Melissa Hallock

Personal Statement

Before starting the BSW program I was working as an Operational Manager for at several
quick service restaurants. It was a thankless position that taught me a lot about the corporate side
of America. All of the hourly employees were making minimum wage, raising families, and still
needing assistance while working full-time. This created a fire inside of me, I think that hard
working people deserve so much more. This is when I decided to go back to school and pursue a
career focused in social justice and policy reform.
From the moment that I enrolled in school full-time I became a volunteer, a mentor, an
ally, and an advocate. Leadership was something that did not surprise me. I became a volunteer
coordinator at my time at Macomb Community College with the HOPE Organization as the
President. I found myself being elected to the executive board of the Regional Inclusive
Community Coalition (RICC) in Wayne County during my Wayne State University education
along with sitting on the Deans Advisory Board of the School of Social Work.
Self-reflection and being able to look at oneself personally, professionally, and ethically
is not something that I did naturally before my social work education. With this tool I am better
suited to understand myself and how I am able to relate to others based on my own personal
strengths and weaknesses. In truth, learning about myself might have been the hardest lesson in
my professional social work training. I learned that through self-reflection and throughout my
social work education to challenge what I think I know. People are much more than what we see
and not all people can fit into a nice neat box labeled African American or Caucasian. It brings to
mind the quote, you cant judge a book by its cover (unknown). I think that learning about the

ecological framework for practice and the strengths perspective can be the most powerful and
meaningful theories of practice that could be used as a cultural competent social worker.
Believing in the training that I have received I would definitely upon completion try by
starting off where the person is. This would be using the person in their environment (PIE) or
ecological system and suspending judgment. I think that with the professional education that I
received along with the understanding that we are all people no matter what crime or groups that
we are categorized in throughout our lives that with my integrity and core values I would be able
to assist a client to the best of my abilities no matter who they are or what they have done. I will
continue to use the code of ethics as a guide throughout my career as a social worker promoting
and advocating for social justice and policy reform. As I continue to learn I remain malleable
allowing myself to change my attitudes or beliefs with the expansion of my knowledge base and
understanding of the world around me.