Carli Glen
Carli Glen is an incredibly impressive, bold, empathetic and purposed social worker who is passionate about changing the lives of children impacted by trauma. She is a Woman of Purpose. Here is her story:
My name is Carli Glen. I am 24 years old and a central Pennsylvania native. I was born in and adopted from New Jersey, but have grown up in the central PA area for my whole life. I attended the same small Christian school from elementary to high school and had planned to attend a college just 10 minutes away from my home to study communications. But God had other plans. He picked me up and placed me at Cairn University and in the city of Philadelphia.
While I was attending the urban ministry first year program at Cairn, I began to study and truly connect with the city of Philadelphia. It was there the seeds were planted that would ultimately carry me to the field of social work in the city. I became fascinated with the study of childhood trauma and its effects on adulthood. It hit close to home, as I began to examine my own childhood experiences, especially the loss of my father at age 13. I began looking up organizations that stand to serve children exposed to traumatic experiences and was led to the Children’s Crisis Treatment Center in North Philadelphia. Two years later, after plenty of research and building connections, I began my internship at the agency and returned there during my senior year as well.
My college years were filled with self-discovery. Slowly, things that I had never acknowledged before like anxiety, insecurity, fear of abandonment and more, came to the surface. It was uncomfortable. I was forced to uncover all of the things that I kept inside of me up prior to college. At times I became so overwhelmed that I wanted to quit. This journey was tough and resulted in a lot of pain, tears and inner brokenness. I came so close to giving up on my internship, relationships and my studies. I had become a master of masking my feelings, and unfortunately, most times no one knew what I was going through. I ultimately began to question my purpose. But now, I can say with full confidence that there wasn’t a moment that God wasn’t watching over me and hearing me as I cried out to Him.
As I look back, that was a time of transformation for me. By the grace of God, I am now able to acknowledge my feelings and not hide so much. I am seeing my heart being restored piece by piece every day. I am still growing and learning, but my purpose still echoes out. God’s purpose for me is self-discovery as I continue to serve others on this earth. I am proud to be a social worker and to have completed my studies to pursue a career that I love. But I can also honestly say that after all of the studying and self-reflection - I don’t have everything figured out. The beauty of faith is that I don’t have to. God already did and He gives such grace in the process. I am grateful for the journey of discovering what my purpose is. Life is ever changing, and my direction may be different even a year into the future. I am grateful that God is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow. He’s got all of that covered!
By the grace of God, I was able to graduate from my university with honors. I became a full-time employee for the same company that I interned with, and was promoted shortly after starting my new position. I have been a Philadelphia resident for two years but still visit central PA whenever I can, as a reminder of where my roots are.
I now walk forward with trust and faith, knowing that the journey may be wild, but it’s absolutely worth the push, as I continue to live here on this earth and move forward towards eternity in heaven.