Interns relay their experiences at NASW AZ Chapter NASWAZ was proud to host two interns this year: Amber Bugaiski and Edward Adu’Elohiym. They took the time to chronicle their experiences and share them with us here as they finished the 2010-2011 school year and graduated with their MSW degrees. Congratulations, Amber and Edward!
From Amber Bugaiski: My name is Amber Bugaiski and I had the wonderful opportunity to be able to do my second year internship while completing my Master’s of Social Work degree at The National Association of Social Workers in Arizona. I chose this internship because I knew that it would help me to become a well rounded social worker and I knew I would learn a lot more about community organizing, planning, and administration. This internship definitely met my expectations and more in that I was able to learn and grow as a social worker in all of these areas. My experience at NASW was one that was very rewarding. I learned many things at my time with NASW working as an Intern, but the most important aspect I learned was to value my profession. NASW is one of the only organizations that accepts everyone and works extremely hard every day in every aspect to promote equality. I learned that because of NASW, there is hope in this world for change and equal opportunity for all people. I had many memorable experiences throughout the year and one of most significant for me was The Social Work Summit in November of 2010. This event took a lot of preparation and hard work but was definitely worthwhile. I was delighted to meet so many dedicated social workers who continue to further their education and promote the profession. I gained a great amount of knowledge in Public Policy while working with PAFCO and PACE during the electoral process during my Internship. As a recent Arizona resident, I learned an extensive amount about politics in Arizona and became an advocate for the people of Arizona. I became an educated voter as well as learned more about what changes and policies I would like to see change. Overall, I learned so much from my field placement and throughout my degree especially how to be a productive and dedicated social worker. I met so many great social workers and had so many 8
Edward Adu’Elohiym and Amber Bugaiski fantastic experiences that I feel prepared to start my career and journey as a social worker. I had opportunities to learn both direct practice and policy, administration, and community education and I am glad I made the choice to do so. There are times when we all wonder whether we make the right decision as our profession and now as I am finishing my graduate career, I feel proud and at ease that I made the right decision. I would highly recommend that all students entering the field should become a member of NASW to see for themselves how gratifying being a social worker is. From Edward Adu’Elohiym : As an intern for NASWAZ, I engaged in nonpartisan voter registration training, voter registration and phone banking activities to increase the number of voters in Arizona. The voter registration training focused on why voter engagement was important and provided simple ways to reach others. For instance, I learned how to carefully support or oppose a particular candidate or political party while speaking with potential voters by simply educating those voters on legislation and policies that might negatively or positively impact their lives. I found that exposing voters to their candidates’ voting records and whether it was consistent with their values was affective at getting voters to think about who they want representing them in government. On balance,