“In search of Hip Hop…you gotta find yourself” is a mantra that guides the way I live my life. In fact, these nine words are tattooed on my right forearm, and they are a daily reminder that this life is a journey and a continuous search to understanding my purpose. In this mantra, I can […]
On migrant children
When AMY THOMPSON was an undergrad in international studies, her Spanish professor assigned a news article from the Texas-Mexico border on the detention of migrant children in U.S. federal prisons. After reading that many unaccompanied children were detained indefinitely alongside criminal adults, she realized that her work in children’s advocacy would be back home in […]
The art of clinical supervision
Tammy Linseisen, MSSW ’89, was one of the main forces behind the inaugural Texas Clinical Supervision Conference, which in Fall 2017 gave a multidisciplinary group of practitioners — from social workers to counselors and family therapists — the opportunity to enhance supervision skills and knowledge. Linseisen, who has been teaching at the school since 1998, […]
Empty pedestals
By Diane McDaniel Rhodes There was a total eclipse of the sun the first day it was possible to walk around the South Mall without encountering a civil war monument. I’m not much one for coincidence. As Sherlock said, “the universe is rarely so lazy.” There has been debate about monuments honoring Confederate leaders of […]
Sam Woollard on the business of social work
Sam Woollard still remembers the refurbished apartment building with the filled-in swimming pool where the School of Social Work was housed in 1988, when she got her bachelor’s degree. Woollard now owns two consulting business that respectively support philanthropy planning and social impact initiatives. She thinks there is much opportunity for social workers to bring […]
V is for Volunteering
Service is one of the core values in the NASW Code of Ethics. Nine alumni share where and why they volunteer. Stephanie Glass, MSSW ‘16, Women’s Storybook Project, Austin “I visit women who are in prison and record them reading books to their children. In my last visit, I went to the Gatesville Women’s Prison […]
Jonathan Singer on why social workers should embrace technology
Jonathan Singer is the creator of the Social Work Podcast, which covers everything from direct practice to research, policy, and education. The podcast started in 2007 and today it gets about 60,000 unique monthly visitors. Singer (MSSW ‘96) is an associate professor at Loyola University Chicago, and a strong advocate for social workers to embrace technology and […]
Thinking upstream to end child maltreatment
A classic public health parable goes like this: a family is fishing downstream in a river, and suddenly a drowning person comes floating by. They pull the person out of the water, but then another drowning person comes by. As they are pulling that person out of the water, another comes by. The family then […]
The Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act (CARA) doesn’t go far enough
By Jane Maxwell The opioid overdose epidemic plaguing Texas and the nation includes two interrelated trends: a 15-year increase in deaths involving opioid prescription pain relievers, and a more recent surge in heroin overdose deaths. To help combat the epidemic, the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act was recently introduced in the U. S. Senate. This […]
Recovery high schools can help combat the opioid epidemic
By Julie McElrath I have seen this trend from up close, first as the counselor at a drug and alcohol residential treatment center. I worked with adult heroin users with multiple relapses who, on average, had started used opioids at 15 years of age. Today, in my role as executive director of University High School, […]
