News Archive
Alumni
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When Sussanne Martin was four years old, her father, a well-known lawyer who fought for human rights and social justice in El Salvador, was kidnapped and killed during the country’s civil war.
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Ahyoung Song wouldn’t call herself a superhero, but to the many runaway Korean teenagers and homeless LA women she’s worked with, she is as close as it gets.
Song is a recent PhD graduate with the USC School of Social Work from South Korea. She’s also a wife and mother of two – balancing all of those roles with her lifelong fight for social justice. Last year, she received the B.B. Robbie Rossman Annual Memorial Child Maltreatment Research Award for her presentation on domestic violence. This year, brings her passion to some of the roughest neighborhoods in Los Angeles.
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The University of Southern California has a long history of supporting the United States military—from its days as a training school during World War I to the formation of programs and centers aimed at helping veterans transition home.
Now that tradition continues in the university’s own backyard. Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti recently announced the formation of a new council that will advise his administration on issues affecting the city’s military community.
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Prostitution is often viewed as a victimless crime, but in some U.S. communities the average starting age for a girl in the industry can dip as low as 12 years old. The overwhelming majority of women in the commercial sex trade find themselves there as a result of either coercion or desperation.
But offering them a way out requires going well beyond the confines of legal assistance. Women with prostitution or sex trafficking backgrounds can successfully reintegrate back into society, and in the course of their recovery, social workers play a vital role.
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Lisa LaCorte-Kring, MSW ’94, has returned to the university as a member of the USC School of Social Work’s Board of Councilors, bringing with her a progressive perspective on social work practice and education.
LaCorte-Kring is a licensed clinical social worker who has worked in family mediation with the Los Angeles County Superior Court for 10 years before transitioning into mindfulness training, or focusing attention and awareness based on meditation principles, after having two children.
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If you asked USC alumnus Daniel Rodriguez how he has accomplished so much after a past that has included drug addiction, homelessness, poverty and a host of other challenges, his answer would be simple.
“Everything that I do, I do because of my grandmother,” Rodriguez said. “I feel like I am validating what she thought of me, the faith that she had in me. I want to inspire others who have suffered similar experiences as I have.”
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The USC School of Social Work has established its first endowed Dean’s Leadership Scholarship, supported by the Jay and Rose Phillips Family Foundation of California. Awarded annually to an outstanding Master of Social Work candidate who is disabled, the Helen Phillips Levin Dean’s Leadership Scholarship will help such students follow the remarkable example of Helen Phillips Levin, MSW ’81.
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For Annalisa Enrile, the devastation that Category 5 Typhoon Haiyan wreaked on the Philippines was personal.
As a clinical associate professor at the USC School of Social Work, Enrile had visited Tacloban City in 2007 while leading a global immersion program for the school. She stayed as a houseguest in a humble dwelling with a poor but very hospitable family. She ate with them and played with their children, grateful for their generosity.
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Proving that social workers have myriad transferrable skills—including advocacy on a large scale—USC School of Social Work alumni Olivia Rubio and Filiberto Gonzalez have been appointed by Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti to two city commissions charged with improving the well-being of those in the community.
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Rep. Tony Cardenas never thought he would become an elected official. Growing up Latino as one of 11 siblings in a low-income household in Pacoima, Calif., Cardenas didn’t think public office was in the cards for him, even when a friend suggested otherwise.
“I said to my friend, ‘People like me don’t run for office.’ And what I meant in my mind by ‘people like me don’t run for office’ was that people of color don’t run for office,” Cardenas said to USC School of Social Work adjunct professor Robert Hernandez’s Adolescent Gang Intervention class on Nov. 25.