Exit Essay

The social and behavioral science major has more than exceeded my needs and

expectations as a student. The lessons I have learned throughout the coursework extends far past

the classroom. I have developed a new understanding of how society functions, and the: social,

institutional, and environmental factors that influence individual and group behavior. The

sociology and pre-law classes encouraged me to critically examine our society, and begin to

bring change to our community through research and advocacy.

I believe I have met the demands of the SBS major, demonstrating my abilities through

major learning outcome deliverables and advocacy in our community. Through the demands, I

gained experience, knowledge, and empathy; which changed my own identity and how I interact

with others. When I came back to university, I was positive I wanted to become a lawyer and

was dedicated to helping families struggling in the legal system. But this major truly changed the

person I was meant to be, and I now know my true calling is to be a social worker and not a

lawyer.

I attribute these changes to several experienced I had as an SBS major during my time at

CSUMB. Both of these experiences are extremely personal, the first involves my daughter's

father and taught me a lesson about privilege and generational poverty; the second involves

undocumented immigrants and the struggle for legal status.

Privilege and Diversity

The first experience comes from my personal background and newfound perspective with

my relationship with my daughters’ father. For the purpose of this story, we will call him Daniel.

In the first years of being a single parent and sole provider, I was angry and spiteful towards the
absentee Daniel. My perspective was only shaped by my current financial hardships and

first-hand knowledge of what it feels like to not have a father around for important milestones.

Once I returned to school and completed my undergraduate degree I became aware of the other

factors that can impact one's ability to succeed and thrive in today's society.

This discovery has changed the way I feel about Daniel because I realized his absence

and parenting incapabilities came more from institutional barriers and generational oppression

than his lack of desire to be a father. Daniel is of Hispanic descent. Daniel was born into a

low-income family as the youngest of ten siblings. He and has nine siblings, grew up living in

trailer parks with absent parents. Daniel’s parents had to work multiple jobs to afford housing

and other basic necessities for the family. Even as hard-working individuals, they were often

unable to meet the basic needs of themselves and their children. The town he grew up in was

highly gentrified because of its proximity to Silicon Valley. He was labeled as a “gang banger or

bad seed,” and harassed by police at a young age. With this, his pathway led to incarceration.

Daniel has been incarcerated on and off for most of my daughters’ childhood, missing her first

birthday, her first day of school, and many more events. The residual effects of the transgressions

against people of color in this world have affected him gravely. Daniel wasn’t given boots and

therefore can’t tug on those bootstraps to “fix,” his reality. He has never shared with me that he

holds the belief that he was born into a situation that put him at a disadvantage, however, through

the lens of humbled privilege, and my efforts to practice humility/educate myself, I am able to

see some of these themes in his story.

This understanding will help me in my social work career because like Daniel, many will

not report the institutional issues as a chief complaint. However, it will be a factor to consider
when tailoring resources to the person through social work. This also demonstrates the major

learning outcomes and skill I have gained as an SBS student.

Ethics, Legality, and Values

My immigration status hardship raised within me questions regarding ethics, legality, and

values towards our legal system, institutional oppression, and its effect on undocumented

citizens. I began to wonder how to access/lack thereof, plays a role in the ability of people to file

for status in this country. As a Canadian born citizen, I earned permanent residency when I was

a teenager due to my father's employment in the tech industry. Although I have memories of the

immigration process, I did not realize at the time that it paled in comparison to the experience

other applicants faced. Last year, I continued my lesson in my own privilege and deepened my

understanding that I have a much different experience both personally and institutionally than

that of others. In the heat of the immigration debate in the U.S. today, I found myself without a

valid Green Card and with it, the inability to work legally. At first, I was frustrated with the

immigration system charging more than five hundred dollars for a replacement card in

conjunction with a minimum of six to nine-month delay in processing. Which left me out of

work for more than a year, as a single mother, in school full time. I was forced to rely on student

loans to continue my education and support my daughter. Through continued introspection, this

experience beckoned the questions: what about those who don’t have access to said money?

What about those who are not here with a family who works in the tech industry? What about

those whose parents are immigrants? In an effort to seek the answers to some of these questions,

I began reading the book ​Becoming Legal​ , which detailed the stories of multiple undocumented
individuals and their families as they navigated the path to legal status. It opened my eyes to the

differences in our experiences.

Coming from Canada, as a white middle-class family, we were free from fear of police

harassment, discrimination based on our skin color, and lack of resources for support. We were

free to travel around the country without carrying our documents because the color of our skin

gave us the privilege to blend in. Once I became a single parent, I was able to access social

benefits such as medical insurance and Calfresh to help supplement my needs during my time of

unemployment. Everything anti-immigration activists feared, could be seen in my own

experience however, with a favorable outcome. I too was brought as a small child to the United

States. I entered the workforce and was able to move into management roles within a short

amount of time. Once I returned to school and temporarily lost my ability to legally work, I was

able to receive social benefits through “tax paying Americans.” As my self-reflection continued,

these injustices sparked within me a sense of shame, guilt, but most of all, the need to be an

advocate for change.

The SBS department has prepared me for a career in advocacy and with the help of

obtaining the MSW, I would like to use my platform in an effort of obtaining equity for all. The

change in career paths from lawyer to social work was a natural choice, once my eyes were open

to the way gender, race, and class impacts every aspect of our society. The real change needs to

begin far before individuals get into the legal system.