Social workers make a difference, helping people make the changes needed to improve their lives, advocating for positive changes in the community, and guiding disadvantaged people through the complicated system.That’s why, when looking for something meaningful to do for a career change after selling a business, I enrolled in the Master’s of Social Work (MSW)program at New Mexico Highlands University’s Facundo Valdez School of SocialWork.

ThoughI’ve only done one semester, I’m happy I enrolled. The other students in my classes inspire me with their wealth of experiences and insights. But none of them are more impressive than Isabelle Rael.

Rael, 20, already had an Associate’s degree in liberal arts when she graduated from Questa High School in the spring of 2020 as the covid pandemic shut the world down. But she didn’t let the lockdown prevent her from finishing her Bachelor’s degree in Social Work in two years, mostly working online. The youngest personI’ve met in my graduate school cohort, Rael is always ready to lend a helping hand to those of us who are older, but readjusting to the academic life.

I caught up with Rael over Thanksgiving break for The Hum. As a child of the mountains, she said her best childhood memories are of growing up playing outside and camping in the mountains with her family. She played violin in the Mariachi band in High School, played soccer, and learned about theater in drama club.

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One of her challenges in high school, despite being so successful, was “feeling like I was out of place or like I didn’t fit in. I was different compared to my other classmates because I was an ‘overachiever.’”

But she didn’t let that stop her, and continued taking her dual credit classes at UNM every Friday, along with her other extra-curricular activities.

Rael wasn’t exactly sure what she wanted to do for a career, but she saw herself working with children. Looking at next steps with her UNM-Taos advisor, she learned that social workers have lots of opportunities to work with kids in the schools or in the judicial system. “I honestly felt like social work was a perfect mix of my interests.”

She enrolled in the Bachelor’s of Social Work program at Highlands as a full time student in the pandemic. She moved to Las Vegas for one semester to try out the college experience, but there was hardly anyone there due to the pandemic, and she was the only one who showed up in person to the hybrid classes. So she moved back home and finished her Bachelor’s online.

“The pandemic didn’t affect me in a negative way,” she said. “I’m an introvert and an independent person.”

She puts one foot in front of the other, and says she’s grateful to be able to take some of her classes in person again. She likes grad school, despite the heavy workload, which includes 16-hour weeks she spends as a school social worker, a full time load of classes with constant deadlines for papers and presentations,as well as her position as a grad assistant for a professor.

“My family has always raised me to help others, put the needs of others before your own, and to always put 110% effort in everything you do,” she said. “Your education is what you make of it. It doesn’t matter where you go to school. You can still make something of yourself.”

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