{"id":78802,"date":"2025-10-15T15:16:02","date_gmt":"2025-10-15T19:16:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ssw\/?p=78802"},"modified":"2026-04-06T10:12:06","modified_gmt":"2026-04-06T14:12:06","slug":"student-spotlight-connecting-cultures","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ssw\/student-spotlight-connecting-cultures\/","title":{"rendered":"Student Spotlight: Connecting Cultures"},"content":{"rendered":"

Get to know MSW student Natasha P.\u00a0(SSW \u201929)<\/strong><\/p>\n

As a former Boston University undergraduate, a working professional with eight years of experience, and a current part-time MSW student, Natasha P. brings a unique perspective to the University in a non-faculty role. Shaped by her own experiences growing up across different countries and cultures and further informed by her work with international and multicultural students at BU. Natasha aims to work in outpatient care with multicultural individuals, a population she recognizes as underserved in social work.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Describe your background\u00a0to\u00a0me.\u00a0What are your interests outside of work and school?<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I think I’m probably one of the older students at school. My undergrad was here at BU, and I’ve worked here now for eight years in a professional capacity. My roles here have been in STEM and global studies. I worked in the BU African Studies Center for five years as their administrator, and now I work in computer science doing communications, industry relations, and DEI outreach. So, I kind of have a very eclectic background.\u202f<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Outside of work, I am a third culture kid. I grew up all over the world. I\u2019ve lived in Singapore, Malaysia, and the US, but I’m also a British citizen, and heritage-wise I’m Indian and Pakistani, so I have a very diverse background culturally. Because of my upbringing, I have always been really drawn to work in diversity, global relations, and cross-cultural work, and that’s been the common thread throughout my career. Outside of school, I really like to do dance classes and check out theater shows in Boston.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Why\u00a0social\u00a0work? Wh<\/span><\/b>at\u00a0drew\u00a0you to the field\u00a0and how did you become interested?<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

While I was working in the African Studies Center, I was also considering an M.A. in international affairs, but if I had taken that pathway, I believe I would have been led to more program administration-type roles. I realized that while I do love higher education and programming, I also wanted the capacity to do something more technical in the future. During the COVID pandemic, we were working with a couple of very specific groups of students in the African Studies Center. We had students who we sent from BU to various countries across the African continent to do research. Then we had exchange students and researchers that had come from abroad to BU, and they had to figure out how to get home or to find housing, because everybody got kicked off campus during COVID.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I became exposed to helping professionals through trying to find\u00a0students\u2019\u00a0housing or resources. We ended up clearing out space in the African Studies classrooms to give space to students to store their belongings because they\u00a0didn’t\u00a0have the funds to be able to put their stuff into storage after they moved off campus.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Then we created a couple of student support groups.\u00a0We ended up doing monthly check-ins with one of our graduate students at this time as well.\u00a0I found the work, even though it was under\u00a0very sad\u00a0circumstances, quite fulfilling,\u00a0and that led me to think, \u201cOkay, maybe I should consider something like social work or like therapy going forward.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

What\u2019s<\/b><\/span>\u00a0your most outstanding memory or experience in your academic career at BUSSW?<\/b><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Undergrad\u00a0for me was a while ago, but I explored\u00a0different kinds\u00a0of classes, like environmental development and public health.\u00a0I got a really great breadth of experience\u00a0and\u00a0exposure academically, whereas I think in grad school it’s more focused.\u00a0Especially in social\u00a0work,\u00a0you’re\u00a0trying to get a credential to a degree.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I shifted\u00a0fields\u00a0completely. While a lot of other social work students have either a BSW, or an\u00a0undergrad\u00a0in\u00a0psychology, I\u00a0haven’t\u00a0taken classes related to either of those subjects before.\u202f I feel like\u00a0I’m\u00a0catching up on parts\u00a0of the\u00a0curriculum that I\u00a0didn’t\u00a0know about, like behavioral health, adult\u00a0psychopathology,\u00a0and diagnosis.\u00a0But a lot of my experience is in DEI and in social science, so\u00a0classes\u00a0like Welfare Policy and Racial and Cultural Oppression were\u00a0very familiar.\u00a0It\u2019s\u00a0interesting because\u00a0I think\u00a0there\u00a0are a lot\u00a0of subject matters that other students\u00a0haven\u2019t\u00a0been exposed to, I have a lot of experience in and vice versa.\u202f<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In terms of graduate experience, I really liked the size of the classes. I also enjoy that a lot of the students share the same mindset. Given a lot of changes in the world right now, I have gained a very supportive community at the BU School of Social Work. Everyone is very invested in trying to be a competent and helpful social worker. I really value the common identity and shared goals amongst the students.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

What makes social work worthwhile to you?<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

What brought me to social work was my background in doing cross-cultural work. I’ve been in a lot of professional contexts where I’ve worked across different cultures, or oriented people in a new country or culture. Since I’ve done it myself several times throughout my life, I’ve now recognized that moving and acclimating to new cultural environments is a big challenge and is something that could be supported through therapeutic work. My main focus going into social work and graduating is to do outpatient work specifically with cross-cultural people or multicultural people.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I think we\u00a0have a growing number of practitioners who are trying to provide services to clients who share their cultural or linguistic background. For example, an American-born Indian therapist providing services with other American-born Indians within the US.\u00a0That’s\u00a0great! But\u00a0I think that there\u00a0is a\u00a0lesser\u00a0number of people that work with people who have multicultural identities. And so\u00a0that’s\u00a0where I would like to focus.\u202f<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

What work\u00a0from\u00a0your academic career are you\u00a0proud\u00a0of?<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I am proud of the fact that it changed my life trajectory, while still being able to take my prior experience and apply it here. It\u00a0doesn’t\u00a0feel to me like\u00a0I’m\u00a0necessarily leaving international relations or program management, but\u00a0I’m\u00a0just gaining more skills that I can apply in that context and have the\u00a0option\u00a0to specialize in one specific area.\u202f<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

What\u00a0are\u00a0your favorite courses,\u00a0professors,\u00a0and events at BUSSW?<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I really enjoyed Race and Cultural Oppression with Malika Mims,\u00a0she’s\u00a0great. I was in the affinity section of that course, which I was excited about because of my professional background. Having an affinity section of the course was great because we dug a little bit deeper and it was nice because I learned a lot, even though\u00a0it’s\u00a0an area I already work in.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I valued the positionality papers assigned in that class. It was almost like you did an autoethnography on your life;\u00a0to study your life events and understand major impacts that those events may have had on you, and how you may bring that experience to your practice as a social worker and what you have to be mindful of when you are working with your clients. For example, when I hear someone has moved countries, because that is something\u00a0that’s\u00a0been really,\u00a0really big\u00a0in my life,\u00a0that’s\u00a0the first thing I pay attention to because I identify with it.\u00a0But I\u00a0must\u00a0hold space for the fact that their move may not have been so defining for them.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I really appreciated the exercise because it encouraged us to say, \u201cOkay, let’s really examine what these oppressive factors in our lives might have been.\u201d\u00a0or \u201cWhat decisions that were out of our hands that may have\u00a0impacted\u00a0us? How does it\u00a0impact\u00a0us as practitioners too?\u201d\u00a0I thought that was really valuable and quite deep.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I also really liked Adult Psychopathology and Diagnosis with Robin Quinterno, because I\u00a0haven’t\u00a0taken anything in psych before. I really appreciated her perspective because she was very\u00a0culturally\u00a0sensitive. She made the material very digestible for someone who has not taken a lot of psych, while also encouraging us to think critically.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In that class, we were given a case for the final paper, and we had to use our knowledge from the class and our structural knowledge to write a potential diagnosis for this client. I thought that paper was really cool, because it really exemplified the complexity of diagnosis and the different combinations of diagnoses that could have been submitted for any singular case. In the same vein as the positionality papers, our diagnosis may have depended on what I picked up on first. Did I pick up on the fact that this person was a person of color, and did you emphasize that her treatment may have made her less likely to seek help? Or did you read those same sets of circumstances as depression? I think it really highlighted that you have to [think] critically in this work, and there isn’t often one answer.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

What are you most looking forward to\u00a0after\u00a0graduation\u00a0and what \ufb01elds are you interested in?\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I’m\u00a0hoping to get some experience in outpatient care;\u00a0hopefully in a multicultural environment or with multicultural clients, next year for my internship. My goal would be to move into that environment\u00a0afterwards\u00a0or\u00a0maybe work\u00a0in a refugee center or something like that.\u00a0That’s\u00a0all I have right now in terms of a goal.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I will say, the benefit of changing careers is that I have eight years of experience learning what I don’t want to do. It gives you a little bit of guidance, in [the] process of elimination.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

What is your dream job in the \ufb01eld of social work?<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I would love to be a cross-cultural counselor at a university one day.\u00a0I feel like I would really enjoy it because I also really like working with young adults and I currently work in higher education.\u00a0Given my professional experience and my interests, I feel like that would be the perfect combo for me.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

What is your advice for other MSW students?<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Learn to prioritize.\u00a0I think that that is a skill that you have to\u00a0learn and hone as you get older.\u00a0One interesting part about\u00a0grad\u00a0school is that there are folks who are right out of\u00a0undergrad, and\u00a0there’re\u00a0folks that have been out of school for 10, 20,\u00a0or 30 years.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Learn More About Our MSW Program<\/span><\/a><\/h5>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Inspired by her global upbringing and cross-cultural work, Natasha aims to provide outpatient care that addresses a critical gap in culturally responsive services, blending clinical skills with deep cultural understanding.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25047,"featured_media":80159,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[8534],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ssw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78802"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ssw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ssw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ssw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25047"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ssw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=78802"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ssw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78802\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":80388,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ssw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78802\/revisions\/80388"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ssw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/80159"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ssw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78802"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ssw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78802"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ssw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78802"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}