National Disability Radio: Should Stephanie Get a Cat? cover art

National Disability Radio: Should Stephanie Get a Cat?

National Disability Radio: Should Stephanie Get a Cat?

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 This episode we had on Taylor Easley for Social Work Month. Taylor talks about her experiences earning a social work degree and how social work overlaps with the disability rights movement. Link to full transcript: https://www.ndrn.org/resource/ndr-mar25 Michelle Bishop: I’m not usually the recorder, so God knows. We’ll just start having a conversation and nothing will be recording. Jack, do not put this in the episode. That’s going to be in the episode. All right. Stephanie, do you want to get us started? Stephanie Flynt McEben: Sorry. Apparently Quinn found a cat on the side of the road that looks lonely and now they want to bring it home. Pray for me. Michelle Bishop: That’s your cat now, just so you know. Stephanie Flynt McEben: No. Michelle Bishop: This is how you get a cat. Nobody goes and buys a cat. A cat finds you. That’s how it works. Stephanie Flynt McEben: I know, and Quinn called me and is like, “I need to get it.” My wife, by the way, just for some context, Taylor. I’m like, “No, no, no. I mean, I guess if the cat looks lonely, you can bring the cat, but I don’t know.” I’m like, “Okay.” Michelle Bishop: Oh my gosh. Congratulations on your new cat, Stephanie. Stephanie Flynt McEben: I’m not ready for this. Michelle Bishop: So excited for your growing family. Stephanie Flynt McEben: Nope, nope, nope. Okay, perfect, perfect. Catastrophic. Stephanie Flynt McEben: Oh yeah, Stephanie likes puns. Michelle Bishop: Taylor, if you’re not ready for the bad puns, Stephanie is the queen of bad puns. That’s the other thing you have to know. Taylor Easley: I’m ready for them. Stephanie Flynt McEben: They are puntastic. Wait, are we recording or no? Michelle Bishop: Oh, we’re totally recording. Stephanie Flynt McEben: Oh, schnitzel face. Well, Jack, you’ve got your cold open, don’t you? Stephanie Flynt McEben: Alrighty. Well, Taylor, thank you so, so, so much for being on today’s podcast. Before we get into your experience at the P&A, would love to just hear a little bit more about your background and how you got into this work and what brought forth your passion to this work. Taylor Easley: Yes. First, thank you so much for this opportunity for me to be on the podcast and hear my story. I’m very grateful and humbled. Taylor Easley: My name is Taylor Easley. I have a masters in social work from Virginia Commonwealth University. How I got into this work is that, well, one, I always loved helping people. I used to volunteer at a nursing home when I was in high school, so me helping people isn’t new to me, and when I got into school, I fell in love with social work and I ended up doing multiple internships between undergrad and grad school before working at the P&A of working in the disability community. Some were working in the group home, some were working in a group setting and some have even have been working in policy. Taylor Easley: In my senior year of MSW program, I ended up working at the P&A system and working at Disability Law Center of Virginia and that’s where I really fell in love with disability and disability rights and that’s one of the biggest steps of why I am here today. Stephanie Flynt McEben: That’s amazing. Thank you so, so much for sharing that. And it’s so interesting how so many of us, it’s been a very common theme from this podcast in terms of talking about how individuals with disabilities and without disabilities have just stumbled into this field in a lot of ways by happenstance. So no, thank you so much for sharing. Stephanie Flynt McEben: I know you pointed out your experience at the P&A as an intern. Would love to hear a little bit more experience about that and how that’s propelled you forward in your current career aspirations. Taylor Easley: I started as an MSW intern there at the P&A system, Disability Law Center of Virginia. It was a great experience. I learned a lot. I actually improved in my writing there. I learned what it really meant to really advocate for people with disabilities on a macro level. In social work we have the macro, mezzo, micro, well, I’m saying it wrong. We have three different levels in social work. One is working with clients one-on-one, the other one is working in groups in the community, and the last one, the biggest level, macro, is working in the community at large, but systemic policy level. And that’s what I got to do a lot at the Disability Law Center of Virginia. Taylor Easley: I would write articles. Actually, one of my first articles I wrote was about cerebral palsy. I have cerebral palsy myself, so that was definitely a way to honor people with cerebral palsy, but let them also know about the P&A system in a way. Taylor Easley: I was able to go on monitoring visits and actually be in the community and see how people with disabilities need help. I was on phone calls, I was in different types of meetings that they had and that was all as an intern. I later applied for the ...
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