Becca Wise

Born and raised in Suburbia in an abormally normal family, I followed the herd off to college in Illinois' Hearland to pursue a BA in Spanish. I studied a semester in Madrid, falling in love with the culture and realizing that my life had wonderful things in store for me, even if only in my mind. Roughly eighteen months after my semester abroad, I was given the chance to travel to nine different European countries in only 7 weeks with one of my best friends with nothing more than a pack on my back and a copy of "Let's Go Europe". I learned to love diversity and recognize it as one of life's true gifts in this world.

Through this realization, I just knew that I had to get to The Big City and pursue a career that would afford me the opportunity to work with people of various cultures and backgrounds. No sooner than three months after leaving the Heartland, BA in hand, I was on to earn a master's in social work. I thought that it may be a good idea to use the strong family values that my parents passed down to me to help others who have been affected by our own culture's societal woes. I was in love with academia, the energy in Chicago, it's own rich culture, and developing my own identity as a young adult with a world of options looking me right in the face.

I was so motivated to change the world, so ready to graduate and join the force, the momentum of over a hundred years here in the city where the social work profession was born. I was in a pretty solid long-term relationship and everything was falling into place just perfectly. I was honestly and truly happy.

My life took an unexpected turn when I found out I was pregnant at the ripe age of 23, six weeks until I was officially a Master of Social Work. I'll never forget looking at my now-husband, convincing ourselves that we were adults and could do it...that we were having a shortie!

So the path I thought I was headed down was deterred and I ended up spending the better part of the next decade being the responsible gal I see myself as. I wanted to do everything right. I wanted to be a good mom, above all. And I really do believe that I was, that I still am. I certainly try hard enough, care enough. Put the work in. I have two beautiful, funny, smart daughters who adore me. My husband still thinks I'm pretty cool (most of the time) and lets me be me. Two years ago, I even went "back" to work, though I never really even started my career beyond a couple s