Earlier today, I recall a funny conversation I had back in the fall of 2021 with my former roommate—a U.S. citizen in his early 20s and a senior at TTU.

It was a Saturday morning; looking back, dude was always in a spectacularly cheerful mood.

“So, what are you going to school for?”

I said, “Master of Social Work program.”

I was about to ask about his major too, but he quickly followed up with another question.

“What are you going to do with that? Help get people out of jail?”

“No.”

“No wait—you guys remove people’s kids, ha-ha.”

“Not really, man. I’m actually going to work in the mental health field.”

His eyes widened.

“Oh, you guys can do that too? Cool, cool… hey, good luck man.”

“Thanks.”

And then he walked away.

Right there, in that short conversation, was a snapshot of the wide variety of fields available to social worker, and the reason why over 90% of us chose the profession.

Child welfare, corrections, policy and advocacy, mental health and substance use, hospitals, sports, film production, veterinary work, immigration… you name it, we do it.

In fact, if you really sit back and consider all the nooks and crannies of human life where social work can be applied, it becomes clearer that social work is more than a profession—it’s an ideology; a (very) peculiar way of viewing human challenges.

Let me explain.

From an ideological perspective, how does social work differ from psychology, psychiatry, counseling, and all the other helping professions?

The key difference lies in a little-known concept called “Person-in-Environment.”

While a psychologist or counselor prioritizes assessing and treating the presenting symptoms in an individual, a social worker’s primary focus is to examine what in this person’s biopsychosocial environment—past or present—is contributing to their current state of functioning.

Social work takes a holistic, systemic look at an individual’s biological, psychological, and social environment to figure out what needs to be modified.

In other words, nothing is inherently “wrong” with the client. Rather, they are being negatively affected by something in their ecosystem.

Added to that is a core belief that everybody has inherent dignity and is worthy of unconditional positive regard. Amazing, right?

To social workers, there are rarely any “bad people”—only bad systems.

That sex offender? Probably abused as a child.

That felon with a history of violence or aggravated assault? Most likely grew up in foster care or a broken home.

That homeless guy on the street corner? That’s just a policy problem – the system has failed him.

They are not the problem—their ecosystem (family background, genetics, society, laws, policies, community, socioeconomic status, etc.) is.

So the modus operandi is often to alleviate suffering by improving or modifying something in the environment.

And yes, we do advocate for prisoners. Yes, we remove kids from unhealthy homes. We fight for policy reforms, and we help those struggling with mental health and substance use. And yes we do get burnt out…

But when all is said and done, we social workers are privileged to a secret:

True social workers are born, not made. And nothing comes close to the feeling of knowing that you wake up every day to make other people’s lives better.