Doctoral Candidate Judith Hefren has set herself apart with her dedication to teaching. For the 2012-2013 academic year, Judy was nominated and selected to act as a representative of pedagogical excellence to the greater University as a Program for Instructional Excellence (PIE) Teaching Associate.
Florida has the highest percentage of aging persons in the United States. As a part of the FSU College of Social Work’s Health and Aging Initiative, the Gerontological Society of America and the Association for Gerontology in Higher Education awarded a grant to Amy L.
Doctoral candidate Jane McPherson’s research examines the area where social work and human rights intersect. Upon entering the doctoral program at the FSU College of Social Work, she was awarded FSU’s Presidential Scholarship, providing her four years of support from the University. In 2013, the Graduate School honored her with the Graduate Research & Creativity Award and the Graduate Leadership Award.
Over the summer a permanent legacy to honor Dr. Wendy P. Crook (pictured right) and her family was established in the form of the endowed Violet Crook Graduate Scholarship. In November 2006, Dr. Crook pledged a donation to begin the scholarship. Tragically, Dr. Crook passed away in October 2007 at age 55 from cancer before the scholarship could be endowed.
Florida State’s Graduate School held its first Three Minute Thesis competition on February 25th in front of a live audience on the main Tallahassee campus. Developed by The University of Queensland in Australia, this research communication competition challenges doctoral student competitors to present a comprehensive and captivating oration on their dissertation topic and its significance in three minutes or less. Popularity for the competition has spread across the globe and is held in numerous graduate schoo
Dr. Maxine Thurston Fischer quietly made history at FSU in 1964 when she became the first African-American student to receive a degree from the University, graduating with her Master’s in Social Work. But her contributions to the University and the College of Social Work didn’t stop there. Her degree was a catalyst for a lifetime dedication to social work and social activism.
For the first two decades of her career, alumna Dr. Julie Buckey worked as a social worker at various levels. Receiving her MSW (1996) from the FSU College of Social Work’s Part-Time Program in Jacksonville, Julie worked in both supervisory and administrative roles in child welfare, health and mental health. It was not until she returned to the College in 1999 for her doctoral degree and began her dissertation that her focus would change, setting the course for the next stage of her life’s work.
“It’s time to stop being politely angry,” said Leymah Gbowee, the Liberian social worker and peace activist who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2011. Leymah spent a weekend at Florida State this month, helping students and teachers learn how to harness their personal difficulties and anger at injustice into positive energy towards change.
Leah Cheatham will be among the 15 doctoral students nationwide to receive the Doris Duke Fellowship for the Promotion of Child Well-Being. Through an annual national competition these students were selected to be the, “new generation of leaders interested in and capable of creating practice and policy initiatives that will enhance child development and improve the nation’s ability to prevent all forms of child maltreatment.”
