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One Person Can Make a Difference
“Social work is about helping people get to a better place, including yourself. I’ll be a great social worker. I love people—all shapes and sizes.”
When I run, I'm usually somewhere else and I'm just thinking about so many things. I zone out. All my good ideas come from running.
On 9/11, I was a first responder. Basically, I watched the second plane go in. And I was caught in the collapse of both buildings. And I was lucky to survive it.
When they say your life like really goes fast forward, it did because I was like, oh my god, who's going to raise my daughter, what am I going to do. I was like, how am I going to get out of here.
Me becoming a social worker because of 9/11 was due to my interaction with a lot of great social workers who were there on their own time, volunteering, and just on a daily basis just talking to me, making me feel good. And I just think when someone does something just because they want to do it, it's just from their heart and they generally care about that person, whether they know them or not, that's what just clicked for me. That's what did it for me.
I see my role as helping people get the things that they need in life and helping them get to live a better life, or even to change. Even if it's a person with addiction, to help get that person to live that one day at a time, to go into recovery-- that's your role as a social worker.
One person can make a difference. All it takes is one person who cares.
Alicia Regans has always been one with her city. The GSSW Class of ’14 alum jogs across Manhattan’s West Side or alongside the scenic Cross Island Parkway daily. It’s how she gathers her thoughts and finds peace and relaxation. That lifelong connection to New York also explains why her most painful memory was running toward the Twin Towers on 9/11 as a first-responder NYPD officer.
“As a police officer, I’m supposed to help people, and I still hear the cries of those I didn’t help,” she recalls. “Those I couldn’t help.” Fortunately, Alicia wasn’t left without help, because, “In the months and years that followed, social workers helped me to get past that day.”
That’s why Alicia is studying to become a social worker. She knows one person can make a difference, and that anyone affected by trauma deserves a chance to regain their sense of peace and solace. This is Alicia Regan’s story.
This is Alicia Regan’s story.
