Introduction
Greetings all. My name is Darian G. Blanks, Sr. I am a graduate student attending Columbia University in the City of New York, studying for my Master's in Social Work degree. I currently hold a Bacherlor's of Social Work, obtained from Lewis University in Romeoville, IL, about 40 miles southwest of Chicago.
Born and raised in Chicago and the Chicagoland area, I have had a great educational experience growing up. I was skipped over my freshman year of high school after attending a gifted program for middle school. Upon graduation, barely 17 years old, I enrolled at North Central College in Naperville, studying Computer Science. But only after a semester, I decided to leave college and enroll in the United States Air Force as an Intelligence Analyst.
After five years of service, a seven-month trip to Iraq, and a medical retirement, I moved back home to the Chicagoland area. Diagnosed with Post-Traumatic Stress disorder and battling a severe spinal injury, I took time to heal, both mentally and physically. It was a very tough journey, yet I managed to continue to fight and eventually got to a point where I could get back to my education.
In the fall of 2015, I began with Lewis University, a private Catholic Lasallian university. After surviving two near-fatal suicide attempts, and losing a very close friend to suicide, I felt that I needed to do more with my life than sit behind a desk working with computers. I decided to switch my major to Social Work where I thrived academically. During my tenure at Lewis, I was elected the President to both the Social Work Association and Student Veterans of America, where I was able to get involved with the local community and student veterans from across the nation. In the fall of 2017, I was chosen as a 2017 National Top 100 Student Veteran, an honor and achievement that was no small feat, with approximately 1.3 million student veterans nationwide. In December, I graduated top of my program, Magna Cum Laude, walking across the state to receive my degree dawning four honor cords.
I knew that I wanted to continue on to graduate school since beginning my undergraduate program. After seeing my successes, I decided to aim as high as possible. I researched numerous program across the nation and honed in on only two Master's of Social Work programs: The University of Chicago and Columbia University in the City of New York. In early February, I was notified of my acceptance to UofC. 13 days later, the notification from Columbia came through. After getting admitted to both universities, each of which being one of the highest ranked MSW programs in the nation, I chose Columbia University and submitted my formal acceptance of their offer.
On the evening of June 17th, my 10-year old son and I made the 750 mile overnight drive to Manhattan, arriving the following morning where I received my keys and moved into my two bedroom apartment right around from my School of Social Work building. This would be a new beginning for me, a journey that would provide me with a great educational opportunity while setting my son and I up for a promising future.
The purpose of this blog is to document my experiences at an Ivy League institution. There are many reasons why I wanted to embark on this endeavor: I am a student veteran, I'm an African American, and I'm a male in the predominately woman field of Social Work at at Ivy League university. I have many unique characteristics that can prove to be both a challenge and a benefit while I undertake this educational journey. But for the duration of my MSW program, I will be documenting my life on multiple social media platforms, including Blogger, Instagram, Twitter, and Snapchat. I invite you to follow along as I continue on my path to obtaining my next degree as I progress towards my ultimate goal: a PhD. in Social Work!
Blogger: BlackIvyLeague
Instagram: 1Vet4Vets
Twitter:1Vet4Vets
Snapchat: Black.IvyLeague
Born and raised in Chicago and the Chicagoland area, I have had a great educational experience growing up. I was skipped over my freshman year of high school after attending a gifted program for middle school. Upon graduation, barely 17 years old, I enrolled at North Central College in Naperville, studying Computer Science. But only after a semester, I decided to leave college and enroll in the United States Air Force as an Intelligence Analyst.
After five years of service, a seven-month trip to Iraq, and a medical retirement, I moved back home to the Chicagoland area. Diagnosed with Post-Traumatic Stress disorder and battling a severe spinal injury, I took time to heal, both mentally and physically. It was a very tough journey, yet I managed to continue to fight and eventually got to a point where I could get back to my education.
In the fall of 2015, I began with Lewis University, a private Catholic Lasallian university. After surviving two near-fatal suicide attempts, and losing a very close friend to suicide, I felt that I needed to do more with my life than sit behind a desk working with computers. I decided to switch my major to Social Work where I thrived academically. During my tenure at Lewis, I was elected the President to both the Social Work Association and Student Veterans of America, where I was able to get involved with the local community and student veterans from across the nation. In the fall of 2017, I was chosen as a 2017 National Top 100 Student Veteran, an honor and achievement that was no small feat, with approximately 1.3 million student veterans nationwide. In December, I graduated top of my program, Magna Cum Laude, walking across the state to receive my degree dawning four honor cords.
I knew that I wanted to continue on to graduate school since beginning my undergraduate program. After seeing my successes, I decided to aim as high as possible. I researched numerous program across the nation and honed in on only two Master's of Social Work programs: The University of Chicago and Columbia University in the City of New York. In early February, I was notified of my acceptance to UofC. 13 days later, the notification from Columbia came through. After getting admitted to both universities, each of which being one of the highest ranked MSW programs in the nation, I chose Columbia University and submitted my formal acceptance of their offer.
On the evening of June 17th, my 10-year old son and I made the 750 mile overnight drive to Manhattan, arriving the following morning where I received my keys and moved into my two bedroom apartment right around from my School of Social Work building. This would be a new beginning for me, a journey that would provide me with a great educational opportunity while setting my son and I up for a promising future.
The purpose of this blog is to document my experiences at an Ivy League institution. There are many reasons why I wanted to embark on this endeavor: I am a student veteran, I'm an African American, and I'm a male in the predominately woman field of Social Work at at Ivy League university. I have many unique characteristics that can prove to be both a challenge and a benefit while I undertake this educational journey. But for the duration of my MSW program, I will be documenting my life on multiple social media platforms, including Blogger, Instagram, Twitter, and Snapchat. I invite you to follow along as I continue on my path to obtaining my next degree as I progress towards my ultimate goal: a PhD. in Social Work!
Blogger: BlackIvyLeague
Instagram: 1Vet4Vets
Twitter:1Vet4Vets
Snapchat: Black.IvyLeague
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