Alumni Profile: Paula

The following is the first of what will hopefully be many alumni profiles.  If you're a graduate of AU social work and have a story we can share, please send it to AUSocialWork at gmail.com

I am a graduate from the Ashland University Social Work Class of 1993.  

I was hired at Richland County Children Services Board following the completion of my practicum with them during my senior year at A.U.  I enjoyed working there as an intake worker, investigating situations where child abuse or neglect was suspected and felt it was a great way to start my career. 

I worked there for 2 years until I was offered a job at a local nursing home which for me meant the end of a long daily commute but a great opportunity to explore the social work field some more. This was a completely different age group to work with and my first exposure to social work in the medical field. 

I worked there for 2 years as well until I had my second child and decided to be a "stay at home mom" until they were both off to school fulltime.  I was then offered a position at our local hospital, where I have been employed for the past 10 years.  This has been a wonderful experience for me and I feel as though I have found the area in social work where my talents are best put to use.  

Similar to my position with child protective services, working in the hospital allows me to work with patients in the short term, quickly assessing each situation and then helping to develop plans to address each one.  I enjoy the assessment process, exploring the patient’s ability to perform activities of daily living, their family/social support systems and also their living situations.  In any work day, my clients may range from an elderly patient seeking assistance in their home, to a pregnant teenager contemplating adoption, and then to a heroin addict seeking drug detox and rehabilitation.

 I find that discovering and understanding the dynamics involved each situation keep the job fresh and interesting.  Like the position I held at the nursing home, the hospital setting is within the medical field where I also find myself very interested.   My education from Ashland University did a wonderful job in preparing me for my career in social work.

BPD Conferece

The Association of Baccalaureate Social Work Program Directors’ annual conference is being held in Cincinnati this week.   Each of the faculty are attending three days of workshops, round tables, and paper presentations, keeping them up to date and connected with social workers far and wide. More information about the event and BPD’s mission can be found here.  

Social Work Has a Blog!

Hello and Welcome!

Our goal in creating this space was to have somewhere to post job openings, department events and notices, as well as links to helpful resources and social work news. Hopefully this blog will be shaped to some extent by what social work students want and which resources and features you'd like to see as we grow.  This is an ambitious endeavor and we’re open to helpful suggestions as we proceed (ausocialwork at gmail). 

We’d also love to spotlight the accomplishments of our students, past and present.  So if you landed a great internship, were accepted to grad school, or just have something you want to share, send it along.

For now, our policies for content are still developing. This means that a comment section won’t be included until we’ve found our footing, and we reserve the right to edit material sent to us before we publish.

Social Work in a New Space

As most students in the major know, Social Work has moved into a new building. The Collegian published an article about the new space that can be found here.

Our new space currently has faculty offices, a small lounge/waiting area, and a conference room.  Renovations for the lower level are scheduled for the summer, and by fall semester Social Work (and Criminal Justice and Sociology) students should be enjoying classes in the newly refurbished space.