Shameka Smith is our MSW student intern. She currently attends Indiana Wesleyan University and holds her LBSW. She is a certified medical assistant and currently works as a triage-certified medical assistant. She currently has 11 years of experience in the medical field. During her Bachelor of Social Work program, she completed 450 intern hours at a shelter for the unhoused in Indiana. This internship helped her build her social work skills and see the profession's needs. 

Shameka’s dream job is to become a clinical social worker. 

She enjoys 

working with families experiencing stress or challenges from medical diagnoses, financial stress, loss of loved ones, and mental health disorders. Her desire for her internship with Building Up the Community is to apply the knowledge and skills learned from her social work programs, prior internship, and current position in triage. She wants to engage in diversity, advance human rights, engage with clients in individual and group therapy sessions, and perform duties of a Social Worker. 

Shameka’s strengths include active listening, empathy, critical thinking, problem-solving, strong 

communication skills, crisis intervention, and advocacy. She is dependable, reliable, compassionate and shows integrity and ethics in all that that does. 

Shameka is dedicated to helping people improve their lives, reach goals they thought were 

impossible, and creating safe spaces for those in need to feel heard, understood, and cared for. 

She enjoys giving hope to those who have lost hope, supporting and empowering people to take 

their lives back and helping them meet their needs. She is a people person. She loves diversity and learning about the uniqueness of diverse cultural backgrounds. She is passionate about engaging in conversation, building relationships, and advocating for equality and fairness.