Never Stop Learning : Aiming to be a social welfare worker

By Yoshiko Ishida, Senior in the School of Letters, Arts & Sciences II

Ms. Yoshiko Ishida

Right after graduation from university, I entered a music-related company since I was really fond of music during my school years. After that, I changed my job twice within the same industry to upgrade my career. Mainly I dealt with music production, so I thought that somehow I was contributing to the success of the companies I worked for. However, there is no perfection in the world, and I ran into a serious conflict between my personal goal to be an artist and the company’s goal, and I started doubting my career pursuit.

After leaving my job, I spent about 3 months doing almost nothing, just traveling and doing sports. Then in the summer of 2001, just one week after I had returned from a trip to New York, the 9/11 terrorist attack occurred. That made my complete reverse my values and way thinking of about life and the world, and I became obsessed with the idea of “Do it now if I can do it.” I grew more interesting in working in this physical world toward human touching. In the mean time, I happened to see a free course called "Home Helper" in the magazine HelloWork. I took part in that 90-minute course and was very attracted by the speakers. From then on I became much more eager to study further and earnestly. The job transfer, resignation, the change of my life values and as well as the free Home Helper course, all together changed my forture.

It seemed that my desire to study was still strong. In 3 months I became qualified as a home-helper. Also, I paid more attention on social welfare through nursing experience. I decided to work while simultaneously studying further, and aimed to obtain a certificate to be a professional social welfare worker. Once I made up my mind to do so, I immediately prepared all the application forms, took examinations, and finally succeeded. My husband only got the news after I had been accepted into school. Luckily, Waseda is not far from my home so that I am able to balance working in the day and studying in the evening.

My life became busier after the new semester began - I get through my home-helper’s routine tasks during the day and then to take classes at dusk. But there is something that makes be different from those younger students. Memorization, for instance, is quite hard for me, but writing reports is not so hard as an adult student. And for those curriculum related with social welfare studies, I took all credits, which can be counted up to being a recognized academic psychologist. It is very interesting and useful to take those psychological classes, but I'm up to my neck in homeworl. In the near future, I hope I will get into a graduate school and combine these theories with practical experience, which might help solve social welfare problems efficiently.

The one creative activity I keep doing during my busy days is stringing beads. I feel so satisfaction when I finish stringing the beads together into an ornamental ring or a necklace pendant. Especially in recent days, I keenly realize that time runs too fast and I really envy those young people who have plenty of time. As a Waseda student, I am sure that during this four-years-study my life will become more meaningful than ever before. In any case, I'll try my best!