DAY IN THE LIFE
“YOU CAN BE A SOCIAL WORKER ANYWHERE,” CAELEB GOFF SAYS. “IT’S ABOUT THE WAY YOU RELATE TO PEOPLE AND THE WAY YOU SEE THE WORLD – IT’S NOT JUST A JOB TITLE.” Goff (BSW, RSW) is a young social worker who just obtained her Bachelor of Social Work degree in 2020 from the University of Calgary. She was in the middle of her practicum as a Family Court Counsellor with Alberta Justice and Solicitor General when the COVID-19 pandemic hit. Suddenly she was at home, with a lot of free time on her hands, and had to figure out where she wanted to take her career. After a few months of job searching, she found a role in Enrolment Services with the University of Calgary, meeting her desire of giving back to students and working in the education system. This may sound like a nontraditional position for a social worker, but Goff feels that her social work background is a good fit for this area. “This role has given me a lot of space to use my social work knowledge and bring that to the team,” Goff says. “Just last week, I did a great morning workshop with my colleagues about de-escalation and how we can reflect on our own positionality and use that to inform our practice.”
BY MEL PRIESTLEY
CAELEB GOFF
BSW, RSW
During an average day at Enrolment Services, Goff responds to various student inquiries about things like admission, registration, financial aid and fees. A large part of the role involves making referrals to appropriate resources, but Goff says they also need to be there to simply acknowledge and support the students. Many are first-year undergraduates who are in a very unusual situation due to the COVID-19 pandemic. “These first-year students didn’t get to go to graduation or prom and now they’re coming to university and it looks totally different than expected,” Goff says. “They’re sad; it’s a sad position to be in. We have to do a lot of de-escalation because people are quite upset when they call us. In our roles, we support main elements of the student experience like course registration and paying tuition and fees, but these topics can often come with emotions tied to them. Our roles are more about understanding motivation and emotionality than about the actual nitty gritty of things like paying fees. A lot of it is just sitting with them in that emotional moment and trying to get to a solution together.” One of the things that Goff enjoys most about her role
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SPRING 2021
