Real me

 A personal statement of how your interest in social work developed, including life experiences that influenced this choice 

My name is Sarah Elgohary. I am 28 years old I was born with Cerebral Palsy, but despite my disability I have managed to be a part of a mainstreamed society and I have accomplished many goals in life .I am a very dynamic individual who is a very hardworking, determined, attentive, responsible and versatile person believe every new life is a pure, innocent, soul waiting to find its purpose in life. I have a bachelor's in psychology and sociology.allhamdulah writing has Influence on my life. It taught me valuable skills, including patience, authenticity, dedication, and confidence. It strengthens my ability to advocate for people and share my experiences knowledge and feelings with people. This began when I created my blog called the Shining Star, where I write posts on many different topics. Writing makes me happy and a better person and advocate. My blog allows  me to use my voice to advocate, inform, and educate my readers to help influence them to make a positive change. My voice is reaching  a big audience people from all over the world—from  the United States all way to Poland, India, Egypt ,Saudi Arabia, France,  Kuwait, and the Philippines. I use my blog to advocate for people by educating and informing my audience on many different topics that are important issues to me such as: educational inequality, gender roles, media, representation, Syrian refugees, and Egypt. Writing has enabled me to observe the world and its tendencies. Through writing, I can advocate for myself and others.  As a social worker, I will work with my clients  to help them find their voices and different outlets to express themselves—as I have done with writing—while  I teach them how to advocate independently so they become as comfortable sharing their unique experiences with other people. 

Sometimes not being able to help people physically can be very challenging; however, I am very good at being empathetic and offering emotional support. When my father was diagnosed with cancer, I could not do anything for him physically, but I sat home with him every day keeping him company; we watched basketball together, I talked to him, helped him with phone calls, and listened to him tell me stories. I encouraged him with positive words such as be strong and “I love you”. This experience made me realize that I want my future career to involve this individual care for people. As a counselor, I want to make people comfortable in their own skin, allowing them to use their voice to convey their messages and experiences. As a counselor, I will provide my patients with emotional support by listening to their stories and having them take initiative to develop self-advocacy by leading discussions. The most important types of emotional support are patience and a positive attitude. I will be there for my clients and provide them with hope and confidence in their stories, talents, and abilities, allowing them to develop self-advocacy skills and become productive members of society. My father taught me how powerful emotional support truly is,  and I believe providing emotional support to my patients will be more important than physical support 

I wonder what my purpose is in life I want to contribute to the world as much as my family and my friends gave me growing up with my culture, my hobbies, my writing abilities my positive experience, and my future plans. I know I have the potential to help people and make a difference in the world I just have to believe in my abilities and not let my disability stand in the way of overcoming my obstacles to achieve my goals and dreams in life. There are many people who have inspired me to discover my passion for helping others through social work. Through the social work program at Molloy College, I want to become a counselor and make a difference in the world by turning my individual situation of having cerebral palsy into solutions that can create a path of advocacy for people who do not have a voice in society enabling them to be confident in their own identity. Having a physical disability, I am more empathetic to the fact that some people perform tasks in diverse ways. My experience with cerebral palsy provides me with a unique sense of empathy for those who are disabled. I want to amplify the voices of people who feel powerless or those individuals who feel they are not socially accepted. I want to enable people to have self-confidence and the ability to advocate their experience throughout the world in a peaceful way. I am more empathetic to those in different situations. As a counselor, or social worker, I want to guide people to become powerful individuals despite their circumstances. As a result there are many issues that emphasize people needing a voice to advocate for themselves and become powerful individuals who stand up for what they believe in. One issue that is important to me is the global problems of Syrian refugees and the Syrian Civil War. I want to provide a platform for those individuals to speak to the world about their personal experience.

I want to advocate for Syrian Refugees and any group of people who cannot fight for themselves and help individuals discover their inner power to make people aware of their circumstances. Immigration and prejudice are “hot topics” that resurface in every presidential election. Although there have been many other American presidents who have taken discriminatory actions against certain minority groups, such as internment camps for the Japanese in World War II, Donald J. Trump, the current United States president, is islamophobic to such an extent that he proposed a travel ban against seven majority Muslim nations. It was found unconstitutional by a federal judge because it was an attempt to stop an entire race of people (Muslims) from entering the U.S. because he assumes that all Muslims are terrorists. He is so nationalistic that he is determined to persist with a new ban even though the previous one was blocked. In addition, Donald Trump is so xenophobic that he managed to persuade the Supreme Court to approve parts of the travel ban after the Supreme Court denied it several times without a constitutional hearing which is supposed to happen in October. He is committed to this unjustified action because he fails to make the distinction between the majority of Muslims who practice the peaceful religion of Islam and a small minority of politically motivated radical extremists who kill their own kind. Amid all the islamophobic hysteria, the United States is trying to deal with an unprecedented number of Syrian refugees coming into the country, who are trying to escape the Syrian Civil War. Although we are called upon to act, our political parties are very polarized; some do not believe that the United States should play much of a role in helping refugees, directly or indirectly. Congress is extremely divided on this issue of whether to assist Syrian refugees. The only way to solve this humanitarian crisis is if Western nations and the world come together, regardless of their differences. One approach to ending this crisis would be to create solutions through a worldwide collaboration of countries sponsored by the United Nations. However, in order to find solutions to address the social barriers faced by Syrian refugees, Islamophobia must be overcome. Even though Islamophobia is no t the direct cause of the crisis, it is still a strong barrier to finding solutions to this social problem. 

In order to understand the severity and the extent of this humanitarian crisis, we need to create a context in which people can study the history of Syria. This allows people to discover what factors led to the Syrian refugee crisis which is a result of the Syrian civil war. There are many causes of the Syrian civil war, which was inspired by the revolutions in Tunisia, Egypt, and Libya (the Arab Spring in 2011). Similar to the nations that were part of the Arab Spring, many Syrians wanted to overthrow the dictatorial Assad regime due to the lack of freedoms and economic woes, which fueled public anger and resentment of the Syrian government. Conflict began with anti-government protests that divided Syrian citizens into two groups. One group remained loyal to their President Bashar al-Assad, while the other group opposed Assad’s regime and fought for democracy in Syria (BBC News 2016). However, the conflict escalated to a civil war when peaceful protests for Assad to resign turned violent during an incident where 15 boys were detained and tortured for having written graffiti in support of the Arab Spring. One of the boys, 13-year-old Hamza al-Khateeb, was killed after having been brutally tortured ("Syria's Civil War Explained", 2016). President Assad responded to the protests by killing hundreds of demonstrators and imprisoning many more. In July 2011, military officials formed a rebel group, named the Free Syrian Army, which called to overthrow the government; this eventually morphed into a full scale civil war. ("Syria's Civil War Explained", 2016). 

Although it is important to analyze the causes of the refugee crisis from its source, the Syrian Civil War, people cannot look at this crisis from only one angle. However, in order to truly understand this crisis, people have to be like sociologists and peel away the layers individually, in order to see where the problems are really located and find solutions. As a result, we need to look at all of the different aspects of this conflict in order to solve this problem. Moreover, this is why it is crucial to study the perspectives of how countries around the world and western nations, such as the United States, are dealing with the refugee crisis. Therefore, people need to understand the United States’ relationship to this crisis and their policies on how we see the conflict in Syria as part of the equation to find solutions and solve the crisis. So that other nations who can help are not afraid to speak up for themselves and make a difference in the world. Western nations have a capitalist ideology, which makes a majority of people react to foreign problems with indifference, and hostility. This is the case with the Syrian refugees because people in Western nations do not realize that they have a false consciousness about issues that do not directly affect them. They do not react to facts, or problems, that do not fit into their personal worldview (Rizzo, 2016) As a result, it is important to know how to frame Syrian refugees and the refugee crisis in positive ways in order to find solutions. Furthermore, Islamophobia is creating a fear of Syrian refugees as terrorists, causing the problem to get worse rather than being solved. In reality, in order to solve the refugee crisis, people need to stop hiding behind their fear of terrorism and islamophobia to understand that the majority of Syrian refugees actually are innocent people who are escaping their countries because of conflict. After all, refugees should not be seen as terrorists but as innocent people in need of protection. Therefore, people need to change how they view refugees because the only way to solve the refugee crisis is to correctly identify the roots of the problem which not only lie in Islamophobia, but also how refugees are depicted. Generally, people identify refugees as people who need protection and a safe place to live not as terrorists. However, Syrian refugees are assumed terrorists rather than innocent people. If Western nations view the Syrian refugees the same as other refugees the world could find solutions for crisis. This approach would be the right and ideal one instead of our current approach of banning innocent Syrian refugees because they are falsely being lumped into the same category as terrorists, which is only stalling and escalating the problem.  

My mother is my role model. In my eyes she is a miracle worker. Without her I would not be who I am today. My mother and my father gave me every, single genuine personality attributes I posses. They taught me everything I know and the principles I live by such as honesty, integrity, caring for others and helping others, determination, passion, courage, and respect. My mother inspires me to never give up and to always work hard to makes my dreams come true. She is always there for me when I need her to talk and vent my feelings to her .My mother taught me to have confidence and believe in abilities, while never comparing myself to other people. Therefore, she taught me to appreciate everything I have and to help the less fortune. I always remember that fact when my family and I visited family in Egypt last summer and I saw so many people and children sitting on the street without food, water, or shelter. I think they have kinder hearts than most Americans. When I visited Egypt even strangers were like family to me and they did not even know me, let alone have anything to their names to give despite that they will still willing to give more than they have In order to help my family and I. That really opened my eyes to how fortunate I really am in life and inspired me to help people I want to give people self advocacy to discover the power of their voices as a counselor. Finally, even though we fight sometimes I will always love my mother. I hope I can be as good a mother to children as she was to me. Family is the most important aspect taught to me by the religious principles given to me by my parents. These principles my parents gave me will stay with me for the rest of my life.  

For most of my life writing has been a passion I always thought I was not very good at writing. I pretty much did if I had to write essays and research papers just for school purposes. In eighth grade I realize that I might have a talent for writing. When I wrote a paper on the Feminist movement, which I became really interested and I must have written a really detailed paper and proven my point because my English teacher gave a ninety six on it. He said, “I was a wonderfully gifted, writer.”I like to write because it helps me express myself and alleviate out my frustrations. Even though, I sometimes have too many ideas and details so I get off topic and do not prove my point. In fact, on my last research paper on Emily Dickinson I received a ninety two and I was so proud, because all of that hard work paid off in the end. When I write I never have trouble coming up with ideas when I write due the fact that I always try relate my life experiences and how I feel to my writing, When I write I see an image of the finished product in my head before I start writing. Sometimes I know what to write on the paper without thinking. I think I have a gift for writing or at least that what people say. Now that I think about it the first person to open the revelation of writing in my eyes was my elementary school teacher Ms. Seiden. She taught me how to use details and explain my ideas in my writing. As a result, over the years I continue to practice explaining my ideas and proving my point by using a lot of details now writing is second nature. Writing has had a huge influence on my life. Writing taught me to be very patient, dedicated, and to have confidence in myself. Writing taught me to look for deeper meaning and a connection to life from literature. Writing has given me a purpose in life. I have always felt as if I was a burden to people due to my disability Yes I believe there is a future in writing for me I could write a book in five years. I started writing my own fantasy love story over the summer. Writing makes me happy because I can express myself in many different ways without being accused of being wrong in my answer when I write. Writing helps me release stress. Writing is a part of who I am as a person writing led me to my passion for refugees.

I wrote a research paper on Syrian refugees. My extensive research on Syrian refugees makes want to advocate for them and become an ambassador for the United Nations idealistically. I want to help people my extensive research on Syrian refugees makes me realize that I want to take action. Not only do I want to become a therapist to help people with their problems, but I also want to become an activist to advocate for people who feel like they are powerless. This advocating is not limited to people with disabilities, but all people who need a voice because society has muffled their sound with unfounded discrimination. As a result, ever since I was in seventh grade I knew that I wanted to help people and give back to the people who have helped me grow up by becoming a counselor and I can make a difference in the world; by turning my individual problem into solutions that can create a path of advocacy for people who do not have a voice in. I realize that I cannot stop all conflict, but at least as a counselor I can use my voice to help people gain their voices and provide them the knowledge to be comfortable with their own ability to prevent conflict and violence and to fight fear refugees. 

My passion for fighting for Syrian refugees coming from not only my research, but the realization that there is a significantly unfounded fear and Islamophobia, which is completely unnecessary because society does not know or understand the fundamentals of beliefs of the religion of Islam as a result people need a new cultural education of Islam. As a counselor, I want to make people aware of how peaceful Muslims actually are. This is because even though islamophobia is not the cause of the Syrian refugee crisis people like Dounald Trump who used fear mongering tactics to win the election by creating more Islamophobia and fear of Muslims and Syrian refugees only in still more fear escaling the problem not solving it . Fear is making the Syrian refugee crisis significantly worst because a majority of American are so consumed by Islamophobia fear that they do not see It as a deterrent to society hearing the perspectives of Syrian refugees and anyone who Is considered different by society preventing people from coming together as a community to solve problems. As a counselor, I will do my best to create an environment that does not instill fear or any negative emotions in my patients because society already has stiminga on people who have therapy. As a result, I want to make people comfortable to talk freely without any judgment. In addition I want people to realize that they do not have to be afraid to speak up and communicate their message because every voice truly matters. Therefore as a therapist I will enable people to find their voice because every Individual has their own unique voice but it will not be heard unless you have the courage speak stand up for what you believe and never hesitate because you are afraid of society judgments furthermore people need to realize there is nothing to fear but fear Itself because you are the only one with the power to convey your voice and experience to the world I want to empower people with these skills confidence self advocacy finding their Identities by giving people access to the resources they need to be heard. 

During my internship at Abilities, I spent a day in business communications and helped students with their resumes and cover letters. I was able to advocate for the students and highlight the qualities that made them stand out as individuals. This internship also helped me realize that I want to become a therapist to help people with their problems, and an activist who advocates for people who feel like they are powerless. This advocating is not limited to people with disabilities, but extends to all people who need a voice, because they are unfairly judged by society. I am a very open person and love to talk to people to express myself. As a result, I hope to make people comfortable talking about a variety of topics so we can alleviate their frustrations together. On the other hand, I know there is a stigma of attending therapy, so I want to create an environment where people feel safe and comfortable to fully express themselves. I will listen to their frustrations as a friend, if they just need someone to talk to.  

Society tends to cast out individuals who are different, and not every individual has to conform to social norms or standards in the same ways in order to be “normal”. From a young age, I learned that in order to reach my goals, I must employ different methods compared to others and put in more effort and dedication because it may take me longer to complete tasks, but that does not mean that I cannot achieve my goals in life. Though tasks could take longer, it allows me to pay more attention to details and gives me a higher sense of satisfaction when I do achieve them. Therefore, people who are not classified as “normal” by the general population are normal in their own ways. Just because some people have to adapt to work in different ways does not mean that they are not capable of accomplishing their goals in order to become successful members of society. 

      I believe the social work program at Adelphi can provide me with the skills necessary to foster my development as a force for making people understand themselves so they can reach their full potential and influence others to do the same. Through the social work program at Adelphi College I want to enhance my skills as an empathetic advocate for people, and help individuals by creating with approaches unique to their situations. I know how good it feels to have someone believe that you have the ability to make a difference, and bring out your full potential, so as a result I want to enlighten people so that they embrace their differences and highlight the qualities that make them better people. I can achieve this by using my social skills and ability to fully attach myself to something I’m passionate about to fully invest in the success of my patients. Counseling is about making connections with people, and my patience, dedication, and genuine passion make me an ideal counselor.