Program Highlights

BASW Program

2017 Speaker Series 2017 Browne Fellows Selected

Congratulations to the 2017 Browne Leadership fellows! The interdisciplinary Browne Fellowship is aimed at preparing students to be engaged civic leaders working for economic and social justice. The purpose of the fellows program reflects the School of Social Work’s mission: to advocate for social policies and resources that meet basic human needs; to create accessible, responsible, and accountable human service programs; and to deliver quality services to those in need of support.

These students were selected from a pool of strong candidates from throughout the University of Pittsburgh community and represent academic program areas that include biological sciences, engineering, computer science, and economics.

The 2017 fellows are Sarah Atta, Michael Calhoun, Lindsey Gorman, Virginia Lefever, Daniel Porter, Chelsea Rader, Sam Ressin, Isaiah Spencer-Williams, and Daly Trimble.

To learn more about the Browne Leadership Fellows Program and each of our 2017 fellows, please visit socialwork.pitt.edu/ academics/bachelor-arts-social-workbasw/browne-leadershipfellows-program.

MSW Program

MSW Students Compete In 2016 Local Government Case Competition

Once again, a group of University of Pittsburgh School of Social Work Master of Social Work (MSW) students competed in the annual Allegheny County Department of Human Services (DHS) Local Government Case Competition. This case competition is open to graduate and professional students from universities in the Pittsburgh region and many of the schools within those universities that produce future managers and leaders for the human services sector. The competition provides an inter-university and interdisciplinary team experience in responding to a challenging case. This year, student teams competed to develop strategies for enhancing employment opportunities for vulnerable populations, including immigrants, youths aging out of the child welfare system, and those in reentry from incarceration. Students worked over three days to develop their ideas and present a recommendation to a panel of local community, human services, university, and foundation leaders who judged the competition. Four finalist teams were selected to compete for cash prizes. Competing in the 2016 DHS case competition were Pitt MSW students Abigail Godollei, Cassandra Hourlland, Wendy Paddock, Luis Perez, Ashley Pesi, and Rachel Vinciguerra. Pesi finished on one of the final teams in the competition. All students gained invaluable experience that they can add to their professional portfolio.

Students from universities throughout the Pittsburgh region—including Pitt—participated in the 2016 DHS Local Government Case competition. Pictured above are the four finalist teams, one of which included Pitt MSW student Ashley Pesi (first row, fourth from right). She was the only social work student on one of the four final teams.

Pitt Social Work Grads Surpass National Average for Licensure Pass Rate

The School of Social Work has celebrated learning that the social work licensure pass rate for our graduates is higher than the national average. This speaks well for the knowledge and skill preparation of our students in the Master of Social Work (MSW) curriculum as well as the caliber of our students. Recent results from a survey of our graduates demonstrate that the educational culture at the school, supportive environment, and student satisfaction with the program are rated very highly. We continue to improve the environment in which our students learn, and the results let us know that our efforts are on track.

This past December, 77 of our MSW students graduated ready for the field of professional social work. Sixty-nine students were from the Direct Practice concentration and eight were from the Community, Organization, and Social Action concentration, including the student speaker, Tina Marie Jones, who addressed her fellow graduates at the recognition event held at the O’Hara Student Center.

Program Attracting Students from Abroad

This past fall, we welcomed 227 new MSW students to our Pittsburgh campus, 16 to our Bradford campus, and 14 to our Johnstown campus. We continue to attract students from across the country, and this year, we also have international students from China, Nigeria, and Israel.

New Courses, Curriculum Modifications

In order to train students in relevant competencies for professional practice in all arenas of social work, we continue to review and improve our curriculum. Three new courses have been successfully piloted and approved by the faculty to be added to our inventory of courses. These are a generalist course, Poverty and Income Inequality: Social Justice Responses; an advanced skill elective for Direct Practice students, Social Work and Spirituality; and an advanced Community, Organization, and Social Action (COSA) skill course, Human Resource/ Financial Management and Supervision.

Additionally, we are piloting two new courses, with Social Work with Service Members, Veterans, and Their Families under way during the spring 2017 term and Social Enterprise, Social Marketing, Social Media targeted to run in fall 2017. With regard to the former, we have learned that South- western Pennsylvania has the second- highest concentration of active military members and veterans in the United States. Therefore, it was important to develop a course that offers our students a preliminary understanding of military life and the experience of military families.

MSW program graduates will work in various roles as service providers and leaders, so it is important that we are preparing them to be educated consumers of research rather than producers of research. With that in mind, first- and second-level research students from both MSW concentrations—Direct Practice and COSA—will find colleagues from the other concentration in their classes. Previously, second-level research was organized by concentration, as is most of the curriculum. Students will continue to engage in a research project while in their advanced course.

Doctoral Students Continue on Successful Paths

The Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degree program had an eventful fall and winter. Our students continue to be productive, and we have an excellent group of emerging scholars. During the fall, six of our students successfully defended their comprehensive exams and are now working on their dissertations. Rachel Woodson Goode defended her dissertation this winter and accepted a faculty position from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. We wish her the best of luck.

Our students continue to publish and present at national conferences. We also enjoyed a strong applicant pool this year, and to ensure that we continue to attract and develop social work scholars, we are instituting a new recruitment plan based on feedback from and discussions with our faculty.