Social Work News
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Social work graduate pursues career helping Wisconsin youth
Ricardo "Ricky" Ruel has experienced some hardships in life, and by pursuing a career as a social worker in child welfare, Ruel intends to be the person who can help Wisconsin youth facing some of the same challenges he faced.
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Senior social work major hopes to help fellow veterans: Paige Kurtz
By summer 2022, Paige Kurtz will have completed her commitment to the U.S. Army National Guard with her social work degree in hand. After graduate school, she hopes to help promote a more mentally healthy military force as a counselor.
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Lifting up students and closing the gap: Upward Bound at UW-Eau Claire
When Melady Vue learned about the college preparation program Upward Bound, she had no way of knowing it would bring her not only to her goal of a degree but also to a fulfilling career helping area youth chase their own college dreams.
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National Student Exchange creates new learning opportunities for Blugolds
UW-Eau Claire senior Kenzie Beam was studying in Arizona when COVID-19 cut her National Student Exchange semester short. While disappointed, she enjoyed the experience so much that she's signed on for another NSE semester, this time on the East Coast.
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Pilot program aims to save students money by reducing textbook and materials costs
UW-Eau Claire is piloting a program that gives faculty the time, resources and support they need to redesign a course using open educational resources, which are teaching, learning and research materials that live in the public domain so they are free.
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Virtual Civil Rights Pilgrimage set for Jan. 11-15
Refusing to let another CRP trip go the way of 2020 cancellations, students have created an entirely online version of the pilgrimage, free to current Blugolds and affordable to alumni and community members.
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Federal child welfare grants assist future social workers at UW-Eau Claire
UW-Eau Claire students can receive a $9,000 grant for tuition and fees and a $1,800 stipend from a federal program intended to support training for future child welfare social workers.
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Grant helps UW-Eau Claire assist at-risk preschoolers
A grant from the United Way’s COVID-19 Response and Recovery Community Fund will enable UW-Eau Claire’s Early Childhood Literacy Intervention Program to potentially double the number of children served from 350 to 700.
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Social work majors find new ways forward after COVID-19 ends internships
Savana Stuhl, a social work major in her last semester, had two internships cut short this spring because of COVID-19. While challenging, she says the experience will make her an even better social worker.
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Peer-to-peer outreach programs help Blugolds address mental health
UW-Eau Claire's SPARC program is a multifaceted initiative involving mental health outreach, programming, training, academics, research and policy/protocol development. Peer-to-peer education is a big part of the outreach.
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Recognizing student mentors: College of Education and Human Sciences honors partners
UW-Eau Claire’s College of Education and Human Sciences recently honored outstanding area educators and professionals who mentor education and human sciences students at the college’s annual awards reception April 18.
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Man on a mission
UW-Eau Claire is attracting more students from inner-city neighborhoods in Chicago, Minneapolis, Milwaukee and Indianapolis thanks to Dennis Beale, a grad who uses his own life experiences to help convince them college is a path to a better life.
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Immersions, internships, student groups shape social work major's college career
Larrick Potvin, a social work major, embraced a wealth of opportunities at UW-Eau Claire. As a result, his college career included everything from international immersions to internships to service.
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International experience inspires Blugolds to make change in the world
Nineteen UW-Eau Claire students and two faculty members traveled to Senegal as part of an international immersion program focused on community-led development training.
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Experiences as Blugolds inspire grads to pursue careers in higher education
Four Blugold grads who were inspired to pursue careers in higher education because of outside-the-classroom experiences they had while students at UW-Eau Claire now are co-workers in the student affairs unit of a small college in Minnesota.
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Blugolds learn to help children with trauma return to the classroom
Blugolds Nicole Fox and Emma Nickerson are pursuing different majors, but a UW-Eau Claire summer immersion program that took them to a children’s hospital in California helped them discover how closely their paths may interact in the future. Fox, Nickerson and eight other Blugolds were part of the Shriners Children’s Hospital-Northern California immersion program that gave the students hands-on experiences working with diverse youth who had a significant burn or orthopedic trauma.
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Immersion gives social work majors up-close look at future profession
Thanks to a summer immersion program, Emma McIlquham is more certain than ever that she wants to be a social worker so she can help children. The senior was among the eight UW-Eau Claire students considering careers in child welfare who got an up-close look earlier this summer at what it is like to work with high-risk children and their families. The Blugolds, along with Jamie Tester, field director and clinical instructor in UW-Eau Claire’s social work department, spent nearly two weeks in Chicago and Springfield, Illinois, as part of a Child Advocacy Immersion program.
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UW-Eau Claire signs agreements for NTC, WITC social work transfers
Students holding an associate's degree in from two area technical colleges now have improved options for transferring to UW-Eau Claire and pursuing a bachelor's in social work, thanks to newly signed articulation agreements.
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Blugold family helps veteran make dream come true
Unlike most of the Blugolds who will graduate this month, no one expected Bronsen Smith to earn a bachelor’s degree. From being expelled from his high school to overcoming the death of his sister, the odds have been stacked against the Army veteran for a long time.
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Making Eau Claire a safer place for LGBTQ+ people
Community members will gather this month to celebrate a new Blugold-led initiative aimed at making Eau Claire a safer place for LGBTQ+ individuals seeking medical care. Safe Spaces Coalition of the Chippewa Valley will celebrate the first edition of its “Resource Guide to LGBTQ+ Friendly and Competent Service Providers” during an April 17 launch party. The event, open to all members of the community, will run from 6-8 p.m. in the Eau Claire Room of L.E. Phillips Memorial Public Library in downtown Eau Claire.
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Immersion fosters Blugold connections with Somali community
Growing up in a Twin Cities suburb, Connor Zielinski was aware that there was a large Somali community in Minneapolis, yet he knew little about the people who live there. As immigration and other issues touching on diverse populations, including his Somali neighbors, became part of the rhetoric in state and national elections last fall, Zielinski — a UW-Eau Claire freshman with an interest in politics — realized he didn’t understand enough about the issues or diverse cultures to join the conversation in a meaningful way. So he decided to do something about it.
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A Blugold bond in the workplace
Six women who work at Water’s Edge Counseling and Healing Center in Burnsville, Minnesota, come from different backgrounds, but they share a common bond: They're all Blugold alumnae.
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Social work students first to research impacts of personalized music on caregivers
Two UW-Eau Claire social work faculty and three undergraduate students have done new research into the impact on caregivers of the use of personalized music with individuals diagnosed with dementia.
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English & Women's studies project promotes LGBTQ+ friendly medical service providers
Alex DeLakis is helping make Eau Claire a safer place for LGBTQ+ individuals seeking medical care alongside fellow Blugolds Dr. Theresa Kemp, professor of women’s studies and English, and alumna Alison Harder, prevention specialist at the AIDS Resource Center of Wisconsin Eau Claire and director of Q2.