CSW General

Agnes Muhongerwa has the heart of a survivor.

She tells the story of her life to students at Florida State University with poise, her voice steady, in spite of the tears that lie just below the surface. Her mother’s words, the words that sustained her through genocide in Rwanda, echo in her mind — “You must be strong.” So Agnes pauses, dabs a tissue to the corner of her eye and keeps talking.

She is small, diminutive even. I’m 5’6″ and I feel like I tower over Agnes, but strength, as it is in her case, often has nothing to do with stature.

The College of Social Work has proposed to limit access to the undergraduate major to retain students and place them in a limited number of quality internships.

The proposal, to be phased in next fall, imposes a minimum 2.5 GPA.
It will also require 60 completed credit hours, prerequisites and an application.
Program standards have been raised over the past several years to reduce its size, but numbers continued to increase.

Approximately 250 students will gain access, ensuring they are admitted to a limited number of internships with Master’s level supervisors.

A Florida State University graduate student who is pursuing a doctoral degree in social work has been awarded a competitive fellowship to pursue research on the needs of military veterans who have suffered from a traumatic brain injury.

David Albright was one of 24 students to be selected for participation in the RAND Graduate Student Summer Associate Program from a field of more than 500 applicants. He is conducting his research at RAND’s Santa Monica, Calif., headquarters and will receive a stipend of about $14,000.

When Dewayne Knight was 15, he was angry. He had been in foster care for six years and had watched numerous case workers come and go. His grades were failing. He skipped school all the time. If someone said the wrong thing, he’d explode.

So when he found out the court had appointed him a guardian ad litem — a supporter who would look out for his interests — he was hostile. He said he didn’t want one.

But Karima Anderson was undeterred. She had wanted to be a guardian since she was 17. Now at 21 — the legal age to become a volunteer — she was ready for her first case.

Letter to the editor

Re: “Holocaust education offers timeless lessons” (My View, Feb 10)

Holocaust education teaches critical lessons of tolerance, justice, and human rights, as Ashira Morris demonstrated in her recent column. These lessons merit legislative funding — and community engagement — because genocidal violence, with its roots in discrimination and intolerance, is still occurring in places such as South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

The rate of diagnosis for autism spectrum disorders (ASD) is the same among all racial groups — one in 110, according to current estimates. However, a study by a Florida State University researcher has found that African-American children tend to be diagnosed later than white children, which results in a longer and more intensive intervention.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – A Florida State university professor is spearheading a new outreach program to  mentor disadvantaged youth in the Big Bend on careers in residential construction.

Florida State University College of Social Work Professor Eyitayo Onifade is the leader of the new  program, which is called Construction-Coaching Opportunities to Reach Employment (C-CORE).

The program, which is a partnership between the college and the Home Builders Institute, is set to launch in mid-March.

Communitas 2011-2012 [PDF]

The FSU College of Social Work proudly announces the launch of its new magazine, Communitas.

“Social work is a shared story, and Communitas is the shared vision of our faculty, staff, students, alumni, and friends to strengthen our College’s community,” Dean Nicholas Mazza said.

On March 30, Mark Courtney visited the FSU College of Social Work and gave two well-received presentations on the area of child welfare, including:

“Trends in Child Welfare: The Emerging Focus on Child Well Being” was presented in the morning as a continuing education presentation at the Leon Human Services Center, which is co-sponsored by Big Ben Community Based Care.

College of Social Work MSW student, John Sheetz was awarded the Center for Global Engagement’s Global Citizen Award on April 3, 2012.  The award is presented annually to two students that exemplify global citizenship by building relationships across cultures and fostering global awareness and mutual understanding on the FSU campus.