Hello and thank you for visiting my Longwood Blog!
My name is Amanda Phillips. I am currently a Senior Social Work Major at Longwood University. I have been a social work major since February of 2016. When I first came to Longwood, I was an undeclared major who was between English and social work in terms of choosing a major. I chose social work because I grew up living in poverty and my goal is to help others who are also in need of services that can improve their quality of life.
Unpaid experience in the field includes a semester long internship I had. In Spring of 2018, I interned at Centra Pace is Farmville Virginia. Centra Pace is an all inclusive place of care for those aged 55 and older who meet certain qualifications for enrollment. An interdisciplinary team comprised of nurses, doctors, a dietitian, a pharmacist, a recreational therapist, social workers, certified nursing assistants, etc. works to meet the needs of the participants. One of the goals of Pace is to provide the participants with an inclusive environment that meets the physical, emotional, mental and spiritual needs of the participants. I enjoyed this experience because I like to work in an inclusive environment with a centralized goal.
The purpose of my ePortfolio is to provide a space for me to share parts of my professional development as well as my own personal opinions. The course learning outcomes of English 400 relate greatly to the aspect of professional development. One of the outcomes I would like to focus on in particular is to “engage in the process of citizen leadership by investigating multiple perspectives on important public issues.” In my profession, it is my job to stay up to date on public issues that are taking place. During my time in English 400, I have learned how to analyze the rhetorical strategies that surround public issues that are relevant to the general public. I learned this mainly through the Rhetorical Analysis that I wrote during my time in this course. The main focus of my thesis is the analysis of the first presidential debate between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, with a main focus on the rhetorical strategies used by Donald Trump.
Below is a complete list of the course learning outcomes:
- engage in the process of citizen leadership by investigating multiple perspectives on important public issues
- understand the nature of public discourse/debate as determined by purpose, audience and context
- choose appropriate formats in writing for a variety of purposes
- analyze the effectiveness of their own texts and processes for specific rhetorical situations
- understand how the knowledge, skills, and values learned in general education are interwoven and interrelated and how they can contribute to the process of citizen leadership.