Journal of Student Research 2018

98 Journal Student Research and that I can be a part of it. Nelson Mandela said “As long as poverty, injustice and gross inequality persist in our world, none of us can truly rest.” (BBC News, 2005). I truly felt that sense of restlessness during my first year here, and it led me to switch my major to Human Development and Family Studies. This degree is an interdisciplinary study of psychology, sociology, human development, and family dynamics. It is about people; and people are the world I want to help. I recently declared the Social Work Professional Certificate as my concentration, as that is the field in which I feel I can make the greatest difference in poverty, injustice, and inequality whether at the micro level: helping individuals, or the macro: working towards societal change. Further, this university is equipping me to be an effective change agent. I am currently the president of the student organization Force for Freedom: IJM Student Abolitionists. They are a student chapter of International Justice Mission, a group which works through the legal systems of countries around the world to help end poverty, human trafficking, and modern day slavery (IJM, 2017). Force for Freedom seeks to raise awareness of these issues, fundraise for International Justice Mission, and encourage Stout students to be involved in this mission through volunteering and donating. I love being a part of this organization, because, while I have chosen a career path that furthers these causes, I recognize it is not the responsibility of my field alone to enact these changes in our world. It is my hope, then, to bring to others greater awareness of these issues and of ways that they can help. These experiences in and out of the classroom are influencing my plans for the future in every way. I would love to complete an internship with International Justice Mission and after that it is my hope to be employed in the social work field, either abroad with an organization like IJM, or here in the states. Either way I want to assist children and families get out of poverty, maintain strong families, step away from the rush of modern consumerism, and feel safe and protected. In every one of my classes, I’ve been introduced to different professions and organizations that seek to do these things and are able to make a difference in this world. I am truly grateful for this wealth of connections and opportunities as well as the empowerment to pursue them that I have received from this university. Since beginning my time at UW-Stout, I have been introduced to issues I was unaware of, I have altered my career path to be one that champions the causes I’ve become passionate about, I’ve started to become equipped with the skills necessary to make a difference in this world, and I have planned my future around the values I have developed. Nelson Mandela once said “There is nothing like returning to a place that remains