Emily Hickman's attitude about pressure: The more the better

Emily Hickman

April 21, 2009  - Emily Hickman is a Top 100 student, a Cox Scholar, works 55 hours a week and goes to school full-time.

Is it too much to handle? No, says Hickman, a junior at IUPUI in the School of Social Work’s Bachelor of Social Work program. She looks at pressure the way a contestant in a hot dog eating event views another hot dog – the more the better.

Hickman grew up in LaPorte in northwest Indiana and has decidedly not eased into her undergraduate college career. She works 40 hours a week at her job at the learning center at Crispus Attucks High School, located near the IUPUI campus. She also spends another 15 hours working at the school in her practicum, where she works with the school social worker.

Hickman knew from the time she was a sophomore in high school that she wanted to become a social worker. She looked at different universities and applied to one school – IUPUI.

“I was bad at math,” she said joking about her decision to become a social worker. She flipped-flopped from teaching to being a social worker, but being a social worker has always been at the core of what she hoped to become, Hickman said.

“I almost wanted to change majors,” she said of becoming a teacher. “But I work at a school full-time and I don’t want to be a teacher. I think I am going to be a social worker with an emphasis on international (work) and Spanish.”

Her interest in Spanish and other cultures has led to several trips to Mexico, including one with To Mexico, with Love, a language and cultural emersion experience.

She noticed a flier advertising the trip to Cuernavaca, Mexico in her dorm. “I thought I’d like to go to Mexico, I know a little Spanish.”

It was a decision that in turn enhanced her interest in Spanish, Mexico, and Hispanic culture. She became involved with Amigos en Servicio, an IUPUI group, volunteered as a service learning assistant to help students prepare for a trip last year. They worked with local Hispanic groups such as LaPlaza and the La Vida Nuevo Church on Washington Street. 

 Hickman enjoyed it so much she went back as a service learning assistant in 2008 and became a service learning assistant through the IUPUI Community Life office. In part, she helped people prepare for their trip to Mexico through involvement with projects to aid the Hispanic community here and then participated in service projects in Mexico.

While Hickman grew up in northwest Indiana in a town with few Hispanics, she took Spanish in high School and volunteered her senior year at an El Punte in LaPorte, a community resource center. “I loved it,” Hickman said. Initially, she did it for extra credit at school and then continued going because she wanted to.

Hickman has worked at Attucks for three years where she started as a tutor in the fall of 2006 as a work-study student. She quickly became a lead tutor and team leader at Attucks before being awarded a Cox Scholarship in August of 2008.

The Jesse H. and Beulah Chanley Cox Scholarship Fund is the largest merit-based scholarship program for working IU students who are Indiana residents. The scholarship provides 75 percent of the cost of attending IUPUI.

After Hickman became a Cox scholar, she couldn’t continue as a tutor, so the school offered her a full-time job in its learning center. She also created her practicum at the school where she shadows the school social worker and deals with students facing all kinds of problems. As Attucks has a large Hispanic population, Hickman utilizes her Spanish-speaking skills as well.

She enjoys working with the school social worker because, “I can use my skills and my passion to do whatever the day brings.”

Some days her work and school schedule is a lot to deal with, Hickman acknowledges. Has she ever felt overwhelmed? “Never,” says brushing away the thought.

The experience has simply reinforced her desire to be a social worker instead of a teacher. “My mind goes a million miles an hour,” said Hickman, who likes the idea of confronting new challenges every day.

While she is interested in school social work, Hickman is also interested in international social work. In fact, she already has her senior year practicum planned, which will take place in Mexico.

Hickman says she has come to value the insights social work gives her. After all, social workers have a view of how things work that not everyone gets to see, she explained.

“We see all the parts and how the parts function together,” Hickman said.

In a school setting, for example, she sees the administrators, teachers, students and parents.

 “I see all of it working together and the social worker is like an outside beacon.”