Stephanie Wade

I think the main things are persistence, flexibility, and adaptability. For me personally, it's the advocacy, not giving up when challenges arise. I'm a strong advocate that will think outside the box, and being flexible is a huge thing with all the changes in the world right now. And I would say just being passionate about what I do is really important. I really value teamwork and working with others, so working in a place that has those values matters to me.

I think when you're graduating college, you don't really know where you're going. Everybody wants to be a doctor, a teacher, a lawyer, those basic jobs, but don't discount your life experience for getting into a field that may not be exactly what you want or expect, but it ends up being something. So just don't kind of discount that life experience. Nobody graduates college and is like, I want to be a waiver case manager. They might say I want to be a social worker, but I worked in educational data, and people are like, I want to be a teacher, they don't want to be the person that submits the state report and analyzes the data. So don't discount those opportunities.

I think the biggest thing is to not discount your skills and look at what you can bring to the table. Social work is a very versatile field, and it's not for everybody, but with life experience and things, just bring it all to the table and try it out. And if it's not the right fit, there's other avenues that are similar. So just kind of try things out until you find your fit. It's okay to take a break, it's okay not to know everything, and you know, say that you don't know.

Obviously with everything changing throughout the United States, there are changing budget cuts and different things. But I think we've come so far on disability rights, and it's just a matter of not giving up and continuing to advocate for increased funding and increased services, and keeping individuals in their community and out of institutions as much as possible. So just keep at it, even with the political climate and things.

I think for me personally, it's the advocacy, not giving up when challenges arise. I'm a strong advocate that will think outside the box, and being flexible is a huge thing with all the changes in the world right now. And just being passionate about what I do is really important. I really value teamwork and working with others, so working in a place that has those values matters to me.