Students gain first-hand knowledge of refugee crises
By Kaitlyn Harp, GSSW Mar/Comm Intern
Social work undergraduate and graduate students of the Cross Cultural Interactive Seminar were given the opportunity to travel to Dallas this semester in an effort to expand their knowledge on refugee crises.
“There’s something completely different when you take learning outside of the classroom setting,” senior BSW student Sonia Shah said.
In early October, 14 students and their instructor, Jennifer Dickey, loaded a small passenger van and made the journey to Dallas. Their first stop was a community garden refugees use.
Next up was a visit with members of the International Rescue Committee (IRC). There they spoke with a number of department heads about work they do and personal experiences.
This is the first year this class has been offered. Originally, there were only 10 spots available. Dickey was overjoyed after receiving 20+ emails about the class that she made the decision to expand the class size.
“I feel like the class needed to have context and meet outside where the action is happening,” Dickey said.
Dickey went on to say many people truly represent “refugee” status and do not know where to turn when it comes time to find community and make the transition. This refugee trip helped students learn more about how to prepare a soft landing for those refugees who lack a comforting community. Being able to extend a helping hand allows social workers to really invest in others.
“A social worker’s job is to serve human beings within the context of society and serving them with available resources or even finding additional resources that they may need,” MSW student Austin Lebeda said.
Social workers face day-to-day experiences helping individuals, families and communities through challenging times. They act as advocates for their clients and connect them with resources in the community to help them adjust quickly. Most people within the field of social work specialize in a certain area but have one thing in common: their passion for helping others.
“Sometimes being present with people and listening to their stories and being in that hard moment with them is more valuable than any skill, tool, or professional help we can provide,” Pruitt said.
Some students were even able to tie their own personal experiences to the class trip.
“I had the incredible opportunity to be a part of the response to the refugee crisis in Athens, Greece, for three months this past summer,” Shah said. “To be able to see how we, as a nation and church, are responding here in America was so refreshing and encouraging.”
This unique opportunity offered students more than they could have ever asked for in a school-related trip. Traveling outside the classroom to get a first-hand look at what organizations and churches are doing to help refugees is so inspirational, and Dickey hopes to make the trip a cross-discipline class in the future. She noted how important it is to make students from all majors and minors aware of refugee crises and how they can get involved.
“I would highly recommend this trip to future students,” Lebeda said. “Part of learning to be a social worker is developing a competency in working across cultures.”
This course allows for students to do just that—to become more culturally aware and to learn to be a highly skilled social worker.
Task Supervisor of the Year: Larun LeGrand, Providence DePaul Center
Larun LeGrand is a 2013 graduate of the GSSW, and has been working at the DePaul Center for about three years. In this time, she’s not only supervised 14 social work students but also become their advocate and role model.
LeGrand demonstrates a vested interest in each intern under her supervision. Her nominators described what they’ve learned from LeGrand and how her teaching and care have dramatically enhanced their ideas of social work practice.
“Larun’s passion and dedication to the core values of social work align with the mission and objectives that the Diana R. Garland School of Social Work have taught,” her nominator said. “She carried out the true meaning and practice of social work while working at the DePaul Center.”
Through her work with patients at the DePaul Center, LeGrand has given interns a true understanding of what it means to use professionalism and critical thinking when practicing in a clinical setting.
MSW Intern of the Year: Meredith Beall, Physical and Mental Health
Meredith Beall shone as an intern at Providence Hospice this year. Her talent, work ethic, dedication and passions combined to ensure that her intern experience was time well spent.
“She has truly demonstrated her power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, and the act of caring in our hospice setting that can turn a patient or family’s life around in the midst of the dying process,” Beall’s nominator said. “Meredith is definitely an asset to the social work profession.”
Incorporating new tools to assist families in dealing with their loss, leading a grief group and performing other tasks during her internship allowed Beall to incorporate knowledge into clinical practice. Her focus on Physical and Mental Health expanded and changed under the instruction of her supervisors.
Beall accepted her award, describing what she loved most about the field: “Social workers get to do a rare thing. We help others find the strength and beauty in seemingly hopeless situations. We get to be the keepers of stories, and walk alongside to empower others to find their full potential, and hopefully, make a difference.”
Beall’s outstanding work at her internship has prepared her to enter the field with practical skills and the knowledge that she can make a difference to those around her.
MSW Intern of the Year, Community Practice: Will Ward
Will Ward has been described by his nominators as one who understands the field of social work beyond all doubt.
“He has academic high standards combined with social work knowledge and the practical skills and tools needed in a professional social worker,” Ward’s nominator said. “One of my favorite qualities that Will displays is his commitment to social justice and advocacy. This quality is in his DNA.”
During Ward’s internship with Midway ISD, he was able to apply many different social work theories and practices as he worked with at-risk students and their families. His Community Practice concentration gave him the skills necessary to anticipate the needs of the Midway ISD community and determine the best practices for meeting these needs.
As Ward accepted his award, he quoted from Diana Garland’s book “Why I Am A Social Worker: 25 Christians Tell Their Life Stories:” “For these Christians, they are social workers…. because they believe… that God calls them to show their devotion to God through service to people and advocacy for justice – even when the efforts seem fruitless.”
Ward’s dedication to the field of social work, evident through this year’s internship placement, is more than an interest in a career path; it’s his answer to a calling.
Field Instructor of the Year: Michael Ormsby, Veterans Affairs Medical Center
Mike Ormsby’s work at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center spoke for itself when he was nominated for the Field Instructor of the Year Award.
Ormsby’s admirable reputation at the VA Medical Center precedes him; after about seven years, his knowledge and expertise in the field allow him to practice in a variety of ways. He has also worked extensively with organizations such as the City of Waco, MMHR, the Salvation Army, Project Homeless Connection and others. His ministry often takes Ormsby beyond the walls of the VA Medical Center, whether it’s serving breakfast at 6 a.m. or walking the railroad tracks and talking with the homeless.
Ormsby’s nominator described him as “humble and unassuming” but “when needed, will take the lead.” He “strives to build relationships within the community” and “gives dignity and worth to all persons.”
Mike Ormsby is an instructor who embodies the values of social work and demonstrates high expectations for his students by setting that example in his own practice.
Alumna makes strides in community deemed “Poorest Place in America”
Lake Providence, Louisiana has a knack for making headlines, but not the type of headlines most residents would hope for. The small city located in the north east corner of Louisiana was dubbed by TIME magazine as “The Poorest Place in America” in 1994, and nearly 20 years later, made headlines again as “The Most Unequal Place in America” according to CNN.
While the headlines paint a bleak picture, Jenny Hodge MSW ‘12/MDiv ‘14 is working with Together for Hope, a project of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, to change the fortunes of Lake Providence through asset-based community development.
“The hope is that if we can talk about the good things and start to build confidence in our residents, then we can begin to address the needs in the community, this time with a different attack,” Jenny said. “Asset-based community development is the best way to go about community development here, because the community internalized so much of the articles written about Lake Providence.”
Jenny has gathered a group of community leaders crossing ethnic, race and economic boundaries to help better the city.
“Out of this group, we have identified five priority areas to work in,” she said. “These areas are: education and training, economic development, neighborhood development, shared spaces and events, and spiritual communities. The first one we are trying to tackle is neighborhood development.”
Neighborhood development encompasses housing issues, green spaces, parks, safety, neighborhood watches and other things like adequate drainage, and smooth streets in and around Lake Providence. Her first project is conducting a neighborhood mapping survey.
“The survey will essentially go to every homeowner in Lake Providence and have them self report what their neighborhood is, and what they think the boundary lines are,” Jenny said. “We feel that the people who live in the homes are the experts on the homes and the neighborhoods. We’ll compile all of that data to create a map of the neighborhoods in Lake Providence. Whichever neighborhood has the highest respondents that said yes to wanting to engage in neighborhood development, is where we will focus our attention.”
Jenny is also starting an art co-op in Lake Providence to help aid the economic development issues in the area. The co-op would be modeled after a program called Delta Jewel in operation in West Arkansas. The co-op would allow 50% of the profit to go to the designer of the piece, and the other 50% going into the co-op fund.
“The hope is that this is where financial literacy, business skills, entrepreneurial skills, and then an art skill set all come together,” Jenny said. “If I have a worker, he can work. He can do woodworking, even if this doesn’t become their lifelong job, or ever pays all the bills, it is helping.”
Jenny is hoping these initiatives will help bridge the gap between the two tax brackets and ease the burdens of the residents in the community.
“For us, this is about the whole community, not just portions of it,” Jenny said. “The community really has this ‘I’ll believe it when I see it’ mentality because they have seen so many things fail and because of the negative press the city has received. So it makes doing anything, harder, but not impossible. It’s figuring out what small things can we accomplish to begin to build momentum, so we can tackle some of the bigger dreams.”
Community Practice demonstrated beyond the classroom
A childhood saturated with hard work and poverty gave Carlos Charco a unique outlook on service and equality. As the youngest of 12 siblings, Charco grew up in a rural area of Guerrero, Mexico helping to sell his father’s harvest to make ends meet for his family.
“I saw and experienced poverty,” Charco said, “but at the same time I experienced a community that supported each other in the midst of very scarce resources.”
Charco said the community in which he grew up helped shape his philosophy of public service and his desire to be an agent of change. For instance, during his childhood, the members of his village came together to petition and work with the government to put electricity in the residents’ homes.
As part of his MSW internship at Wilshire Baptist Church in Dallas, Charco began a program designed to help others be agents of change.
In a church-wide survey, Wilshire Baptist found many members wanted more emphasis placed on acceptance, inclusion and diversity. To meet this demand, Charco began offering Spanish classes to church members who wanted to connect with the large immigrant community in Dallas.
[Watch Charco in action in this video: http://bit.ly/1m8I0kL]
Wilshire’s Minister of Missions Heather Mustain (Baylor MSW/MDiv ‘12) said Charco’s classes would help shape the church’s future involvement in the Dallas immigrant community.
“We are charged to be the body of Christ in our world,” Mustain said. “What better way to relate to people than speaking their own language?”
The class was inspired by Charco’s own experiences, as well as his previous work with impoverished communities and immigrants, many of whom were victims of human trafficking, violent crimes or domestic violence, or were families trying to stay together.
“[That] experience shaped even more my calling to serve others and gave me the population group I want to continue to serve,” Charco said.
Charco’s work at Wilshire Baptist Church fits perfectly into the new Congregational Social Work Initiative in the Baylor School of Social Work. Like Charco, students involved with this initiative will work with congregations to engage in effective community transformation.
[Watch Charco in action in this video: http://bit.ly/1m8I0kL]
Carolyn Meyer always wanted to help people living on the fringes of society. In her career as a social worker, Carolyn is very aware of policies and procedures involved in nursing care facilities.
Now that her own father lives in a Skilled Nursing Facility (SNF), Carolyn must reconcile her roles as a social worker and a daughter. In her blog post, Breaking Free: "Lost in Space," Carolyn reflects on the challenges of walking this fine line.
“I hope it will help someone else,” Carolyn said of her blog.
Carolyn, a Louisiana native, completed her BSW at Baylor in the late 1970s. She is currently in her Foundation Year in Baylor’s MSW program and works as the Teen Parent and Pregnancy Coordinator at Midway High School.
Hannah is a Waco native and received her undergraduate degree from Baylor where she obtained a Bachelor of Science in Family and Consumer Sciences. She is currently a first-year Master of Social Work student concentrating in Children and Families, and she is considering a specialization in Church Social Work.
Hannah was called to social work during her time as a camp counselor where she discovered a love for listening and giving spiritual guidance. She’s passionate about social work in the church and hopes to one day research successful strategies to implement counseling and therapy services in a church setting.
This semester, she was asked to start a blog as part of Dr. Gaynor Yancey's policy class. This particular post deals with the idea of what constitutes a family.
Hannah's blog below is just one powerful example of the issues our students are contemplating as part of their classwork...
Welcome. Glad you're here at the start of this new venture for the Baylor School of Social Work: our blog.
Take a moment to enjoy Rev. William "Bill" Lawson's remarks from the Eighth Annual Fall Worship Service held at Truett Seminary. It eloquently describes why we are here...why this school exists...why our students are a part of it! You may find this Houston Chronicle story about Rev. Lawson inspiring, as well: http://bit.ly/RevLawson.
Rev. William "Bill" Lawson
Pastor Emeritus of Wheeler Avenue Baptist Church - Houston, Texas
Baylor School of Social Work Fall Worship Service 2013
Truett Chapel
4 Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven.
5 And whoso shall receive one such little child in my name receiveth me.
6 But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea.
Matthew 8:4-6
This worship service is held as part of the working year of the School of Social Work. Here at Baylor University are students who are working on degrees from a university that produces medical professionals, lawyers, corporate CEO's, technical, artistic, and academic professionals. There are Baylor graduates who are in the top levels of government, whose incomes are in seven figures, whose names are household words, and who enjoy international prominence.
And then there are those who are planning to go into Social Work.
Do you really not know what you are buying into? You are reaching back into the social and economic upheaval wrought by the Industrial Revolution, when millions poured into cities and were unprepared for the demands of urban life. You are deliberately pushing your way into the early days of the Catholic Church, when the first poorhouses and orphanages were formed. While other college graduates focus on successful practices or business development or clientele who can pay for their services or their products, you are dealing with a profession aimed at the problems of poverty and sickness. Your clients are consistently unable to pay you-and yet you are studying to build a career among the vulnerable and the excluded.
You are working deliberately to serve the needs of broken families, abandoned or abused children, addicts, victims of human trafficking or racism or corrupt criminal justice systems. Do you get my point? Of all the professions you might have chosen, you are educating yourself to be a loser! Why would you go into Social Work?
You are doing it for just that reason; not to be a winner, but to risk being a loser. The best firefighter is not among the frantic evacuees running from the crisis, but the risk-takers running into it. There are the professions which run from human tragedy.
And then there is Social Work.
At its worst, Social Work is a profession, and its clients are numbers in long lines of mendicants. At its worst, Social Work is cold charity, efficiently turnstiling nameless humans through assembly lines of handout offerings of products or services. At its worst Social Work exists because it is funded, and the Social Workers are there as long as foundations or donors or local governments pay for their services. At its worst, Social Work is a profession.
But at the Baylor College of Social Work, under the leadership of Diana Garland, and a dedicated staff of full and part-time faculty, you are being groomed for Social Work at its best. And at its best, Social Work is a calling.
Yes, at Baylor you are going into Social Work at its best.
Social Work at its best is not a knee-jerk reaction to the Industrial Revolution, or to the poverty or prostitution or mass sickness of the Middle Ages.
Its models are not Jane Addams or William Penn or even the charities of the Constantine Empire. There were benevolence systems among ancient Hebrews, Greeks, and Romans, but they were limited to citizens, not available to slaves or migrants. The concept of concern for the vulnerable, even the non-Jewish vulnerable, was introduced by Jesus.
He taught us principles above the ancient Hebrew law. The law commanded us to love our neighbor as ourselves. But He re-defined neighbor and lifted the concept to include the unacceptable. In Luke 10, a lawyer asked Him a question that opened the door to Jesus' principle of Social Work.
But he, willing to justify himself, said unto Jesus, And who is my neighbour? Luke 10:29
That question led Jesus to tell the powerful story of a victimized Jew who was ignored by his own countrymen, but rescued by an unknown Samaritan.
Jesus identified Himself with the victims, and challenged us to minister to the powerless as though they were Jesus Himself. Look at His image of Social Work in Matthew 25.
35 For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in:
36 Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me.
37 Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink?
38 When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee?
39 Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee?
40 And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.
Matthew 25:35-40
He was the One Who embraced despised Samaritans and hated tax-collectors. He was the One who would cross the line between clean Jew and filthy leper. He was the One Who would not refuse His healing powers even to members of the Roman military, who would ultimately oversee His crucifixion.
And He was the One who would consider children as humans who should be recognized as humans, and not as simply a little above the beasts of the field. All of this brings us back to the text of this message:
4 Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven.
5 And whoso shall receive one such little child in my name receiveth me.
6 But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea.
Matthew 18:4-6
The real basis of Social Work is in the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
So it is fitting that you are studying Social Work in a Christian university, and that you celebrate it today not with scholarly lectures, but in a worship service, with guests not from sister colleges, but from the church community of Waco and surrounding communities.
Why have you chosen Social Work as a profession?
Because Social Work, at its best, is not really a profession. At its best, it is a calling of Jesus Christ to look at the weak of the world as though they were ourselves. Social work is a ministry that re-defines clients as manifestations of Jesus Himself, to be loved and cared for as if we had the opportunity to minister to Jesus on the streets, or in the food lines, or behind bars, or wandering, bruised and battered by a drunken spouse, clutching a baby in His arms. Social work at its best is not obsessed by the efficient handling of as many clients as we can squeeze into a 9:00 to 5:00 work day, or the speedy dispensation of persons in a caseload (even the name dehumanizes the persons being ministered to).
You have chosen a field that does not pay, does not get public applause, and that guarantees frustration and the frequent question, "Why did I get into this?" Why on earth would you choose Social Work?
Because you know you have been picked out by God, called by Him to care for the least of these, anointed with the ability to love the unloveable, and sent forth to witness not for Family Services or the Food Bank, but for Jesus Christ, Who has invited all human beings into His family, and given us the example of Social Work at its best.
You are not where your peers expected you to be. You may not be where your own family wanted you to be. But you are exactly where God has placed you.
Why choose Social Work? You didn't choose Social Work. You have been chosen for it.
