Providing support to battered women, serving families of Alzheimer's patients and helping small farmers in Honduras get low-cost food to poor consumers are a few of the reasons seven students from the George Warren Brown School of Social Work will be singled out for special recognition at the school's May 19 graduation.
The school requires each graduate student to spend more than a thousand hours in field education projects, or practica, at community organizations, health centers and other agencies of their choosing. In addition to required field work -- most of which is unpaid -- many social work students find time to put in additional hours for a favorite social service organization.
The University's social work students provide nearly a quarter million hours of volunteer services to the St. Louis region each academic year. By another estimate, the school's practica students provide local organizations with annual support equivalent to 125 full-time professional positions.
During Commencement, six of those students will be honored with the 1999-2000 Dr. Clara Louise Myers Outstanding Practicum Student Award, and another will receive the Shirlee Fink Kahn Award for exemplary volunteer service in the St. Louis community.
Social work student Jilene Gunther is this year's recipient of the Kahn Award, given annually to a graduating student who has provided exceptional volunteer service to the local community over and above required field work. Gunther earned the award for her work as a children's activities coordinator with the St. Louis congregation of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and as co-chair of a social work student organization that sponsors charitable and social events. These volunteer activities were conducted in addition to her required field work as an intern with the Victim Services program of the St. Louis Circuit Attorney's office.
Outstanding practicum awards go to one graduate student in each of the school's five major areas of academic concentration. The sixth goes to a master of social work student who has designed an individualized practicum project to meet personal education and career objectives.
"These awards single out a small sampling of our students who are doing exemplary work in the community, but in reality, there are many more whose field work is deserving of recognition," said Therese J. Dent, Ph.D., assistant dean for field education.
The 1999-2000 outstanding practicum winners by area of concentration are:
Allison Zidel Meyers in health worked with The Wellness Community of Greater St. Louis, a non-profit group offering support services for adults with cancer and their loved ones.
Marissa Berkow in mental health has been a clinical coordinator for Women's Support and Community Services, a St. Louis-based agency offering assistance to adult women who have experienced physical, sexual and/or emotional abuse from partners or family members.
Ramona Marie Connors performed an individualized concentration practicum project on education and development in American Indian communities. As an intern in the University and social work school admissions offices, she has been successful in attracting a wave of new American Indian students.
Sarah Boeker in the children and youth concentration worked with Heritage House, a public/private partnership between St. Louis City Family Court and Provident Counseling that helps arrange and supervise child visitation and custody exchanges as mandated by the court.
Kristen Hicks Hilty in gerontology worked with patients and families in support programs offered by the Alzheimer's Association of St. Louis.
Felecia Bartow in social and economic development performed practicum projects with Housing Comes First, a St. Louis-based advocacy group and with COMAL, an American Friends Service Committee project in Honduras that purchases food and other products in bulk and passes the savings along to poor families.
