Some students start their social work journey with a strong idea of where they want their career to go. Lisa Jackson is just such a person. Her career is right where she wants to be, and it is where her passion lies, working with the students at the Center for Academic Retention and Enhancement (CARE) and the Unconquered Scholars Program at Florida State University.

After leaving a career in healthcare development in California and starting a family, Lisa began her Master of Social Work program at Florida State (MSW, 2015) with a strong interest in working with youth transitioning into higher education. “In my application to the MSW program, I said that I wanted to work at a university with college students in terms of their transition and adjustment,” Lisa explained. “It’s an amazing time of life where students begin emerging into adulthood while facing many unique challenges.”

Through a graduate assistantship at the FSU College of Social Work, Lisa was able to explore this population further. “In my assistantship with Dr. Lisa Schelbe, I started studying foster youth aging out of the system and the barriers and successes they experience in college life. Their resilience and determination spoke to me as a person, and I knew that I wanted to work with this population.”  The mission of the Unconquered Scholars Program is to provide students who have experienced foster care, homelessness, relative care, or ward of the State status with “guidance, continual mentorship, advocacy, security, and a voice to further ensure their personal, academic success and long-term independence.”

Lisa began running the program while working on her own MSW degree, balancing her studies while helping her students excel on their own. Her stock answer when describing her primary role with the program is, “doing whatever needs to be done.” She acts as an advocate, mentor, guide, and voice for more than 100 Unconquered Scholars. She explained that Unconquered Scholars are statistically the most vulnerable population on campus and that they, and the CARE students, are outperforming the general student body at FSU. Unconquered Scholars have a higher GPA, higher retention rate, and a higher graduation rate when compared to the general student population at FSU.

CARE provides Unconquered Scholars with broad access to resources and comprehensive support for underrepresented students transitioning into college life. “Unconquered is unique,” Lisa emphasized. “These students have an active voice in a campus-based program designed to support their journey through college and into independent life after graduation.”  CARE offers an alternative admissions program for first-general college students who for economic reasons are disadvantaged and underrepresented.  CARE accepts approximately 400 students each year, and Unconquered Scholars make up a portion of that population. Once admitted to CARE, these students enter the Summer Bridge Program after graduating high school to help them transition into college life, such as learning where to find things on campus and how to interact with professors.

Lisa also works collaboratively with a group of students on the Unconquered Student Advisory Board, who represent the voice and interests of the Unconquered Scholars to inform the program’s practices, mission, values, and activities. “The Board came to me when I first started the program to talk about how difficult Parents’ Weekend is for them. I was an adult student and didn’t know there was such an event,” Lisa reflected. “And of course, this event is an issue. Scholars see thousands of parents on campus and are reminded that they don’t have a traditional family to visit them. So, we get the Scholars off campus on that weekend so they can have a campus family weekend together. This has been going on now for three years, and the negative impact students described in academics, social and emotional functioning has declined significantly.” She also does life coaching with her sophomore students, runs groups with freshman. “I am their cheerleader,” she said.

Working one-on-one and with groups of Unconquered Scholars allows Lisa to make use of her social work skills. “I really appreciate the systems perspective and the strengths-based approach. Those drew me to social work,” Lisa said. “Active listening and reflecting are skills I use every day. I am also very fortunate to be an adjunct instructor teaching Social Work Practice with Groups of undergraduate social work students. I explain that the therapeutic skills learned in class are transferable and can be applied in many settings, even for those students who never run a therapeutic group.”

 Her role doesn’t end with students either. Lisa works with donors and the community to build a network of allies, on and off campus. Under her guidance, the program has worked to provide essential resources like food and meet other needs that emerge as students prepare for leaving collegiate life, like professional clothing for job interviews.

And she hasn’t lost touch with her mentor and guide, FSU College of Social Work professor Dr. Lisa Schelbe. They continue to work together on a research study of post-graduation Unconquered Scholars trying to learn how prepared they really are for independent life. “It’s amazing to watch the Scholars grow over four years. We want to be sure that we’re doing all we can as a program to prepare them for independent life,” she said. “FSU is my academic home, so I really couldn’t be happier that it worked out this way. I love this campus, the students, and the culture. I feel very lucky.”