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News Archive

Alumni

  • Solomon Bass

    What advice would Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. give to us facing the social justice and policy landscape of our society today? How does his vision still apply, and how can social workers use it to help effect policy change?

  • lonely_boy_snap

    Katie Jay, MSW ‘16, experienced homelessness as a child. She now helps the homeless find permanent housing and access to mental health services.

  • Ashley Rhodes-Courter

    Ashley Rhodes-Courter, MSW ‘12, has charted an incredible journey from a childhood spent in foster care to a career dedicated to advocacy. This is her story.

    Ashley Rhodes-Courter, a graduate of the USC Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work, is an author, speaker, mother, philanthropist and child welfare advocate. Drawing on her own experience as a child adopted from foster care, Rhodes-Courter holds a deep understanding of the unique challenges facing foster kids — and how best to help them.

  • Jose_barron_pic

    Though his involvement in a gang landed him in prison at 27, José Barron never lost sight of his education goals. Now, he’s an MSW candidate in our social work program.

    After overcoming unlikely odds, Jose Barron is less than a year away from completing his Master of Social Work at the USC Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work. Drawing from his past experiences as a gang member and inmate, combined with his skills and training from the MSW program, Jose hopes to provide much-needed resources to his community upon graduation.

  • USC alumna Bernice Harper joins Hall of Distinction

    Adding to her extensive honors, a remarkable graduate of the USC Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work was inducted into the California Social Work Hall of Distinction on Oct. 21. Bernice Catherine Harper, MSW ’48, authored the groundbreaking book Death: The Coping Mechanism of the Health Professional and helped pioneer the hospice movement not only in the United States but also overseas.

  • networking

    Have you ever applied for a job or submitted a resume online, only to never hear anything one way or another? Have you ever applied for a job for which dozens—or even hundreds—of other applicants were also applying? The process of job hunting can be pretty frustrating, but there is a better way to get through it.

  • make change happen

    Our first week of classes has concluded amid two dramatically opposite national experiences: violence and bigotry in Charlottesville, Virginia, and universally shared excitement with the eclipse.

    We can expect to be at odds in coming months between confrontation and opportunities for connection like these, all within the context of national and international instability.

    As a school, we can use this tension as an opportunity to probe the meanings of democracy, diversity and social reform more deeply.

  • Frances Wu

    Frances Wu, the first Chinese American to receive a Doctor of Social Work from the University of Southern California, philanthropist, and founder of Chinese American Golden Age Association, died Aug. 11 in Monterey Park, California. She was 96.

    Born in 1921 in Anhui, China, Wu was a 1948 graduate of Ginling College, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in sociology and social work. Her master’s degree in social work was from McGill University.

  • Dean Marilyn Flynn, left, presents Moses Chadwick with the Exemplar Award from the Network for Social Work Management in 2016

    Moses Chadwick, MSW ’78, founder and executive/clinical director of the Tessie Cleveland Community Services Corp. (TCCSC), which provides mental health and related services to children, adolescents and families in South Los Angeles, died June 24, 2017. He was 75.

  • Barbara Jury

    Barbara Jury ’50 discovered her calling at an early age. When she was 7 she spent a week in the hospital recovering from an appendectomy, and she believes the experience of observing nursing in action around the clock planted the seed.

    During her teen years, her father became a hospital administrator, offering Jury more opportunity to witness not only the nursing profession but the workings of the whole hospital organization from top to bottom. By the time she graduated high school in 1945, she knew that health care would be her career.