MSW Student Finishing Her MSW After TBI Changed Her Personal Perspective and Career Outlook
While many feel like different people than they were before March 2020, Alicia Figliuolo essentially is a different person than she was at the start of her Master of Social Work program. In 2016, using the benefits she earned as a U.S. Marine, Figliuolo enrolled at WNMU thinking, “Let’s go see what this rural program can teach me.” Seeing herself as unfit to be a clinical social worker but recognizing her affluent connections and sphere of influence, Figliuolo aimed to continue working in policy and go into national politics. She worked to get straight As and was on track to achieve her dreams. But in 2017, she suffered a traumatic brain injury. “My character changed. My mannerisms changed. I was dependent on my wife and my friends,” she said. Instead of finishing her master’s in 2018, Figliuolo was re-learning to walk and talk, create short term memories, and be independent. After years of effort and persistence, she was medically cleared to try graduate school...