News Archive
Alumni
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Johnnie-Renée Simon was two years in to her undergraduate studies in pre-med when she took a job at a foster family adoption agency to help with college expenses. The experience led her in a different direction.
“I guess what I had previously gone through during my life just pushed me to go towards social work,” she said.
From the ages of 12 to 18, she was in foster care herself. -
When Barbara Solomon joined the faculty of the USC School of Social Work in 1961, the times…they were a-changing.
The next two decades would find social workers on the front lines of the war on poverty, assisting veterans returning from Vietnam and, of course, fighting for the civil rights of African Americans.
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Steven Kim, MSW ’06, knows intimately what rock bottom looks like. Growing up an at-risk youth with little to no family support, he got involved with the wrong crowd and found refuge in substance abuse.
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Crystal Anthony, MSW ’12, grew up under the hands of an abusive father. She and her mother were the frequent targets of his displaced anger.
“I can remember a vivid image of [my biological father] putting a gun to my mom’s head and asking me, ‘Who do you love more?’” she recalled. “I was only 4 or 5, but I knew what I needed to say for him to stop.”
The beatings were severe and the fear palpable, but she still considers herself one of the lucky ones. She survived and has learned to channel those memories of violence into a career helping other victims.
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Figuring out how to run a business doesn’t always come naturally to some, and many fail to invest time and effort into one of the most important aspects of it all – good communication.
Dorene Lehavi, PhD ’95, wants to change that.
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At the age of three, Lynne Okon Scholnick, MSW ’72, and her older sister, Elsa, were taken to a foster care agency by their father. Her mother became institutionalized for what was then called melancholia, now known as depression, and never returned home. Until Scholnick graduated from high school, she would remain in foster care.
She lived in three different homes throughout her childhood. The first home was kind; the second, where she and her sister lived for 13 years, was not.
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Gena Truitt is a social worker with unique perspectives.
The Navy veteran and USC School of Social Work alumna works at the VA Loma Linda Healthcare System in San Bernardino County, where she interacts directly with veterans as a homeless outreach social worker.
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Stealing snacks from the corner store. Spray-painting tags on public property. Vandalizing cars.
What’s a parent to do?
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As a longtime recovering drug addict who experienced homelessness, Kristina Ronnquist, MSW ’14, went through years of interacting with law enforcement. Her encounters, however, were different from those experienced by many people of color.
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Grissel Granados, MSW ’10, is still here. At 28 years old, this may not seem like much of a statement, but to Granados, it’s a reality that many in her situation do not share.
Born in Mexico, she contracted the HIV virus from her mother. Her mother, unaware that she had been infected through a blood transfusion, unwittingly transmitted it to her husband as well as their infant daughter. Five years later when Granados’ sister was born, the family finally learned of their status.