TAMUK Social Work Program Newsletter

TAMUK Social Work

Program Newsletter

Welcome to Texas A&M University Social Work Program. This year has been one of transition but also much success for our students and faculty. I am the new program director and look forward to a fantastic year of student success, teaching excel-lence and scholarly productivity.

This is the first issue of the social work newsletter, The Scoop. Inside you will find lots of interesting information about the social work program at TAMUK. You can read highlights of our current BSW program, upcoming MSW program, student and faculty activities and spotlight, scholarship and community engagement.

We are pleased to introduce the social work pro-gram newsletter, The Scoop. We will be sending a new issue of The Scoop each academic semester with the latest news, upcoming events, community information and student and faculty highlights.

In this issue, we highlight social work student Neha “Mara” Kashmiri. Mara is a senior in the social work pro-gram who will graduate in the Spring of 2016. Mara has been a standout student since coming to the social work program. She has presented at university symposiums in gender studies, serves as treasurer of Phi Alpha Honor Society, is president of the social work student association and is looking to pursue a Master’s degree in social work at top social work programs in California and Texas. Mara says her main interest is trauma and ifs affect in child and adulthood. She is completing her field practicum at Driscoll Children’s Hospital where she is learning how to do crisis and trauma work.

Message from Program Director, So`Nia Gilkey, PhD, LCSW-BACS

T H I S I S S U E

Message from the Director

2

Student Spotlight 2

Meet our Team 3

TAMUK Social Work

4

In the Community 5

Agency Spotlight & Service Learning 6 Research Corner and Upcoming Events 7

Student Spotlight

TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY- KINGSVILLE

O F I N T E R E S T

 Message from Program Director

 Student Spotlight

 In the Community

 Upcoming Events

Senior Student, Neha “Mara” Kashmiri

ISSUE NO. 1

FALL 2015

Special thanks to mem-bers of our Community Advisory Committee: Corina Benavides, Voting member

Dina Garcia-Scorpio, voting member Jessica Gomez, voting member

Aileen Palacios, Voting member

Eli Almendarez, Voting member

Edward John Marez, Voting member David McCraig, Voting member

Mrio A. Munoz, Voting member

Carmela Quintanilla, Voting member Robin Smith, Voting member

Seana Towler, Voting member

Laura Wolldridge, Voting member

Mariah Boone, Non-voting member, faculty liaison

P A G E 3

Meet Our Team

Introducing New Faculty

Teresa Young, PhD, LCSW

Dr. Young will be joining the social work faculty in the spring of 2016. She comes to us from the University of Alabama, Huntsville, where she completed her PhD in social work. Dr. Young has more than 20 plus years of social work practice and management experience and has particular expertise in child welfare, forensic inter-viewing, qualitative research and social work administra-tion and policy.

We welcome Dr. Young and look forward to her contri-butions to the social work program at TAMUK and social work in South Texas.

Right to left: Mariah Boone,faculty) Maria Iyescas(faculty), So`Nia Gilkey (faculty and BSW program director) and Isabelle Hughes (admin.)

SPECIAL THANKS TO OUR FIELD

INSTRUCTORS AND ADJUNCT

FACULTY! WE COULDN’T DO THIS

TAMUK Social Work Facts

Meet Our New Program Director

Dr. So`Nia L. Gilkey joined the TAMUK social work program as faculty and program director in Aug. of this year. She comes to us by way of Mississippi, New Orleans and Dubai where she has served as faculty of social work at Tulane University School of Social Work and Shar-jah Women’s College, Higher Colleges of Technology. Dr. Gilkey has served as adjunct faculty at Tulane University School of Tropical Medicine and Public Health, the University of Pitts-burgh School of Social Work and Carlow University Women’s Studies Program. Dr. Gilkey has more than 20 plus years in social work practice, policy, research and education. She has expertise and published scholarship and research grants in child and family trauma across the lifespan, child welfare, mental health and catastrophic events, homelessness, cultural

competence, psychosocial wellbeing in vulnerable populations including those impacted by HIV/AIDS, international social work and capacity building and community engagement/community-based research in local and international settings. Dr. Gilkey received her PhD in social work from the university of Pittsburgh, her Master’s of social work from Clark Atlanta University and a BA in psychology from Alcorn State University. Dr. Gilkey has served as consultant in various areas of ex-pertise for local, national and international organizations including a current project with UNICEF Rwanda on child welfare systems and professional social workforce. In addition, Dr. Gilkey has been featured in Social Work Speak, documentaries on disaster mental health response, local radio program s in Louisiana on social work and public health issues, and has been an invited presenter/speaker on issues related to child and family wellbeing including community violence.

Although new to the South Texas and the Coastal Bend community, Dr. Gilkey is committed to building strong community partnerships between TAMUK social work program and local community programs and is looking to serve the social work program and South Texas community for years to come.

 Program started in 2002.

 Accredited in 2004 and 2008.

 Up for reaccreditation in 2018

 Low student to faculty ration (approx. 15:1)

 Small classroom sizes

 Individualized student support

 Professional development and research opportuni-ties for students

The program’s mission is to prepare generalist social worker practitioners with the

knowledge and skills needed to serve the community and profession through

knowledge integration, skill development and ethical and professional conduct.

“I like this pro-gram because I get the support I need from facul-ty, there are small classroom sizes and the work challenges me to be my best as a future social worker:” Current BSW student J.R. Manning Hall

P A G E 5

Student Association Activities/Events

2015 Coastal Bend Social Forum 2015 Miss Kingsville Pageant Social Work Brown Bag Series

In the Community

The social work program at TAMUK co-sponsored the 2015 Coastal Bend Social Forum. In addition, we hosted professional development brown bag series for social work majors and minors, and participated in the judging of the Miss Kingsville Pageant which promotes academic excellence, community engagement and self-confidence for our youth.

Students participated in college night out, student

associa-tion fall carnival, Texas NASW conference as volunteers and

various events across the campus and community.

Agency Spotlight

Service Learning Projects

Faculty member, Maria Iyescas received a grant in the amount of

$5,100 that will be used to support the student organization’s

com-munity service activities. Students

along with faculty have will be

work-ing with “

Weaver’s of Love”

community program

as a community

service learning project. “Weavers of

Love”

is the only soup kitchen in

Kingsville, Texas. Kingsville is a small

college town with few employment

options for residents and an aging

population with high levels of

pov-erty. Two social work clubs,

the Social Work Student Association

and Phi Alpha Honors Society, will be

working with the soup kitchen to

develop a community garden and

provide other needed support to

serve senior and vulnerable

commu-nity members in Kingsville. We are

excited to work with the “Weavers

of Love” program and look forward to a lifelong partnership with

this valuable community resource.

CACOST CACOST is a private non-profit organization established in 1971 and funded through federal, state and local grants. CACOST currently services 19 counties and has a wide variety of service programs to offer to our community. Our MISSION is to continuously improve the lives of South Texans by providing high quality health care, education, housing and economic opportunities to reduce poverty through services and partnerships. CACOST offers diverse learning opportunities for TAMUK social work students completing their field practicum.

Www.cacost.org

Driscoll’s Children’s Hospital and its specialty centers, urgent care cen-ters and after-hours facility, serve a vast area of South Texas. On a daily basis, Driscoll works to ensure the children of South Texas can receive the best treatment possible. Driscoll has had a long-standing field place-ment history with the social work program at TAMUK.

www.driscollchildrens.org

The Bachelor of Social

Work (B.S.W.) degree

program at Texas A&M

University-Kingsville

qualifies for, and

partici-pates in, the DFPS Title IV-E program

(Department of Family and Protective Services,

Child Protective Services of Texas). A goal of

the Title IV-E training program is to enhance the

skills of current and prospective Child Protective

Services (CPS) workers through undergraduate

and graduate education in social work.

Texas A&M University-Kingsville B.S.W.

stu-dents who qualify will receive a stipend

(financial aid) that is applied toward their

edu-cational expenses. B.S.W. students who receive

this stipend must commit to employment in the

CPS division of DFPS in a Title IV-E eligible

posi-tion.

For more information, Please contact Mariah

Boone at 361-593-4138; or

[email protected].



Study Abroad Program to Cuba - March 2016



Community Advisory Board Meeting -Spring

2016



Graduation - May 2016



Summer courses—Summer 2016



Field Instructors Meeting—Aug. 2016



Launch of Online courses—Fall 2016



Launch of MSW Program—Spring 2017

(tentative)

For further information about the social work program, please contact:

So`Nia L. Gilkey, Ph.D., LCSW Social Work Program Director Manning Hall, Office 155 Texas A&M University-Kingsville 700 University Blvd., MSC 177 Kingsville, Texas 78363 Phone: 361-593-4133

E-Mail: [email protected]

The Social Work Program at Texas A&M University-Kingsville of-fers the Bachelor of Social Work (B.S.W.) degree preparing stu-dents to engage in entry level, generalist social work practice with individuals, couples, families, groups, organizations, and communi-ties with particular emphasis on the ecological perspective. The B.S.W. degree program has been continuously accredited by the

Council on Social Work Education since 2004, and our graduates are eligible to sit for the social work baccalaureate level examina-tion. Additionally, the Social Work Program participates in the Title IV-E program. Our graduates provide social work services in a vari-ety of fields of practice including youth and family services, mental health care, health care, criminal and juvenile justice, and services to older adults. The social work values of service, social and eco-nomic justice, dignity and worth of the person, importance of hu-man relationships, integrity, and competence in practice serve as our defining principles guiding our application of social work knowledge and skills to client populations. The primary mission of our social work program is to prepare graduates to provide compe-tent, entry-level, generalist social work to diverse client popula-tions.

Texas A&M University- Kingsville

Upcoming Events for the

Social Work Program

P A G E 7

Current Research, Scholarship and Community

En-gagement Activities during the Fall of 2015 include:



Socio-Behavioral Research Award —$3500 for

Summer 2016 Project: Environmental Social

Work in Coastal Bend Region



Invited Manuscript:



Invited Book Chapter:



Service Learning Grant Award for Weavers of

Love Community Service Learning Project



Partnership to develop social skills and

leader-ship program at Douglas Youth Center in

Kings-ville, TX

Jobs for Social Work

Where do I look?

Careers in Social Work

National Association of Social Workers

https://www.socialworkers.org/pubs/choices/default.asp

Be A Socialworker.org

http://www.beasocialworker.org/