Looking Ahead...

The holiday season is upon us, but before it gets too busy, I wanted to take a moment to wish you a happy and peaceful holiday season.  Be sure to take time to appreciate what is important to you.

This time of year, many people will be looking ahead to the future and trying to select a graduate school program that best fits their needs.  As you consider Penn’s School of Social Policy & Practice, I wanted to remind you of our mission to shape future social change agents who will lead the way in overcoming social injustice and oppression.  This sounds like a daunting task – and it is.  However, with the right education, training, and dedication, I know our graduates will continue to forge ahead.  Are you up for the task?  SP2 can help prepare you to succeed.

Our website (www.sp2.upenn.edu), which contains a wealth of useful information on each of our graduate programs, can help shed light on how SP2 will prepare you for a career in social change, whether it is in Social Work, Social Policy, Non-Profit/NGO Leadership, a PhD in Social Welfare, or a Clinical Doctorate in Social Work.  On the website you can explore graduate school life at SP2, get to know current and former students, and learn more about our excellent faculty and dynamic learning opportunities.  If you have specific questions about any of the programs we offer, contact information for each of our graduate programs is also online.

Another excellent opportunity for you to learn more about our programs and meet faculty, staff, and current students is to attend an Information Session.  The final Information Session for this admissions cycle for all masters programs and the DSW program is scheduled for:

Saturday, January 14th from 10am – 12pm.

The MSSP and NPL programs are holding Information Sessions on:

Thursday, January 5th from 12 – 1:15pm and

Thursday, January 19th from 6 – 7:15pm.

You may register for any of these at: http://www.sp2.upenn.edu/programs/open_house/index.html.

Additionally, I wanted to put out a reminder that although admissions for our MSW program is rolling, the priority deadline for Advanced Standing applicants is January 15th, and for full- and part-time candidates is February 1st.  These dates are quickly approaching, so be sure to plan accordingly.  The DSW applications are due by February 15th (and they do not accept applications on a rolling basis).  NPL and MSSP have a bit more time, as their priority deadlines are in April.  However, be sure not to procrastinate, as the sooner you get your application completed, the sooner you will know what the future has in store for you.

Wishing you a happy and safe holiday season,

Melissa Bottiglio, MSW, LCSW

Associate Director of Admissions and Recruitment

Mastery through exposure: From the MSW to the DSW, an intellectual journey by: Danna Bodenheimer, MSW, DSW

When I finished my MSW at Smith College it was with the clear knowledge that my education had just begun. I was thrilled by the exposure to clinical theory and felt like I was only in the embryonic stages of linking this theory with practice, with case conceptualization and with the profound values of social work. I would leave many sessions with clients, as a new graduate, feeling excited that something was working but wasn’t exactly clear on what. I needed language around my interventions, a space dedicated specifically to the task of intellectual integration.

There are multiple opportunities available for social workers to deepen their education. There is the possibility of post-graduate training, certificate programs, analytic institutes or group supervision that is led by a seasoned clinician. While I was open to all of these possibilities, they required a type of specific theoretical identification that felt narrowing to me. I wasn’t ready to go in the clear direction of Gestalt training or object relations work. In fact, making a clearly directional choice rang hollow to me, as if it would solidify a false sense of self. In the face of new professionalism, for me, insecurity could clearly be morphed into a performative confidence that would like have stunted my growth. I didn’t want that. I wanted to be open about where I was, excited about a lot of theories, still unsure of what was most clearly me.

It is really only in an academic setting that the central commitment is to honor this type of openness, to continue to expose possibilities rather than narrowing in on one way of being. Because of that, I knew that my post-graduate education would remain academic in nature. Simply put, my phase of inquiry was not over. Almost simultaneous to this personal awareness, the brochure for the newly developed DSW arrived in my mailbox. In some ways I thought it was a joke. It was literally exactly what I was looking for in a city that gives significant meaning to the practice of social work. I went to the first open house and it immediately became clear to me that I was in a room of people that I was meant to meet. That is a rare feeling and not one that I imagine comes along often. The clear symbiosis between my intellectual needs and the construction of the DSW program was astonishing.

I quickly found myself as the young applicant running to her mailbox every day to find a letter of acceptance or rejection. Interestingly, though, my answer didn’t come in the mail. Instead, I received a welcome phone call from Mary Mazzola, an Associate Dean. I remark on this because it was a harbinger of my DSW experience. What may have typically arrived in the form of an impersonal communication was replaced by warmth, connection and humanity. This warmth and connection followed me from my acceptance to my graduation. And in the middle it was all theory, presented by true experts. Not only was I exposed to the best in the field, I was exposed to a way of internalizing social work knowledge that seemed to define the overall functioning of many of my professors. They weren’t just people practicing social work, instead I was met with professors whose identities were infused by their dedication to social work ethics. To be in the presence of these leaders is to be transformed as a professional and as a person. What had felt embryonic to me as an MSW became strongly developed, confident, nuanced. I started to experience a sense of texture in relation to my social work knowledge, able to hold multiple competing ideas at any one time. This new holding, became available to me as a practitioner, a writer and a professor. My time in the DSW program exposed me to multiple teaching opportunities that gave me a true sense of how the field and the classroom should interact with one another. This is a sense that I practice and teach with every day now. This is a sense that was instilled by relationship, by exposure to true mastery and was ultimately fertilized by the solid breeding ground that the academic vibrancy of SP2 provided me with.

By:  Danna Bodenheimer, MSW, DSW
Penn's School of Social Policy & Practice DSW Alumnus, Class of 2010

Trusting the Process, by Monica M. Smith, MSW, 2014 Clinical DSW Candidate

The first semester of the DSW program is almost over. I have three weeks left and in this time I must complete two papers, read eleven chapters for research, two chapters from one of the six clinical theory texts, read another nine articles for theory, and review discussion questions. That’s just for school. I work full-time. I’m married with adult children, two of whom are undergrad students and, like many other social work professionals, I am the resident social worker in my family and group of friends. You know, the “go to person” when people need a little advice, a shoulder to lean on, or an ear to bend. Did I mention it’s Thanksgiving? My daughter comes home from school for a few days and family comes to my house for dinner and Friday night leftovers!

So what do I do? How do I manage all that needs to be done? I fall back on the social work skills I learned in undergrad: partialize, prioritize, and plan. These have been my three p’s for success and I think it’s working.

Partializing: I have created a daily schedule- I call it my grid- on which I have allotted time for everything  that needs to be done: personal hygiene, work, eating, making meals (or ordering out!), reading, writing, weekly quality time with family, phone calls, house cleaning, “me” time, sleep, religious activities, etc. My schedule begins at 4:30am and ends about 10:30pm. You might wonder why I add common sense tasks like personal hygiene, eating and sleeping to my schedule – because it’s about balance. Too much or too little of any of these creates an imbalance which effects one’s health. If I didn’t add mealtime to my schedule for example, I’d eat every meal while reading for class or typing a paper – not healthy!

Prioritize: Adult students with families and who work full-time have so much on our plates! All of our roles are important. Everything can seem like a priority. Partializing tasks is helpful and aids in prioritizing, but the fact of the matter is, deadlines are a reality. They come first. I have all of my deadlines written on my monthly calendar so that I don’t lose track of anything. I’ve also created and taken back time by saying no to “opportunities” at work that require more of me. I have decided to take a hiatus from teaching Sunday School, and doing community service projects and I’ve given myself time limits for tasks. For example, housework gets done in a four hour window on Saturday mornings. What doesn’t get done … oh, well!

Plan: Time management is key. I think I first heard this statement more than 25 years ago during Freshman Orientation. So simple. So significant. I’ve realized that partializing and prioritizing are significant components of the plan. Now I just have to work the plan. And it is working.

Even though I have yet to finish my first semester in the DSW program, I know it’ll all get done. Have I lost some sleep? Yes. Have we eaten more take-out, cold sandwiches and leftovers than ever before? Yes.  Have I been less available to friends and shortened visits with family? Yes. Have I told them that I need to get back to reading? Yes. Have they understood and supported my plan? Absolutely! They want to see me succeed and have supported the decisions I’ve made. They, too, are part of my plan. They understand the pressure and try their best not to add to it. I have developed close friendships with colleagues in my cohort. We email and text every so often to check in and to encourage one another.  I know I am not alone in this. And when I’m feeling a bit overwhelmed, I look at my grid and read the words above it, “Trust the Process”. Then I take a deep breath and keep right on working.

By Monica M. Smith, MSW, 2014 Clinical DSW Candidate

Higher Education Loan Reform Options: Making Graduate School a Manageable Option

Recently there has been a lot of discussion in the media regarding student loans brought up by the Occupy Wall Street protests that have spread to major cities across the U.S.  OWS has brought many issues to light, mainly in the realm of finance reform, that deserve discussion.  Most recently, OWS protestors have suggested additional reform is needed in higher education finance.  It is worth noting that many reforms have already taken place in recent years.  One of the most notable changes occurred in 2010 with the passage of the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act.  Under this legislation, all private lenders were barred from making any federal student loan.  Currently, all federal student loans are made by the Department of Education.  Many of the large banking firms that are at the epicenter of the OWS movement, have already been regulated out of the business of making student loans.  A student can fund the entirety of their graduate education employing only loans from the federal government and should never have to go to a bank.

Additionally, in 2007, the College Cost Reduction Act established the Income-Based Repayment and Public Service Loan Forgiveness programs.  These two programs provide that virtually no student should default on their federal student loans, even if they have NO income at all!  In fact, many students should expect a substantial portion of their federal student loan debt forgiven.  These two programs have been strengthened by the President’s recently announced Pay-as-your-Earn program.  Financing a graduate education can be daunting, but great resources exist to make it very manageable.  With these programs in place, the prospect of having extreme hardship in repaying federal student loans, regardless of your current income level, is in decline.  

By:  Michael Light, Director of Financial Aid