of work a social worker can do in an international context — what I can offer as well as help me set my expectations. Always be willing to be flexible. Having a very open mind so that you can adjust better to cultural differences. I feel more equipped, I feel more empowered, I feel more aligned with my desires and my passions.
Dayana: The flexible part has been the hardest experience. From the beginning to right now, almost at the end of the placement, everything is changing, everything is new. You need to jump into it even if you aren’t ready, so you always need to be active and be flexible and be ready to make a decision. For example, in the community outreach: be ready to share your thoughts, share your knowledge with people — and I think that has been new for me. I really like it; I feel like I’m more ready to make decisions and take [on] more responsibilities. I also really like how UNC has been working here in the Galapagos and I’m excited that we were the first social workers here in the Galapagos [placement], so new social workers are going to continue the work that we’ve been doing. Hopefully we can help with other stuff such as research. I’m excited about social work in the global setting.
What have been your biggest takeaways during this time in the Galapagos?
Kierra: One of my biggest takeaways was related to the empowerment sense. From the first day, we were not treated as interns. We weren’t really given a safety net. We were full-blown professionals, expected to bring to the table knowledge we brought with us and expected to operate almost in a full capacity as an actual social worker here in Ecuador. That was really impactful for me because it allowed me to develop more of my voice and confidence as a professional, as a social worker. I’m not just a social work student, I’m a social worker.
Along with that, working in an interdisciplinary team, having my voice heard, advocating for my voice to be heard when there were disagreements and then having to advocate for patients when I was not in agreement with treatment. That’s been my biggest takeaway — the empowerment as a social worker but also defending myself in my second language, operating in that capacity, that’s been the most impactful.
Dayana: Only a few people know what social work is. How can we teach people or let them know what social workers do, and how different clinical social work is? Here in Latin America, clinical social work is working with psychology, but it’s a combination between psychology and social work. So, helping people understand about social workers, clinical social work, and what we do. Also, the idea of machismo, marianismo, how they play roles. Social workers are mostly women, and we’re women, so how can that play a role in these things about machismo and Latin America and our work. [Another takeaway was finding out] how to give a voice to patients, too.
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