News Archive
2015
-
Twelve years ago, Jillian Barba lost her brother to suicide. It was unexpected, and the news sent her into a tailspin.
“He was a good student, the popular guy on campus … but he had a drug problem. He finally got into a treatment program, but after he left he ended up taking his own life,” she recalled. “My brother’s death taught me that even though you think you have so much under control, your life can really change in an instant.”
-
Judith Wolfe, MSW '87, made a gift to the USC Center for Innovation and Research on Veterans & Military Families (CIR) because she is passionate about what happens to veterans when they return home.
“I am aware of what they have gone through because I was a social worker,” she said. “So my focus is to make sure that they are not isolated because [in the military] they were in a group with a support system and then they come back and no one really understands.”
-
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.
-
The George H. Mayr Foundation has been providing scholarships for MSW students at the USC School of Social Work for nearly a quarter of a century.
-
Rechele Ramirez moved 5,500 miles away from family and friends in San Diego to experience life as a children’s social worker in Great Britain. She’s enjoying her new role at Somerset County Council while she studies for an MSW Post-Graduate Certificate in International Social Work Practice from the University of Southern California. But she wasn’t quite prepared for the culture shock of moving abroad.
Coming from another English-speaking country, Ramirez didn’t think Britain would be that different.
-
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.
-
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.
-
The University of Southern California School of Social Work is dedicated to eliminating racial injustice and promoting an ongoing healing and reconciliation process to dismantle racism. This commitment is rooted in the belief that all members of our community are valued and needed to further the human rights and social justice mission of the school and our profession.
-
The Center for Innovation and Research on Veterans & Military Families at the USC School of Social Work has received a gift of $200,000 to support local efforts to help transitioning veterans in Los Angeles County.