Pinning Ceremony Speech

In the fall of 2020, as the country was starting to put itself back together in the midst of a

global pandemic, we started our social work journey. We would be split into 3 separate cohorts,

meeting in person every other week. Nobody knew what to expect as we showed up that first

day, with our masks on and full of anxiety and anticipation. Little did we know that this was the

beginning of many meaningful friendships, remarkable moments, and overwhelming amounts of

papers and projects.

When we entered our Senior year, our close-knit cohorts were a thing of the past, we

started classes with people we were meeting for the first time and started internships at

unfamiliar places. To say there were some feelings of uncertainty and worry would be an

understatement. But just like with everything else that came our way, we persevered through the

challenges.

Over the past few years, there have been personal losses and gains, unforgettable

memories made, tears cried, (mostly by me) and accomplishments big and small, both inside and

outside the classroom. There have been numerous deadlines, late nights, early mornings, and

afternoons spent in the student center rushing to finish assignments that were put off until the last

minute. We’ve experienced stubborn kids, aggressive teenagers, and dramatic grown adults who

have all made us question our abilities as future social workers.

But one thing that got me through all of this, is that with each moment we shared in Dr.

Matthews class, whether uplifting or challenging, it was always met with an immense amount of

support and encouragement from my peers and from Dr. Matthews. She had a way of

challenging us to look deeper into a client’s behaviors to truly understand why someone was
behaving a certain way. She promoted self-care, gave us space to make mistakes, prompted

frequent hilarious moments, and did not kill us when we all left class that day she was 20

minutes late. She helped me grow as a person and as a social worker and because of her I will

always remember the phases of the helping relationship.

As we move forward from this program and University, some of you are taking a year or

two off, some are attending graduate school, and some are pursuing a career. I want to

congratulate each and every one of you and thank you for being a significant and essential part of

this journey. If I take away anything from this experience it’s that I found that my fear of failure

and need for perfection did not mesh well with the messiness of the social work field, because it

is anything but perfect, and you will absolutely make mistakes, but you will learn from those

mistakes and you will grow, and it will be okay. I want to leave you all with a quote by Susan

Wojcicki (wuu-CHITS-kee), Rarely are opportunities presented to you in a perfect way. In a nice

little box with a yellow bow on top. 'Here, open it, it's perfect. You'll love it.' Opportunities -- the

good ones -- are messy, confusing and hard to recognize. They're risky. They challenge you.

Go out there, take risks and be challenged.