My Experience as an Appleseed Fellow

By Neva Ducker, Child Welfare Youth Fellow

Hello! My name is Neva and there is a lot that I want to tell you about myself. I am an artist person that has a ton of hobbies that include painting, crocheting, coloring, writing, and being around my favorite people. I am a junior in college. I really love school and learning new things along the way. I work at an after school program where I run different clubs for fifth and sixth graders. I love my job because I love being creative with my clubs and making those children happy.

I found out about this fellowship from my old case worker and my B2I worker. They encouraged me to apply to this fellowship, and I was excited to finally get an opportunity to learn more about the child welfare system.

For my project, I decided to do a number of interviews with different people that are part of the process of a child abuse case. I wanted to learn more about the behind-the-scenes that I did not see when I was a youth in the system. The biggest thing I learned was that there are some amazing, hard-working people within this system.

I was treated amazingly during my fellowship, and I had some amazing support during my project. I did have the challenge of balancing everything that was happening between my personal life, school, work, and this fellowship. I think that I did well reaching out and I was very supported throughout all my struggles and accomplishments.

I would have to say my favorite part of this fellowship was the meeting with Schalisha, the supervisor of the fellowship. She was my biggest cheerleader and helped made this experience amazing.

In the future, I hope to become a social worker and help children and families. I want to change the world and do my best to slowly change the system for the better.

I am so glad that I got the opportunity of this fellowship because it is a stepping stone to the goals that I have in the future. I am so proud of the work that I did in this fellowship and I am excited to see what the future holds for me!