Amanda Wilson

SOCIOLOGY 104
Capstone Paper
Capstone Paper Questions

1. What area of career interest have you identified? Why are you considering this field? What do you have to
offer to clients and employers? State your Myers-Briggs type code and identify the strengths/weakness of
this type and how will they impact your performance in this field.
I am interested in working with children so maybe the field of foster care, child protective services or school counseling. I
am not completely sold on anything right now besides my work being with children or helping children in some way. I am
considering working with kids because I have always joked that kids are attracted at me as in they always see me at the
market and try and come up or in restaurants they will stare at me. I have compassion and excitement to offer, I have
experience working with low-income children from my work at HRDC as well as working at the Salvation Army. I love
being with children and getting to watch them grow up and see who they can become. My Myers-Briggs type is ISTJ,
which means I am dependable, organized but an open to change, some weaknesses are that I am persistent, and I prefer
things being done by the book. Some facts about ISTJ are they are more likely than other types to experience cardiac
problems and hypertension, and to experience chronic pain which means I could be triggered by stress at work and cause
health problems. Being dependable working with kids is the most important trait from my profile because kids need
someone stable in their lives. Most of the kids in foster care or in low-income families do not have someone dependable in
their lives. They need you to be there for them since nobody else has been.

2) What skills did you learn were essential to succeed in the field and to be effective with people who need our
help? Which of these do you believe will be the easiest for you? the toughest?
Two skills I learned that are essential is listening and letting people finish before answering or saying something. I think
listening will be the easiest for me because I have always been a good listener and liked just letting people tell me their
life stories so that comes easily to me. Something tougher for me will be to let someone keep talking before I butt in with
my answer. I think I am bad at that because I am afraid I will forget what I want to say or they will change the topic and I
won’t get to say what I was thinking. I know that I can always go back and let them know what I was thinking if I forgot,
or they changed the subject.

3) What are the challenges you will face in the Human Service program or other career training curriculum as
you work to acquire the skills and qualities necessary to succeed? What values do you possess that will be an
asset as you work with clients? What values or prejudices may be a problem? What client populations,
problems, or work requirements/assignments will be the most difficult for you and why? What strengths will
help you meet these challenges?
One challenge I will face as I am going through this program and then eventually working with children is not judging
where they come from. I am afraid I could want to judge their families for not treating these children like I was treated as
a child or even the way I would raise my own. One asset I can offer the children is dependability. Being dependable
working with kids is the most important trait from my profile because kids need someone stable in their lives. Most of the
kids in foster care or in low-income families do not have someone dependable in their lives. They need you to be there for
them since nobody else has been. The hardest population for me to work with would be people who come from money or
those who are well off and I would still need to get involved to keep the child safe from harm at home. I think this will be
the hardest because we are taught to expect bad things from the ones that are poorer, but it is completely possible to
happen to everyone. I know so many friends who grew up without much money and their parents did everything possible
to give them a good childhood. I also had a friend who grew up with money, but her parent was barely ever home and was
always working so you never know what is happening at home. A strength that I have is being understanding and being
willing to listen when someone wants to talk. I want to be the safe person for them to talk to and just be a friend for
everyone.

4) Assess the progress you made on the goal you set for yourself in Career Assignment #1. What contributed to
your improvement or achievement of your goal? What were the barriers you experienced and what are you
willing to do in the future to continue to improve?
My goal from career assignment #1: “A goal of mine would be to be less short tempered with introverts. For
example, after a long day and I go home my parents may want to talk my ear off, but I get annoyed easily and I
would like to be more understanding.” I think I am less short tempered with other types but that is something I
have been working on for a while. I understand that sometimes my parents may want to talk about and I will
just sit there and listen or sometimes I want to talk a lot and they are tired and may just pretend to listen but I
understand they are both like me. Some barriers for me were just understanding everyone does not have the
same annoyances as me and trying to clearly and politely state that I am not in the mood to talk right this minute
and I need some alone time.

5) Based on what you have learned about yourself during this course and the criteria for writing a good goal,
write out two personal goals to which you will commit in order to improve your interpersonal skills.
By the end of 2021, I will decrease the number of times I interrupt someone mid-sentence by practicing self-control and
patience by only doing it once a week.
By the end of the Human Service Program, I will increase my interpersonal skills by becoming a more empathetic and
patient person by taking everything we learn and read about and applying it to my own life.

6) Summarize why workforce wellness strategies are so important in the helping professions and identify which
strategies you find to be most helpful. What did you learn this semester that was new to you? What are some
strategies that you would like to explore or try in the future?
Workforce wellness strategies are important in the helping field because you need to know how to work on your own
self-care so you do not end up struggling mentally or physically from the stress of the job. Some strategies I think
could be more helpful with kid is coloring while listening to music, watching calming videos like the ones of the sea
turtles and jellyfish, as well as soft belly breathing. The strategies that worked the best for me though were the
coloring with the calming music in the background, playing the ABC memory game, and watching the videos of the
sea turtles and jellyfish. Something I learned this semester that was new to me was talking about feelings during class.
I was very surprised for some reason by that the very first day so it is still something I am working on getting used to.
I do like to be a more private person, so I do not normally tell people that I do not know so well everything about me
especially my feelings. In the future when I work, I would like to try the soft belly breathing to see if I can use it to
help relax a child or give them that skill to take home with them.

7) ONLY REQUIRED IF YOU DID SOME OR ALL OF YOUR WORKBASED; Reflect on your workbased
experience. What did you do and what were your reactions to the experience and the agency where you
volunteered? How did this affect your career plans?
I loved every minute of my work based and I am thankful I was able to do it at the place I am now permanently employed
at. Working with The Salvation Army made me want to work with kids just as much as I did when I first graduated
from the Education Program four years ago. During my first week I helped clean up the craft room so that I was able
to help prepare the building for week one of summer day camp. I cleaned, cut out large cut outs, decorated the chapel,
decorated the youth programming hall, and planned my lessons for imagination station for week one. Working there
only made me want to continue with my plan to specialize in child care, so I am thankful I have this light back in me
and am ready to get back to school.

8) Based on what you have learned in the course about careers in the helping field:
● summarize your career plan for the next 2-5 years and explain what makes you think this will be the best
way to use your gifts and achieve your dreams
● list the action steps that will be necessary to put your plan into action
● identify a target date for each action step.
Within the next two years I would first like to have graduated from the Human Service program at Allegany College, have
a full time job and be enrolled in an online bachelor’s program. We have joked at work that they are going to make a new
position so they can keep me permanently after I gradate, but my ideal workplace would be somewhere ideally working
for a smaller place like Big Brothers Big Sisters or as an advocate for another children’s program. I think I would be a
better fit at a place like these and not working for somewhere like the State or Government because I am not a big-time
kind of person, my third preference on an internship would be in the school system with the guidance counselors. I prefer
everyone knowing each other and being able to make relationships with the community and people that support you. At
bigger places you may not know everyone and where all your support and funding comes from. For this to happen I would
need to continue working for The Salvation Army and then possibly doing an internship somewhere in the community like
The Judy Center or HRDC. After I have a smaller internship, I would want to do something a little bigger just to really
make sure I do not want something like that. While working for The Salvation Army I know we are now apart of the Boys
and Girls Club so I will get my community connections from there, the Judy Center, as well as from the Allegany Youth
Enrichment Program Services (AYEPS). So, I will have relationships with them that I can build off of in the future if need
be at my new job or it could be I get my new job because of those relationships. After I graduate in two years and find a
job I will then work towards my bachelors degree. Ideally it will be online, but if not, I can take a few classes a year at
Frostburg State so I can keep working towards my degree. Within three years of graduating from Allegany College I want
to have received my bachelor’s degree and be considering working towards my masters. Four years from now I will be 28,
so ideally I will have a husband and family to keep myself going for.