Law and Social Work's GoodReads Bookshelves (Read & To Read)

Sunday, November 22, 2009

Welcome Note

Welcome, readers.

I wanted to take a few moments to introduce myself and to attempt to summarize the goals of this site.

While in Undergrad at UNO, studying Sociology and focusing on Women's Studies, it became deeply apparent how intertwined our world truly has become. By Grad School at Tulane, and working on my Master's in Social Work, it became even clearer there are plenty of "change the world one person at a time" individuals, but not enough to understand the big picture -- see the forest through the trees, if you will. Halfway through Tulane, I decided to go to law school even though I did not need it to work in domestic social welfare policy and to lobby. Law school at Loyola required me to spend three years delving into theory, but not offering any practical application of that theory. Luckily, I worked in a law office which gave me that outlet and allowed me plenty of practical experience. Unfortunately, what also became dreadfully obvious was the inability of professionals to transcend communications from one profession to the next.

As a global society, we are required to have relationships with individuals who do not speak our language, those who do not have our vocabulary, nor our education, and those, of course, who did not have the same experiences. It is our duty, as professionals and as human beings, to do everything we personally can to connect with others, and sometimes that forces us to come out of our shells, recognize the other options and ideas of the world, and to accept that we do not know it all.

One of my goals for this site is to highlight when those interactions go well and to contemplate when they do not. To connect with others is a privilege and a responsibility we should not take lightly.

Please keep reading. Offer your insight. Tell us we are wrong. Back it up and be open to debate. The world is waiting.