BSW students honored at awards ceremony 
BSW students and faculty at recognition awards program |
April 2, 2008 - Roses, medals and certificates were all part of the IU School of Social Work annual recognition awards ceremony Tuesday for BSW students.
The event showcased BSW students who have excelled in academic performance. Some of the students also chose the occasion to be inducted into the Kappa Gama Chapter of the Phi Alpha Honor Society.
“I think it’s an important event for all of us,” said Dr. Irene Queiro-Tajalli, professor and executive director of undergraduate education. “We are celebrating students who have performed at a higher level,” she said.
School of Social Work Dean Michael Patchner took the opportunity to announce the school’s latest achievement – jumping to 26th place in rankings of 180 schools of social work by U.S. News and World Report. The school had been listed 33rd the last time the schools were ranked.
Just as the school had seen success, so had the students being honored on Tuesday. “Each of you have achieved academic success. You are on the road to leadership,” Patchner said.
The dean noted that the inductees into Phi Alpha join an elite group of students, but with than honor comes obligations, he noted. “As social workers we all have the obligation to make the world a better place to live.”
To make his point, Patchner told a story about an old woman living in a log cabin with no electricity and a dirt floor. She is sitting in a rocking chair when a young man stops by and asks her if she had a million dollars, what would she do with it?
The woman continued to rock and think and then answered, “I would pass it on to somebody who needs it.”
Patchner explained there is a message in the story for everybody: “We came into social work because we wanted to make a difference.” The students have gained knowledge and skills and now have an obligation to pass it on, to make the world a better place, to help those who are in need.
The dean made it clear that the success he expects them to find in their lives won’t be the kind that lands celebrities on the front of tabloid magazines or wealth.
Instead, it will be one based on character and integrity, much like a boyhood friend he grew up with in Appalachia. Both he and his friend came from coal-mining families, and both he and his friend, Tom, both a parent when they were young. His friend’s father died in a coal mining accident.
When Patchner went off to college to become a social worker, his friend first went into the Air Force. Later, Tom too, followed in Patchner footsteps and became a social worker.
Tom went on to become the first social worker in a small town hospital where he reached out to poor people who needed home health care, families who were dealing with a terminal illness and worked with people with disabilities, the dean said.
His friend worked at the hospital for years until he contracted liver disease and died. When Patchner attended the funeral he saw he sight he’s never forgotten. He found a line of people standing in the rain that stretched around the block waiting their turn to pay their respect to Tom. Later, the funeral motorcade passed by the hospital where Tom worked and even the patients came out to see Tom pass by.
“He made a difference in the lives of people. He left a legacy,” Patchner said. “I charge you to make a difference. Be Tom in your own way, no matter who you encounter in life. No matter what you do we all have a sphere of influence. For some, it’s large, others small, but make a difference,” he urged the students.
Among the students being honored was Jessica Lee, one of those inducted into Phi Alpha. Watching her receive her medallion and a rose, was her twin sister, Casey Foust, who graduated five years ago as an honor student.
Lee said watching her sister go through the program inspired her to switch to the social work program, too. Foust was also an honor student. “I think we’ve both always been interested in it,” Foust said of social work. “It changes you,” said Foust, who works as a home and school advisor for the Wayne Township School system. “It puts a name on what you love to do.”
BSW initiates into Phi Alpha include: Traci Alexander, Erica Bruenjes, Megan Busam,
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| Jessica Lee (left), with daughter Asia, and twin sister, Casey Foust | Katherine Christian, Randolph Clark, Vickie Hendon, Angie Henson, Jessica Lee, Shalonda Lyons, Mary Mallay, Daniel Niederman, Catherine Powell, Gilbert Primeau, Donna Suttles, Linda Thomas, Athena Warren, Lanette Wheeler.
Students receiving academic honors include: Catherine Genrty (Highest), Karen Arnold (High), Nicholas Reich (High), David Pollert (With Distinction), Lanette Wheeler (With Distinction).
Catherine Gentry is also the IUPUI Chancellor’s Scholar.
BSW scholarship recipients include: Traci Alexander, Karen Arnold, Erica Bruenjes, Katherine Christian, Laura Hash, Vickie Hendon, Emily Hickman, Michelle Kellogg Shalonda Lyons, Mary Mallay, Jacquelyn Palmer, Christina Tjapkes, and Eula Walker.
For more information contact Rob Schneider, Indiana University School of Social Work, 317-278-0303 or at robschn@iupui.edu
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