The Graduate School of Social Service is a community that embraces innovation!

As it always has, the profession of social work must continue to evolve and continue to lead in defining inclusive, equitable, and quality care in a contemporary world. At Fordham, we are committed to the Jesuit tenant of cura personalis—care for the whole person. It’s a tenet that guides how we care for our students and teach them to be skilled and compassionate social work professionals. But caring for the whole person is more challenging than ever in this age of digital hyper-connection, with its Zoom fatigue, social media, and email inboxes that never seem to empty.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
The Social Worker / Spring 2022

THE SOCIAL WORKER | SPRING 2022

Alumni in Action

TEENS UNDER CONSTRUCTION: USING HIP-HOP TO HELP BUILD FUTURES

Yocasta Jimenez, GSS ’11, grew up alongside 9 family members in a one-bedroom apartment in the south Bronx. At 11, she stabbed a young boy in his eye with a pencil. At 15, she dropped out of high school. A lot of people labeled her as an “at-risk” youth.

One of the many problems with the “at-risk” framing is the lack of positive projection toward the future. The youth is “at-risk” of something, but what’s to come? What does it mean? Most importantly, how does the person feel about being labeled as such?

“I got tired of being told, as a teenager, that I was ‘at-risk,’” Jimenez said, “because I didn’t understand that. Like, what do you mean I’m ‘at-risk’?”

Now, Jimenez is the founder of Teens Under Construction, a nonprofit organization driven to eradicate this stigma and help those who have been unassisted and unfairly labeled.

Melissa Lippiello, GSS '17, FCRH '99, started a new position as Fordham GSS's Associate Director of Student Services

Chris Febles, GSS '01, is set to publish his debut novel, Richie the Caseworker, this month with Faraxa Publishing, Inc.

Len Weiss, GSS '71, was interviewed by the Fordham Observer about his 51-year friendship with classmate Dave Houser, GSS '71. The lasting friendship began at GSS.

Edrei Conton-Pelaez, GSS '16, who works at Henry Street settlement in the PEARLS program, had an article published in the The American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry.

Rupert G. F. Pearson, GSS '20, currently serves as a director of community service at a nonprofit organization, a therapeutic consultant, and is advancing in his doctorate of social work at USC.

Danielle Reece, GSS '19, was recently hired as a Social-Emotional Learning Program Manager for The Urban Assembly.

GSS offers our condolences to Mr. Ron Spurga, whose wife, Marie Colwell, GSS '06, passed last month.

MSW STUDENT RESIA COOPER REFLECTS ON THE LIFE AND LEGACY OF REV. DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR. FOR NASW-NJ MAGAZINE

“As social workers, we often find ourselves between a rock and a hard place. We must choose: do we stay with the status quo and take the easy road, or do we stand up and speak out for what is right—for human rights,” Cooper wrote. “If we can learn anything from Dr. King, it would be to heed the call of what is just and right; and that whatever you are called to do, give it your best and do it with your all.”

In a world of natural language processing and artificially intelligent chatbot therapists, the concept of technology in the social work space can seem intimidating. However, if nearly two years of Zoom and virtual life have taught us anything, it’s that tech is here to stay. How do social workers plan to adapt?

The majority of social work may have some catching up to do as it welcomes new technologies, but this innovation has taken place on the fringe of the profession for decades. As telehealth and data science impact both micro and macro career paths, digital fluency becomes increasingly vital to ongoing success for current and future change-makers everywhere.