Chesterfield panel discusses student experience, workforce development, alumni engagement
A six-member panel of #VCUSSW alumni working in Chesterfield County convened earlier this month to share their experiences as students and on the subjects of workforce development and alumni engagement.
Several expressed the importance of finding connections and a community as new students. It was easier for John Salay, LCSW, M.S.W. (’00/SW), who was a member of the first M.S.W. cohort when that model was introduced.
“It was an experiment at the time, but it was successful,” says Salay, chief compliance officer for Family Insight, P.C. “We got to know each other pretty well and you could make best friends. When you take all the same classes each semester with the same group and do it for two years … we felt like we were changing the professors more than they were changing us.”
Jackie Cowan, M.S.W. (’96/SW), says it was hard to connect as a 20-something who had just moved from Omaha, Nebraska, to attend VCU. “I understand now, 20-plus years later, that I was a nontraditional student at the time, which is probably more traditional now.” She is now a permanency program manager in the Department of Social Services.
Sarah Snead, M.S.W. (’83/SW) says as a student she “only knew what I knew – we didn’t have people coming in to talk to us about careers or jobs. One of the things that is interesting about this panel is that it’s really nontraditional. We’re all either government partners or work in local government. People don’t always realize there are all these positions in local government.” Snead is deputy county administrator in the Human Services Division.
Social work Dean Beth Angell, Ph.D., who moderated the panel, says lack of understanding can be a problem for the field. “We often have a hard time explaining what social workers do to general audiences.”
Melissa Ackley, M.S.W. (’96/SW), envisions a field model that is comparable to speed dating. “I surveyed some of my friends, and one of the themes was the importance of gaining first-hand exposure to the vast field of social work, especially the first year. You could choose three, four, five agencies where you could shadow and get more of that first-hand experience. Like rotations in clinical.” Ackley is a prevention services manager in county Mental Health Support Services.
Karen Reilly-Jones, B.S.W. (’94 SW), M.S.W., credits her field experience but also would like to see social work placements evolve compared to other professions. “The social work degree is so wonderful and particularly the field placements. Looking at 21st century social work versus other professions, we pay to be in field placement, but other professions do it differently. It’s interesting to see that with other professions, students are not paying to be there. It’s a core of our learning. I would like to see a different level of placement, a different level of professionalism.” She is a children services act administrator in county Comprehensive Services.
Student debt is a critical concern, Dean Angell acknowledges, and one of the reasons she is emphasizing a goal to double the number of scholarships the school provides. “A lot of people can benefit from a career in social work, but we don’t want them paying for it for the rest of their lives.”
Two other takeaways for the dean from the student experience discussion: helping ensure the school is creating communities regardless of age or cohort and ensuring more wide-ranging experiences in field placements.
Workforce development
Salay says analytical thinking and writing skills are essential when he’s interviewing job candidates. “They need to be able to analyze data and distill it,” he says.
Marilyn Brown, M.S.W. (’99/SW), would like to see the school offer more continuing education opportunities. “It would be really cool – they could be grounded in why you chose this field but also be very practical and skills-based, something you could take right back to work.” Brown is director of the county Juvenile Detention Home.
Cowan points to a group model in which agencies have designated trainers or supervisors who ensure student interns get a holistic view with exposure to different programs and experiences. “They’re all coming together and all hopefully learning the same things or at least being able to get different tasks, how it ties into the classroom experience, how it’s preparing them for the real world.”
Reilly-Jones encourages students to take the initiative in connecting with professionals. “I had an M.S.W. student contact me out of the blue and say he needed to come and observe a meeting for class. I said, ‘well, come on.’ He advocated for himself. He was in the meeting and observed the nuances of the language, started connecting the dots and asking the right questions. It was a neat experience, and I would like to see more opportunities where students can reach out to alumni.”
Alumni engagement
Panelists support the idea of more collaboration with the school and the ability to tap faculty expertise to extend the capacity of local and state government agencies.
“It would be nice to have the academic perspective for consulting or training,” Reilly-Jones says. “With additional research or analytics behind the policy, it helps provide more impact.”
Snead echoes that idea. “I’d like to see how we can connect the school with real-life experiences. There is an opioid steering committee in Chesterfield and also a regional one that Melissa and I are interested in. These are real-life programs that could benefit.”
Dean Angell says she is open to these opportunities. “We want to be locally relevant. It’s important having a ready list of opportunities for projects, something we can bring into the program and agencies willing to work with us.”
The School of Social Work recently learned it has been selected to participate in a 20-month National Council for Behavioral Health Social Workers on the Front Lines of the Opioid Epidemic Learning Collaborative. The award supports schools delivering addiction-related curriculum and preparing social worker students to address client substance use disorders.
Dean Angell notes the school will be adding a new course focused on prevention as part of the initiative.
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