During my time as an undergraduate student at Longwood University, I developed a better understanding of many concepts. Below I’ve compiled a review of classes I took that relate to social institutions such as the family, the criminal justice system, and race. The list also includes everything I took away from these courses.

Marriage and the Family:

• Gender roles within a marriage
• How to write a contract
• The diversity of married couples
• How to create and manage a budget
• Parenting ideologies
• How vital communication is within a marriage

Stress and Family Crisis:

• How to identify family stressors
• How to be resilient when faced with stress
• Utilizing resources to cope with family stress
• How to cope with family illness, aging, and death
• How to collaborate with a group

Race and Racism:

• How to define racism
• Identifying systematic racism
• How racism is still present in our everyday lives
• How race plays a role in the hiring process/economics
• How to create a podcast that discussed the history of Aunt Jemima
• Civil Rights Movements
• The Black Lives Matter Movement
• Over-policing
• Redlining
• Gentrification
• The disproportion of minority incarceration
• How to collaborate with a group

Here I have provided three papers that reflect my learning within the 3 courses above. As I was reviewing each reflection paper, I realized that I have come a long way within the way I produce my writing assignments. I can proudly say that my vocabulary has increased, and the structure of my writing has improved greatly. I owe my growth to the many essays I wrote in the last three years along with the use of a thesaurus. Since I was in middle school, I have enjoyed expressing my thoughts in papers, but I quickly realized how difficult it can be to write on a college level.  

Not all college writing assignments are the same. There is a difference in word count, the number of resources you are permitted to use, the format, grading, etc. It can be overwhelming for many, but it all prepares you for the reports one may have to compose in the future. These assignments also expose you to information that brings awareness to issues found within our society that could be changed by us young adults. Due to myself being a sociology major, a majority of my papers have been in APA format.  

Learning how to write in this format was a challenge for me initially. There are formalities with indentations, initials, italics, and citations. The prominent issue I struggled with was where to put the period after citing a source. Sometimes I would put it inside of the parentheses and get points taken off my paper and other times I would put the period on the outside which conflicted with my OCD. After several trials and errors, I was able to perfect my writing style and format alike.  

Marriage and the Family Reflection Paper:

Family Stress and Crisis Group Proposal Paper:

Race and Racism Paper:

Step 4: Utilizing your industry reflections, how could you use the skills and knowledge learned about different institutions to help you perform the duties of the job you are seeking? (250 words) 

The one of two industries I plan to work in are school counseling or child therapy. I would love to work with children because of my natural connection with them and my passion for helping others in any way that I can. Fortunately, enough for me, both industries involve this age range so whichever career path I choose I will be content. However, there are attributes needed for working in these industries which I divided up into two categories.  

For being a child psychologist, one must have experience with research studies, having great communication skills, effective problem-solving skills, analytical reasoning, and cultural competency. I’m proud to admit that I have developed each of these hard skills during my time as a sociology student at Longwood University. I have worked with multiple groups for projects and have participated in a statistical analysis research project. I also have adopted problem solving skills by being a Resident Assistant and cultural competency by taking a Race and Racisms course instructed by Scott Grether. All these skills will allow me to thrive within the child therapy industry because the occupation requires an active empathetic listener that can help children in multiple areas. I would also be able to conduct ethical research to discover issues and solutions to help with a diagnosis for a child. I would also have to be very observant of the child to decode any behavior that reflects specific conditions. Now to discuss the hard skills required of a school counselor.  

I am set on working with younger children in my career, so my other option is to become an elementary school counselor. The criteria needed for this industry relates a great deal to child therapy. The skills needed are all the same but differ in the need for cultural competency. It is important to consider the background of students to support their academic needs. As an African American woman who plans to work with children from multiethnic backgrounds, I could be someone to confide in on a personal level which lets me develop a relationship with the children I will be working with. My other skills can be utilized in effective communication with the children, coming up with solutions to problems faced with school or home, and identifying problems that the child may be facing in their academic careers.