News Archive

USC researchers are applying tools from the study of epigenetics and social work to discern whether young adults who were abused or neglected as children have more mental health symptoms during the COVID-19 pandemic than those who were not. The result could increase understanding of who is at greater risk in the context of the pandemic and who may benefit most from enhanced and targeted interventions.

The 18th Annual California Social Work Hall of Distinction Induction Ceremony will be held virtually on Sunday, October 18, 2020, live from Bovard Auditorium at USC. The event is a tribute to the positive impact of social work practice, policy and research addressing health and welfare problems in California's most vulnerable communities.

For three Master of Social Work (MSW) students - two born in Armenia and one in California - the news from their families in Armenia on Sept. 27, 2020 was terrifying. Hostilities erupted in the region of Nagorno-Karabakh, also known as Artsakh, after years of escalating skirmishes. In the midst of midterms held remotely because of the pandemic, they say they were glued to social media reports and constant family communication to learn more.

Under the twin cloaks of personal and opportunity equality, both enshrined in our Independence Declaration and our Constitution, the President of the United States is seeking to whitewash our history and institutionalize racism and sexism.

One suicide leaves a heartbreaking trail, notably affecting an estimated 135 surviving people. The thousands of suicide deaths that occur each year among U.S. military veterans are a cause for national mourning.

On August 14, 2020, the Social Work Leadership Roundtable held a virtual Town Hall on Racial Equity, streamed via Facebook Live and hosted by the National Association of Social Workers (NASW), one of the nine social work organizations that comprise the Social Work Leadership Roundtable membership.

A few months ago, LaRaine Koen faced a tough decision. Financial worries, made worse by the COVID-19 pandemic, made it seem like her only option was to postpone the final year of her Master of Social Work (MSW) degree she was earning online through the USC Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work’s Virtual Academic Center (VAC).

Call it a perfect marriage of need. As the COVID-19 health emergency upended people’s lives this spring and summer, faculty at the USC Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work found a way to help Master of Social Work (MSW) students, and the greater Los Angeles community, with an innovative initiative aimed at promoting well-being to underserved populations through pro bono telehealth counseling services.

Jankee Pandya, MSW ’17, lives her life according to a simple creed she learned from the leader of her Hindu temple: “In the joy of others lies our own.”

Those eight words from His Holiness Pramukh Swami Maharaj form a call to action for Pandya that is more important than ever in her work in light of the COVID-19 pandemic.

We live in an age in which academics are often criticized as elitists who uphold liberal values, indoctrinate our students with these values, and dismiss out of hand any ideas advocated by colleagues or others that seem to oppose those values. In response, we admit that we strive to preserve and protect the values of equity, diversity and inclusion because we view them as the foundation for a democratic and just society and the cornerstone of academic freedom.