Faces of Haviland Hall: Sarah Pierluissi (MSW '22)

February 1, 2021

Sarah Pierluissi is a first-year student in the AWELL (Advancing Health and Well-being across the Adult Lifespan) concentration; her current field placement is with Fred Finch Youth Center. This conversation has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

Sarah Pierluissi smiling next to horseWhat you were doing before you came to Berkeley Social Welfare?

I graduated from undergrad two years prior. In those two years, I worked at a nonprofit that works with homeless folks in Los Angeles. I was specifically working in homeless prevention in downtown LA, in the form of providing people with rent checks who had fallen behind, and who are getting eviction notices and pay-or-quit notices. For the last six months before school, I was at a youth worksource center in Long Beach. That was ages 14 to about 21, and that was very much impacted by COVID. As you can imagine, we had a lot of work training programs that were halted because of COVID. Once we started getting the hang of what we were doing, I started giving workforce readiness workshops online to students, but a lot of the job training was completely stopped. So that's what I was up to before Berkeley.

What motivated you to pursue an MSW specifically?

I've been interested in social services and psychology since high school. I think what initially sparked my interest was when I was volunteering at a homeless youth drop-in site, and I just found it to be really fun and engaging. From there, I became more interested in psychology and that's what I majored in in college. Also in college I started working with high risk youth in Boston; a lot of them were from Central America and they were sort of asylum seekers. That's kind of where I started to get interested in our criminal justice system, and specifically working with people who have been impacted by that system. Ideally I'm interested in working in a preventive sense with young people, and then also with adults who are exiting the system. I don't have too much experience actually working with that population, but I am very interested to do that. Overall, my experiences working with young people and in nonprofits made me want to continue with this work and pursue a master's.

Can you say a little more about your field placement at Fred Finch?

I'm working with transition-aged youth 18 to 24, and these youth all have severe mental health diagnoses. We are very much wraparound, so we do a lot of service coordination, a lot of linkages to permanent housing, or shelters, or we help people with their medical appointments, help them get food, things like that. And then we also provide therapy. It has been interesting to learn this therapy-on-the-go mode for these youth, which they're pretty receptive to. I don't think they're as receptive to the classic office situation. So that has been a really steep learning curve for me at this experience, which I'm really thankful for.

Can you explain what therapy-on-the-go involves?

It involves meeting the youth where they're at, literally. So especially if they're unhoused, you meet them out in the field. Usually we get some kind of a snack or some food and then go talk somewhere; it could be a park or Lake Merritt or a BART station. It also involves doing therapy in the car, if we're driving them to different appointments — like for social services or CalFresh — and just trying to engage them in a way where we're using therapeutic skills, but it's not as formal as it might be in an office.

Those must be in-person services.

Yes. When Berkeley Social Welfare said everybody should be remote [due to COVID prevalence in December and January], I petitioned to be back in person. It's not that I couldn't do services remotely. But I'm responsible for two clients, and one of the clients is just a lot harder to engage over the phone. There are things that are distracting, there might be people around, and so I just find it to be less effective for our purposes and for her goals. The main reason why I wanted to be in person was so I could meet with her in person, and then the other participant is not stably housed and it has been really hard to get in contact with her. Over the phone is just not as engaging.

How has service provision changed with the pandemic?

For people who work at Fred Finch, I don't think it has changed much in terms of client services, you know, they're doing all of the case notes and assessment, treatment planning etc. from home where normally they would do it in their office. But when it comes to the participants, you know, they really still need to be seen in person, and the clinicians are doing that. We are taking more precautions. Whereas before we would just be a lot more willing to drive people places and wait with them at appointments, we're trying to minimize that a little bit more. Instead of driving together, we ask "Can we meet at this place where we're going to do this appointment?" Or if we drive, participants will sit in the back and the windows will be down. Normally, that wouldn't be the case. So those things are sort of limited, but we still meet people out in the field in person.

You're in the process of being vaccinated?

Yes. Through UC Berkeley, which is great. I've got my first vaccine. It was actually offered to me through Alameda County Health from my internship, but that was harder to get in. I wasn't actually able to sign up. I would have been able to get a vaccine through my internship eventually, but it's really great that UC is prioritizing that for [Social Welfare students with in-person field placements]. It was super easy to sign up for a spot and took hardly no time at all.

You started your MSW program in the middle of the pandemic with a lot of disruption. How has it been going for you?

I definitely had some reservations coming in, because I was looking forward to one thing, and then it changed very suddenly right as I was making my decision. So I knew the whole time I had gotten in that this might look differently, regardless of how much I prayed and hoped that it wouldn't.
But the main thing for me was that I really wanted my field placement to be as fulfilling as possible. I can accommodate myself to online class, I can make that work. But the field placement: I really, really wanted that to be either mostly in person or a hybrid situation, so I could get as much of a realistic experience with clients as possible. And that's what has happened, and I'm very grateful. I've heard a lot of other stories from other people in my cohort that haven't been so great. I can't speak to their stories, but I'm just really grateful that this field experience has been what it's been.

What do you appreciate most about the programs here so far?

I really appreciate the professors being very accommodating and very welcoming. They create a really comfortable environment for the students, and they're very approachable. If I were to have an accommodation that I needed, I would feel very comfortable asking them. I also feel like they've made a great effort to create some kind of a community space within the class, and still be really engaging. I mean, obviously, it's not the same. But I think utilizing the breakout rooms has been really great. You know, giving us a chance to speak more, one-on-one or with people in smaller groups. And the assignments are really engaging. I really would say that the only thing lacking would be that it's not as it was supposed to be, which would be in person. But I think, given the circumstances, and what it's had to have been, that this has been the best alternative

What had you choose the Berkeley program in particular?

A couple of things. One is location: my family is nearby in San Francisco — actually, that's where I grew up — so that definitely had a big role to play. I also spoke to some previous students who had gone to Berkeley who spoke very highly of it. And then looking at professor bios and seeing what people were interested in — what people were doing research in — resonated with me. And just knowing that it was a very high caliber school and social work program.

Sarah Pierluissi with dog on leash in foreground; forest and lake in backgroundHow do you spend your time outside of the MSW program?

Let's see, what extracurricular-y things do I do? One is that I horseback ride. It's something that I've loved since I was a very small kid, but I haven't been doing it consistently. I recently was able to get back into it and it has just been a huge stress reliever and really fun. I play violin a little bit; that's really nice. And then I spend time with my family; I feel grateful that I've been able to continue seeing them during this pandemic. And I'm spending time with friends, and being outdoors as much as possible, and I have a dog that brings me a lot of joy.