“I got my feet wet in an internship with Your New Beginning. It’s for people with court-ordered counseling for drug offenses or domestic violence offenses. I challenged myself by working with domestic violence offenders. Their sessions were for 18 weeks, but I had guys stay in my class for 30-40 weeks. They were like, ‘We just need to talk to you every week.’ I built such a bond with them.

“Then I was like, what else can I challenge myself to do? That’s when an opportunity came to work with the homeless population. I met them where they were, on the street. I did everything I could for them, like see them housed and help them get some income.

“People always say, ‘Take a walk in my shoes.’ I feel like I’m able to do that. When I meet someone, I want to see life from their perspective. I want to understand all the emotions that they feel: every hardship, every joy.

“I told my homeless and domestic violence individuals, ‘I know when people see you, they have a preconceived notion about who you are. I don’t have that. I’m a blank slate. I’m non-judgmental. Tell me everything. I want to see things from your perspective.’

“My domestic violence clients would just be getting out of jail and coming back into society. And they would say, ‘I can’t get a job. Once they see felon on my record, once they see jail on my record, I’m just cast away.’

“Same with some of my homeless individuals. They would be like, ‘People don’t know that I had a master’s degree. They don’t know that I had a family. They don’t know that I never touched a drug in my life. I’m just on hard times.’

“Those experiences really motivated me to continue to be a blank slate for people. I like for them to be able to tell their own story, and realize that sometimes the pen is in their hand. If they want to write a better story for themselves, then they have the freedom to do that.”

— Carleigh Joseph Olivas

Carleigh switched from nursing to social work, and finished first in her class at Prairie View A&M University. She also earned a master’s in social work.

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“As a social worker, I work for a state agency that helps elderly people and adults with intellectual disabilities who are dealing with abuse. In order to see a lot of my clients, I had to go into hospitals while COVID-19 was raging. Some places had put in security precautions, but others hadn’t yet. At the time, we didn’t have totally clear guidance from the state. Everything was kind of up in the air. And I was really scared. I was thinking, am I going to be able to keep doing this? Because getting coronavirus while you’re pregnant, you don’t know what’s going to happen. I was extremely concerned during the last two months of my pregnancy.

“She was born on April 29. Her name is Alexandra Catherine McMillin. Since bringing her home from the hospital, we’ve taken a lot of precautions. My husband is the only one who goes out. I don’t really go out unless it’s a doctor’s appointment. We’re just trying to be as safe as possible. People usually have a lot of visitors for their first born. It’s the best thing I’ve ever done, so you want to show her off. But the only person who’s actually stepped foot in our house since the baby was born is my mom. She was quarantining the second she heard about the coronavirus. She said, ‘There’s nothing stopping me from seeing my grandbaby.’

“I worry about the effects this all might have on her as she grows up. Typically, a newborn has contact with others besides the mom and dad. So I kind of wonder if she’s going to be behind in some way because she didn’t have that early socialization. Or maybe, is she going to be ahead because she’s so close to her mom? You just don’t know what the outcome of that is going to be.

“Years from now, I imagine she’ll be reading about all of this in school. And I’ll say something like, ‘Well, when you were born, we were right in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic. Your mom and dad had to change all their plans, and nobody was able to see you until you were older.’

“It’s been a struggle. I’ve cried out of loneliness a couple times. But it’s also been kind of nice with it just being me and her a lot of the time. Really, it makes me love her even more. As difficult as it’s been, there is something special about it being just our little family.”

— Catherine Hunter-McMillin (with husband, Matthew, and Alexandra)

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“My mom had diabetes with all the complications. But she just kept going. She kept working as long as she could. She was in and out of the hospital, and we always knew she would come right out until the day that it didn’t happen. That was two years ago on the 29th of this month. It was definitely hard for us all. She was only 59.

“I could talk about her for hours. My mom was a social worker, case worker, for about 35 years. She loved what she did. She loved helping people, finding resources for them after their stay at the hospital, things like that. I saw how dedicated she was and how passionate she was about her job, and it motivated me. I thought, wow, I kind of want to do something like this.

“I’ll be graduating in May with a degree in nutrition (from the University of Texas). I’m leaning toward seeing what I can do with my degree in terms of policy and government. I’m interested in the politics of health care. Ideally, I’d like to work for the Department of Health and Human Services, seeing how I can help out in whatever community I’ll be living in. Like making sure our low-income, minority people have access to fresh foods, health care and other kinds of services they need. I just know that I want to be helping people, like my mom did all those years.”

— Cynthia Pizana

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“Something that we’re facing a lot is dating violence or unhealthy relationships. Some of the girls aren’t necessarily being physically abused, but there’s a lot of emotional abuse. Their boyfriends are talking ugly to them or being very controlling, like constantly checking their phone or not letting them do this or that.

“Many of these girls are being told by others, well, just leave. But it’s not that simple, especially when some of them have children. It’s much more complicated for a 17- or 18-year-old who has a 1-year-old child to just pick up and leave.

“So I provide a safe space, what’s called holding space, to mostly just be with the students and listen, ask questions and kind of guide them in finding the right answers.

“So often, people in their lives are telling them what to do. But it’s hard to figure out what you really want to do and should do when you never have the space to process it and figure it out on your own.

“That’s one of the most important things for anyone looking for change, whether leaving a bad relationship or even when it comes to drug addiction or alcohol addiction. You have to want that change for yourself. It has to come from within you, not from somebody telling you what to do, how to do it or where to go.

“Whenever you finally do see those kids who have gone on to be successful and they come back and tell you, I have my life together and I’m moving forward, it is a bright, shining moment. You have to really hold onto that, because not every kid gets to that point.”

— Rachel Barajas Flinn

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