Time, as they say, is inevitable. It forges legacies, establishes age, and eventually, shapes us all. The Gerontology Resources and the Aging Community in Education (GRACE) Program, a hat has led dozens of social workers into serving older their care partners, is going through its own shaping as program champion Sarah Swords, pictured left in […]
Features
National Leaders from Coast to Coast
From Seattle to Boston and Tallahassee to Anchorage, the Steve Hicks School of Social Work branching its leadership across the nation. What starts on the Forty Acres changes the world. And what starts at the Steve Hicks School of Social Work changes social work education across the country. SHS is becoming an incubator of leaders […]
“How Do I Prove That I am Good at Helping?” What Kewal Hausmann (BSW ’23) Learned About Social Work Through Their Practicum Experience at Doug’s House
In an unsuspecting home in Austin, Doug’s House is a sanctuary that serves as the only hospice and recuperative care facility in Central Texas that supports those living with HIV or AIDS. Doug’s House is one part of Project Transitions which is a local organization that provides affordable housing for Austin residents with HIV or […]
Big Questions with Dean Allan Cole
SHS is moving into a new building. Tell us more about the moving process into Walter Webb Hall and what the long-term future looks like for our facilities. We executed Phase I of the moving process to Walter Webb in March over Spring Break, which took our non-student facing staff and offices (such as development, […]
UT Austin health-related disciplines come together at the COVID-19 vaccination clinic
On a Wednesday morning this past February, after the winter storm that left Texas paralyzed for a week, a long line of people lined up outside Gregory Gym, in the heart of the Forty Acres. People waited patiently, masked under the warm sun and with the proverbial six feet of distance apart from each other. […]
Alumna Lauren Gutierrez shares her social work journey on social media
Near the end of completing her bachelor’s in psychology, first-gen college student from San Antonio Lauren Gutierrez felt lost at UT Austin. “I didn’t know what I wanted to do,” she said. “I thought I wanted to be an ER physician or work somewhere in the medical field. I just wasn’t feeling any of the […]
Alumnae in politics: Advocating for change in Austin’s education system
Ten-year-old Noelita Lugo was overjoyed to join her big sister in class at the University of Houston. As the youngest child of two working parents, she often spent time with her two older siblings because they were her baby sitters. As a fifth grader, it was the moment she sat alongside her big sister in […]
Alumnae in politics: Running for Comal County Commissioner
Colette Nies had no intentions of becoming a social worker, until meeting with her advisor at Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary. “We were talking about my work in anti-torture policy and food policy and he asked ‘why aren’t you getting a masters in social work,’” she said. “I didn’t know any social workers and I was […]
Alumnae in politics: Running for the Texas Senate
Coming from small town Mineola, Texas, Audrey Spanko had no idea what social work was. But when she finally discovered the field, she knew it was exactly where she needed to be. She obtained her bachelor of social work degree from UT Austin in 2011 and began direct service work in hospitals, clinics and nonprofit […]
Social work alumna creates errand service for Austin’s Latinx community
Ayuda. This word encapsulates what the coronavirus pandemic has caused so many across the world to need: help. But its Spanish translation highlights the need for a specific community, one to which Diana Anzaldua, MSSW ’17, belongs. A few months into the pandemic, Anzaldua co-founded Ayuda, a collaborative errand service to help members of Austin’s […]
