“It’s kind of a funny story”: How Elisa Mata found her calling—and her community—in social work

For someone who now lives and breathes social work, Elisa Mata’s path into the field wasn’t the most straightforward.

“It’s kind of a funny story,” said Mata, who is graduating with a Bachelor of Social Work in June.

Mata was always interested in community-based social justice work, and always wanted to work with people. Everyone said she’d be a great fit for psychology, so that’s what she applied for.

But, just for good measure, she threw in a couple of applications for social work programs.

“I put them in because they felt related to the work I had done in high school,” said Mata. “But, not knowing much about social work at the time, they weren’t my first choice!”

But her application to one school was so strong that the program lead invited her to a coffee chat to talk about social work.

“After hearing what they had to say about the field, I suddenly thought ‘hold on, this sounds like what I’ve been doing and what I want to do,” said Mata.

“So I panicked!”

But fortunately for Mata, she got into McMaster. And after taking Social Sciences 1 during her first year, she got into the school of social work.

“McMaster was always my top choice regardless,” she said. “I’m just so happy it ended up being for social work.”

Mata knew she had made the correct decision when she took the intro social work courses during her first year. In particular, she appreciated the intellectually demanding critical approach to the field.

“I knew that I had found a place that would challenge me to think more deeply about social issues and the challenges folks in community face!”

From there, Mata went from strength to strength, not only excelling academically but also finding a home in the close-knit school of social work.

“During my second year I just thought ‘this is home’,” she said.

One of the interesting aspects of social work is that the courses aren’t levelled the same as others, meaning that she would share classes with students from other years.

“It felt like we were all this together, trying to figure out this complex thing that is social work,” she said. “We were all moving towards one collective goal, with a big emphasis on community.”

That’s one of the reasons why Mata decided to get involved with the school’s program society, the Social Work Student Collective, where she helped build more connection and community through hosting events.

“Placements can be quite heavy,” she said. “And doing those alongside school can be quite a lot, so it was important for me to create spaces where we could come together. Not only for students, but also for faculty to come and share their wisdom.

“That was a really important thing for me, especially in my last year, having the experience I had in second and third year. Knowing how much I relied on my peers, I wanted to make sure other students coming through could experience the same.”

During the course of her studies, Mata undertook two placements, one with Big Brothers Big Sisters, where she had five different mentees that she would meet weekly. She also ran groups, one focused on building leadership and confidence for female identifying youth and the other one focused on supporting children with homework.

Mata also did a placement at the Halton Children’s Aid Society, working under a child protection worker, working with families in the child protection system to meet their goals, finding them resources and providing ongoing long-term support for families in need.

“It was a phenomenal, meaningful experience,” said Mata. “I was initially a little apprehensive about working in the child protection system, but my supervisor showed me that it is possible to do this work through a community-based lens that helps meet the needs of families in our community.”

And it’s those values that Mata takes with her in her current role as a harm reduction worker at the YWCA’s substance use support space, where she supports unhoused women in our community, and her volunteer role with Substance Overdose Prevention & Education Network Hamilton.

But her academic journey isn’t over yet, as she’s embarking on her Masters of Social Work here at McMaster. In fact, she was so happy to learn that she’d been admitted that she fell down to the floor in excitement (she was ok).

When she was asked if there’s anyone that she’d like to thank for helping her get to where she is now, Mata said there were just too many to name. From her professors to field placement supervisors, to her family and friends, Mata said her success was built on the support of everyone around her.

“I get emotional just thinking about how many people I have around me that have helped me throughout my journey,” she said. “Community really holds me up and, it’s really important to me.”

And given her work at McMaster and beyond, it’s clear that as much as Elisa values her community, her community values her right back.