Starting the Foundation: The Master of Social Work (Generalist Year)
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In this episode of the Connecting With Care Podcast, we explore the inspiring journey of Brittany Daniels, a first-year Master of Social Work student at Baylor University. Brittany shares her experiences with health challenges, including multiple brain surgeries and epilepsy, which fueled her passion for social work and advocacy. She emphasizes the importance of self-care and community support within the MSW program, highlighting how these elements foster personal and professional growth. Tune in to hear Brittany's powerful story and gain insights into the transformative nature of social work.
Transcript
SPEAKERS: Lillie Walker, Brittany Daniels
Lillie Walker
Welcome to the Connecting with Care podcast. My name is Lillie Walker. How does a Generalist MSW student form the foundation for impactful, compassionate practice? Today, we explore the journey of stepping into graduate school - finding balance and discovering new strengths along the way. Join us as we talk with Brittany Daniels about building the MSW Foundation. Hello, listeners. I'm here with Brittany, and we're going to be talking about the MSW program. So, Brittany, I'd love to hear, a little bit about you. So, introduce yourself. Tell me, where your hometown is. Tell me about your program. Tell me all the things.
Brittany Daniels
Awesome. Well, thank you guys for having me. I am Brittany, Daniels. I'm originally from a super small college town in northern Idaho called Moscow. I grew up on my family's farm, so I grew up running around cows, riding horses. But now Central Texas is home, at least for now. My husband is in the military, so who knows where the world and the wind might take us. So, I guess I've gone from pine trees and mountains to big sky, a lot of heat, and a huge community. Right now, I'm in the Master of Social Work program at the Garland School, focusing mainly on the clinical social work and mental health aspect of it. Right now, I am in my first year of the program. I'm actually about to start my internship next month, so I've been really building that foundation and starting to think seriously about what my future practice will really look like. And my undergrad - did you ask about my undergrad yet?
Lillie Walker
Yes, yes, please tell.
Brittany Daniels
Okay, so I'm just so excited to talk about this. For my undergrad, I completed my bachelor’s in psychology with a concentration on mental health and addictions through Southern New Hampshire University. And that program really laid the groundwork for understanding mental health, substance use, and how the impact truly does – the system truly does impact people's lives. It's a big part of what led me towards social work.
Lillie Walker
That's great. Thanks so much for sharing about that. Before we kind of get into all the things, I would love to ask you some fun get-to-know-you questions. So, if you had to use one word to describe where you're living, what word do you think you would use?
Brittany Daniels
Oh, that is a good question. One word, I’m going to be kind of abstract with it, would be grounded.
Lillie Walker
Okay.
Brittany Daniels
We live near the military base, but we're on the outskirts of it, away from the hustle and bustle of everything. And next to our neighborhood, we have this huge pasture full of cows. So, it's literally like a little piece of home is right next to me. So, if I want to feel, if I get overwhelmed with school or just life in general, I'll take my dogs out on a walk past the field and I'll feel just as home. Like, just like I'm at home again. So being where I'm living now honestly makes me feel grounded even though I'm completely out of my element here, you know, in the big city, a lot of people around, so just having that little piece of home really makes me feel grounded.
Lillie Walker
Oh, that is so sweet. All right, next question is, what is your go to drink order at your favorite local coffee shop? Or maybe you're into like a tea house?
Brittany Daniels
Yeah. So I would say I used to be a really heavy coffee drinker, but over the last, I would say like eight years, I couldn't, I can't drink anymore. I'm so sensitive to it. It's weird. But now I'm starting to try. I'm venturing off into the tea world, and I found a love in the London Fog tea. It is a Earl Grey tea with steamed milk, vanilla and a little bit of lavender. I haven't tried it with the lavender yet, but I heard it's really good. But it's absolutely delicious. I have fallen in love with it. And I, the only other place that I like to go get teas or anything like that is from Starbucks. And I know that's kind of like a vanilla answer, but I did ask, one of my cohorts, actually Mariah, for a recommendation for a coffee spot up in Waco and she said Common Grounds is a really good one. So, I'm excited to go up and try that.
Lillie Walker
Yeah, Common Grounds is really good. And, I might have to try London Fog. I've never really ventured into that realm, but I may have to give it a try. All right, last fun little question is if you had to choose a walk-up song, like if you were to play for a sports team or something, do you know what song you would choose?
Brittany Daniels
Oh, another good question. So,
00:05:00
Brittany Daniels
If I had a walk-up song, it would be “Glorious” by Macklemore. And just the idea of the whole body just getting another chance and walking, waking up to like a new day and celebrating the fact that I'm still here, especially after my health journey and everything that I've been through, just that really resonates with me and I feel as if that's honestly the anthem, for this chapter in my life right now.
Lillie Walker
Okay, great answer. Love that. All right, let's get a little bit deeper into your personal journey. So, tell me about what brought you to Baylor and what brought you into social work.
Brittany Daniels
So, what brought me to Baylor was the combination of a strong reputation in social work and a real commitment to service and justice. Social work came into the picture as I was navigating my own health journey with having multiple brain surgeries, living with lifelong epilepsy, and truly seeing firsthand how systems can really either support or truly fail people. Actually, a professor in my undergrad, because I want to pursue my PhD in psychology, actually encouraged me to get my master's in social work instead of continuing straight into psychology. He said that it would give me a different and more human perspective, one that really centers around people, their environments, their communities, and their lived experiences. And that advice really stuck with me and is a big part of why I'm here and why I love social work so much now.
Lillie Walker
Oh, wow. That's such a unique kind of way of coming into social work, the idea of coming from psychology, which a lot of my classmates come from psychology backgrounds. I come from a psychology background. but yeah, just thinking about how psychology is very like science-based and right, like that. And then social work is more like humanistic and that like sort of approach. Yeah, I really appreciate that perspective. Okay, if you had to say how you have grown personally and professionally during your time at the Garland School, what would you say?
Brittany Daniels
Okay, so personally I've grown a lot in my self-compassion and confidence in myself. You know, coming from having epilepsy and a traumatic brain injury, I always wondered if I could truly keep up with the graduate work. And I didn't really have a problem with it in my undergrad. You know, I really actually surprised myself coming out of all my health journey and my brain surgeries. So, I kind of took that confidence into this master's program as well. Kind of saying, you know, if I was able to succeed so well in my undergrad that I can knock my master's program out of the park. And being here has shown me that my lived experiences truly is not a barrier, it's actually a strength. And I'm still in the early stages of my professional aspect of it because like I said, I had my brain surgeries from 2018 to 2020 and then I jumped right back into school. But I do start my internship next month with Team Luke: Hope for Minds, and everything that I'm learning here from theories, the skills and how we think about different systems – I plan on bringing that into, you know, that space, and I'm feeling super prepared for that internship.
Lillie Walker
Yeah. And I, I think just hearing your story about, your previous health history and then bringing that into a world of academia, which is, like, very challenging - I'm, I'm really inspired to hear your story, so. thanks for sharing about that. How has your time here shaped the way you see yourself? You kind of touched on this already, but I'd love to hear, more about your story, and how do you think it'll shape your career as a future social worker or, someone in research?
Brittany Daniels
So, my time here has helped me see myself not just as a survivor of my own story, but as someone that can help stand alongside those, stand alongside others in their own. And it's been clarified, especially here at Baylor, that I truly want to work in a clinical setting with people facing brain injuries, along with any chronic health conditions and mental health challenges. And I want to do so in a way that that's trauma informed and stigma reducing. And I see my career now as something much broader than just helping people. It's about advocacy, accessibility, and truly creating spaces where clients can feel seen, believed, and even included.
Lillie Walker
Yeah, and I think that's such a great answer. And you bring such a unique perspective because you were someone that was within those systems, and now you're someone that's working with the system and sometimes against the system, sometimes for the system, but you have such a unique perspective that you're bringing, so I think that's great.
Brittany Daniels
I appreciate that.
Lillie Walker
So we've kind of gotten into a little bit about your life experiences that have
00:10:00
Lillie Walker
Shaped your journey to this program. but if you wanted to talk more specifically about what that's looked like for you, I think that would be great for our listeners to hear.
Brittany Daniels
Of course. So, there have been a few really big life experiences that have shaped this path. First, I just want to touch on the fact that I grew up in a small town and mental health was not openly talked about whatsoever. And a lot of people pushed through whatever they were trying to go through. And we have all lost some really close people due to suicide and drug overdose. And I also battled an eating disorder along with alcohol use for years. And for a long time, I did not have the language or even the support to truly understand what was happening with me. And then that takes me into the next big life event and that was when I was diagnosed with a brain tumor. And that literally changed everything. In 2018, I started randomly having seizures in my sleep and we did an MRI and found a tumor in my left frontal lobe. We assumed that if we did a surgery, remove the tumor, it would cure the seizures. Unfortunately, that was not the case. Instead, I now went from having seizures in my sleep to now I will have them at any time of the day and when I'm awake. So, I could be cooking, I could be watching tv, I could be working out, and I would just randomly start having a seizure. That's what started my long journey with the healthcare system and seeing how just having that one advocate in your corner can truly change the whole entire process for you. I am so blessed – I want to give a shout out to Marie Atkinson, who is, was my epilepsy specialist in Washington State. She was absolutely amazing. She went above and beyond to make sure I hit every check mark on the box for her to be able to take my case to the epilepsy board, surgical board in Washington to get me approved for the epilepsy resection surgery that I had in, actually it was on my mom's birthday in November 9th of 2020. After that they took just enough tissue to where it wouldn't fully impact my speech and my motor skills. And so I had a coming to, you know, I don't want to say, I guess I would say like a coming to Jesus moment at that time where I was like, okay, I am able to function at a high capacity for how much tissue I had removed from my, from my brain. And I want to use that, I want to put that towards good and helping, helping others in this situation, advocating for the healthcare system. And just in general through my studies, there has not been any talk about brain injuries or TBIs or anything like that. I really truly want to advocate for that and put, I want to start teaching that and build a program around that to bring stigma down and awareness to it. Just going through hospitals, recovery and all the follow up care really gave me a personal view of how healthcare in the systems and stigma and support, they truly all collide together. I saw moments where providers were compassionate and human in moments where gaps in understanding, especially around, like I said, brain injuries and mental health, truly left people feeling alone and dismissed. And if it wasn't for my support system and, who is my mom, I don't think I would have gotten to where I am today without that, if that makes sense. My mom has really been a rock through all of it, you know, through my surgery, recovery, going back to school and just life in general. She has been there through the hardest moments and never stopped believing in me or stopped believing that I could truly build a meaningful future after my surgeries. She's what really gave me, like, my strength. And now, thankfully, my husband has come alongside me in this journey. You know, he's supporting me emotionally and spiritually as I navigate grad school. And having that kind of support truly made it possible for me to not just imagine surviving but using my experience to help others get through what they're also going through. I guess all of that made it impossible to ignore the gaps in care, especially for people with brain injuries and their families. Those experiences are ultimately what led me here to the Garland School of Social Work here at Baylor.
Lillie Walker
Yeah. I mean, what a tremendous story. Wow. Thank you, for sharing about that. And in that I kind of heard you say, like, there are people in the healthcare system that really can make a difference because they are informed, because they're educated on this stuff, and they also care about you as a person. And so, they were able to meet you where you're at with an informed perspective and that really seemed to make a big difference for you. So, I think
00:15:00
Lillie Walker
That's so admirable that now you're using that experience and you're using it for good, to be that for someone else. So, thank you so much for sharing. Alright. Kind of to get a little bit more practical, although I love hearing about your story and I'd love to continue on, I'd love to hear just more about the MSW program in general. so, could you tell us what a typical work week looks like for you in this program?
Brittany Daniels
Yeah, so a typical week usually consists of zoom classes, along with readings, different assignments, and a lot of processing material. And there's, during our async work, there's, you know, lectures, discussion, discussion posts, group projects, and then now will be time set aside for my practicum. And I'm just blessed that my husband supports me in a way that allows me to put my full focus on school and to be able to do it full time. So, I'm able to sit down at my computer, clock in at 8:00 you know, like a regular job, and just work through my schoolwork that I do.
Lillie Walker
Yeah, that's great. So, how would you say you're able to balance your coursework with your life outside of school?
Brittany Daniels
I want to start off this by saying that this program is so unique to how every professor and every course seems to be focused on self-care. And in my last class, we literally had an assignment that she had us plan out what we were going to do for self-care. And then that was a graded assignment. And at the end of the term, we did a reflection paper on that and that was a graded assignment. I just love how the focus is always on self-care and taking care of yourself. That's especially important for me because balance for me needs to be a little bit more intentional with my time and about being really, truly honest with my capacity. I do have to tell myself that I am living with a brain injury and I'm not superwoman. So, I have to plan around my energy recovery just as much as I have to plan assignments. So, I use calendars, a lot of to do lists and I try and break work into manageable pieces instead of just waiting up until like the last moment. And I also protect my non-negotiables. So that's time with my husband, time with my dogs, working out, making sure – getting enough sleep and just enjoying the little things. Whether that just be watching football on Sunday night with my husband or reading one of my fantasy books for maybe 10 to 15 minutes. It's not always about being perfect, like having a perfect balance, but it's permitting myself to be human instead of a perfect student. And that has made a huge difference.
Lillie Walker
Yeah, and I think that's so well said. and I will say, in my experience, all of our courses have some level of like, how can you be a person that's, that's fulfilled and able to take care of yourself so that you can take care of people. Because the truth is, if you're not taking care of yourself, you cannot show up for someone, for your clients whenever they need you. So, I am really thankful that this program, kind of weaves that in of like, how do we take care of ourselves, throughout this process. So yeah, great answer. Lastly for this section, how has the graduate student experience differed from your undergrad degree? Maybe what are some surprises that you've encountered?
Brittany Daniels
Graduate school for sure has felt more intense but 100% more relational. My undergraduate was mostly online and very independent. And here, there's a super strong focus on relationship with faculty, with our cohort and the material itself. And everything's starting to feel really connected to the real-world practice. It's definitely been a step out of my comfort zone coming from SNHU, which is all async work and I was pretty much isolated from 2019 to 2020. So, putting myself in a situation where I'm going to have to go to live classes, it was a little bit overwhelming. But what I've learned is it's important to be comfortable being uncomfortable, and that's truly where growth happens. Relationships with the cohort have been especially important. During our orientation, Dr. Arguetta told us something that has really stuck with me to this day. I think about it at least twice a day. She said, ‘lean on your cohorts, but remember, you're not in the same boat, but you're on the same lake.’ That reminder that we're all navigating the same storm, but with different capacities and different circumstances has truly shaped how I show up for myself and for others. The biggest surprise is how welcomed my lived experiences have truly been. Instead of being seen as something that might hold me back, it's been treated more
00:20:00
Brittany Daniels
As if a meaningful asset in the classroom. And the faculty and staff have been so supportive. One of my teachers in my previous term actually reached out to me and asked me if I ever thought about doing accommodations. And I was like, I never, I didn't think I would ever need accommodations, so no. And then I met with the accommodations department and then found out I needed all of these accommodations. So, it's been so, I felt so supported during the beginning and to now. I've had professors in the past that truly stick to their office hours. If you're trying to get them outside their office hours, like 5:01pm, they're not going to answer. They don't respond to emails at all. And some of them, truly, I didn't know if they cared whether I passed or failed, honestly. But that couldn’t be further from the truth here at Baylor. Every member of the faculty and staff has been so helpful and go above and beyond for their students – it just adds another layer of protection and confidence to the learning environment here.
Lillie Walker
Yeah, that's a great answer. Alright, well, Brittany, thank you so much for, just letting me get to know you and chat with you. I'd love to hear about your experience. So just to kind of close this up, what advice would you give to someone considering Baylor, the Garland School, and the field of social work?
Brittany Daniels
Okay, so for someone who's considering Baylor in the Garland School, the advice I would give would be you are looking at a program that is not only highly accredited but deeply committed to forming excellent social workers. The faculty genuinely cares about students as a whole people: they challenge you, support you, and really walk with you through the learning process. Baylor and the Garland School create an environment where you are pushed to grow in your skills and self-awareness, but you truly never feel like you're alone while you're doing it. If you value strong training, high standards, and a community that wants to see you not just become a successful social worker but a successful person, this is truly, truly a special place to be. And if you're considering the social work field, know that your lived experiences matter. The things that you walk through can be tools for empathy and understanding, especially when paired with good boundaries and solid training. If you are drawn to this work, do not talk yourself out of it just because your path may not have been perfect. That imperfect path might be precisely what you bring to the table.
Lillie Walker
Yeah. So well said. Well, Brittany, thank you so much for your time and your unique perspective that you bring to the table. Thank you to our listeners, for taking time to who listened to this episode. Hope you were able to get some awesome advice, for one of our MSW students. So again, thank you, Brittany and Sic ‘Em Bears. If you're considering the MSW path, Brittany's story shows us how transformative the Generalist year can be. Join us again for more conversations that illuminate the heart of social work.
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