The School of Social Work kicked off All School Day at the Radisson Hotel on Oct. 6, 2005, the 125th anniversary of the opening of the University of Southern California, amid a campus-wide festival of multiple academic, student, athletic and cultural events designed to commemorate history and celebrate the path for the 21st century.

Honoring the Past, Inventing the Future
Born out of the city's civil unrest from the Rodney King verdict in 1992, All School Day is an annual educational forum co-led by students and faculty to discuss how members of society can better communicate across differences in race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, age, social class and disability. To organizers, the event represented an ideal opportunity to demonstrate the school's oneness with the university and showcase its central theme of recognizing and celebrating diversity.

Building Bridges, Creating Community
Noting Los Angeles is the first city where there is no racial majority, Dean Marilyn Flynn, in her opening remarks, reinforced the idea of getting along. "It's our differences that unite us," she said.

In an opening ceremony accompanied by the choral ensemble Vox Femina, student leaders Kathy Hua-Di and La Shonda Blunt empowered attendees to work together, demonstrating how to 'make rain' utilizing the collective finger-snapping and feet-stomping talents of the audience.

USC Professor Emerita Barbara Solomon welcomed students, faculty and community members and shared her perspectives on Los Angeles as a 'mosaic city,' offering her own personal story of discrimination. She said USC had at one time been considered a 'white island in a community of color' but has made great strides in becoming more culturally sensitive.

Coming Together: Voices of Diversity Panel
Moderated by social work alumnus Mitchell Maki, dean and professor, College of Health & Human Services (HHS), California State University, Dominguez Hills, the 'Voices of Diversity' panel included community leaders addressing such issues as how an urban, diverse community can rebuild its social fabric.

"It's not about know-how, but will. Do we want to do it? To build bridges, we need human engineers. I could care. Or, I could care less," said the Rev. Cecil "Chip" Murray, pastor emeritus, First African Methodist Episcopal church. "Our goal should be community, not unity."

Echoing his sentiments were Salam S. Al-Marayati, director and one of the founders of the Muslim Public Affairs Council, who said diversity is the will of God. "We're here to learn from one another, not to despise one another," he said. "I'm going to be part of the solution, not the problem."

The panelists seemed to agree that race and religion continue to divide the nation, frequently citing the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. "Rodney King is in line with the Hurricane Katrina disaster. There's a lack of accountability - a betrayal of the covenant between government and its citizens," said Teresa DeCrescenzo, founding executive director of Gay and Lesbian Adolescent Social Services (GLASS).

Lydia Brazon, executive director of the Humanitarian Law Project/International Educational Development and on-air personality at KPFK-FM, also participated.

Nothing Stops A Bullet Like A Job
Activist priest and founder of Jobs for a Future and Homeboy Industries, Father Gregory Boyle delivered the day's keynote presentation, sharing personal anecdotes from his roles as advisor, counselor, employer, father and friend to thousands of at-risk and gang-involved youth. Homeboy Industries, whose mission is to find jobs for ex-gang members, now runs five businesses of its own, including a silk-screening operation, landscaping service, bakery, cafe and a graffiti-removal service.

Believing that community is the truest antidote to gangs, Father Boyle gives his young subjects a sense of belonging, a sense of purpose and a sense of responsibility -- unlike what many have ever experienced.

To illustrate, he told the story of Carlos upon his release from prison. "He was covered in tattoos. It looked like he'd been dipped in ink. He had these two black devil's horns tattooed on his forehead. And he says to me, 'You know, I'm having a hard time finding a job.' And I'm thinking, 'Let's put our heads together on this one.

And he says, 'I've never worked in my life, you know.' So I hired him at Homeboy Silk Screen, which is our biggest business and has the most enemies working together. I said, 'You start tomorrow.'

Well, I called the factory the day after, and I said, 'Bring that new guy to the phone.' And I said to Carlos, 'How's it feel to be working' And he says, 'You know, it feels proper. I'm holding my head up high. In fact, I'm like that guy on the commercial - You know - the one that walks up to total strangers and says, 'I've just lowered my cholesterol.' And I said, 'I'm sorry. I'm not following this.' And he says, 'Yeah, after my first day of work I was all tired and dirty, and I was on the bus. I couldn't help myself. I just turned to total strangers on the bus and said, 'I just got back from my first day of work. Just got back from my first day on the job.'"

Father Boyle, who leads the largest gang prevention organization in the nation, described at length the notion of kinship. Like Carlos, he says many of the 86,000 members of the 1,100 gangs in Los Angeles just want to "belong to something."

"Gang violence is always about something else," he said. "It's about poverty, families that don't function well, despair and racism, the disparity between the haves and the have-nots."

Offering at-risk youth a second - or even a first - chance through employment, camaraderie and a sense of self gives them a reason to get up in the morning. Like Carlos saw, the experience can be totally life-altering.

"What is social work if you're not making the voices heard. We're called to stand against the idea that some lives are less than others," he concluded.

Advancing Knowledge, Enriching Lives and Making a Difference
Festival activities continued on Friday, Oct. 7, with presentations from social work professors Haluk Soydan, who used the documentary series "Scared Straight" as a case study for how evidence is made accessible to the public, and Kathy Ell, who spoke about the social work landscape in health care in 2025.

Ron Astor participated in a panel at the USC Rossier School of Education entitled, "Violence in Schools and Colleges: What is Happening and What Can Be Done?" Alumna Helen Chavez presented the latest progress of the Los Angeles Universal Preschool, the landmark program funded by tobacco tax and championed by children's activist Rob Reiner, which aims to provide voluntary preschool to all 4-year-olds in Los Angeles County within 10 years.

The final event was the Compassion in Action: A Salute to Community Service pavillion. Among the participating organizations sharing their work on behalf of the community were Children's Bureau of Southern California, Children's Hospital of Los Angeles, Department of Children and Family Services, Los Angeles Unified School District, Los Angeles Universal Preschool, Midnight Mission, St. Barnabas Senior Services/S. Mark Taper Foundation Adult Day Health Care Center, United Friends of the Children, USC-JEP Peace Games, USC Staff/Faculty Counseling & Consultation Center and WHERE (Web Health Education Resources for Elders).