Running head: CULTURAL GENOGRAM
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CULTURAL GENOGRAM
Cultural Genogram Paper
Melissa Harcrow
October 20, 2017
Cultural Genogram
Growing Up
Money
This writer’s family has always believed in hard work to make ends meet. More bills? Get a second or third job to cover those. As young parent’s at the age of 16 and 19, the demand for money became real as soon as the need for diapers, formula, clothes and baby items began. It was a struggle for survival, however, help from family or government assistance was not the way they believed in making money. They have a true “hard work ethic” to make ends meet. This work ethic has been passed down through Italian immigrant great-grandparents who came to America with …show more content…
College was a dream they had for their children to accomplish. Growing up, they would always talk about us girls attending college as we went through school. It was important that we had a better education than they had, so that we wouldn’t have to work more than one job to make ends meet. They felt their lack of college education gave them a disadvantage in the workplace. Growing up, they would sit at the table with us after dinner and make sure we were doing our homework and if we needed help, they would help us. They would attend school conferences and open houses and reach out to the teacher’s if we needed extra support. Education was important in our …show more content…
Performing the genogram assignment was an excellent visual tool that was helpful in recognizing the changing religious beliefs through the generations. There are obvious changes through the generations on the strictness of their beliefs and acceptance of others. I could not be the same person I am today, if I was raised in the 1950’s in a new Italian/Catholic immigrant family. I am who I am today, because of the differences in the generations, in how my parent’s represented strong men and women of the time and how they raised their family, in the hopes they made more of their lives. I see myself as an open, accepting, caring individual. My deficit as a social worker working with other cultures may be the fact that I haven’t had work experience with every culture/race/ethnicity and I can learn more from them when I do have that opportunity. I can relate to immigrant families and their struggles as I have personal experience hearing family members speak of similar situations. I believe in marriage equality for everyone and while I only have some experience working with the LGBTQ population, I am open to learning