Dear GSS Community,

As summer moves into full swing and I reflect on another terrific year at the Graduate School of Social Service, I can’t help but feel optimistic that the future of the social work profession is in very good hands. 

This spring, GSS graduated over 600 Master of Social Work students who will enter the workforce at a critical time. It is always my great privilege to watch each of our graduates cross the stage and have an opportunity to shake their hands and personally thank them. It is an experience that always leaves me grateful and inspired by their fortitude and unwavering dedication to our profession.

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The Social Worker / Summer 2024

THE SOCIAL WORKER | SUMMER 2024

Technology is not inherently bad; it’s a tool. In many cases, technology does good things—it can automate boring tasks, connect us with others all over the world, and help more equitably distribute resources. 

However, even free tech tools come at a price, and we must question technology’s challenges. Is there bias baked into the apps we use? What’s happening to our data when social media companies track our video watch times, and everything requires an email signup? Why do so few companies hold so much power in return for their services and platforms? 

Enter Public Interest Technology (PIT), an approach that tries to shift the paradigm of “innovation at any cost” and urges ethical and responsible action when creating and using technology. 

As a Jesuit University, Fordham fuses ethics into every student’s education. And our New York City location positions us to serve as a leader in public interest technology development. This commitment was made manifest on Monday, April 29, at the University’s inaugural Public Interest Technology Gathering, at the McNally Auditorium. 

Organized by Graduate School of Social Service Professor Lauri Goldkind, Ph.D., and Fordham Communication and Media Studies Associate Professor Jessica Baldwin-Philippi, Ph.D., the event assembled industry and academic experts to discuss Fordham and other New York area universities’ roles in the PIT landscape.

Although the media is dominated by topics surrounding Gen Z and the upcoming Gen Alpha, America’s population is getting older. According to a 2020 report by the Administration on Aging, 1 in 6 people (55.7 million) in the US is 65 or older. This is projected to increase to 80.8 million by 2040. However, resources dedicated to serving this growing population are scarce, and health care systems are becoming increasingly difficult for older adults and their families to navigate.

What changes can we make—at the individual, community, and policy level—to improve this issue? That’s what health care experts gathered to discuss at Fordham’s Lincoln Center campus on Monday, March 11. Over 100 professionals in the aging field attended the conference, titled “A Vision for Aging: New Directions for the Future,” and organized by the Fordham University Graduate School of Social Service’s Henry C. Ravazzin Center on Aging and Intergenerational Studies. 

Dr. Janna Heyman, Professor and Director of the Ravazzin Center, welcomed the participants and underscored that it is critical to promote the dignity and well-being of older adults and their families. Heyman said the future service delivery system needs to promote justice, access, affordability, and equity and focus on improving older adults’  health and well-being, nutrition, financial, housing, and care needs.   

Social work now has 650 new changemakers.

On Tuesday, May 21, at 10 a.m., the Graduate School of Social Service celebrated our Class of 2024 with a diploma ceremony on Edwards Parade at Fordham’s Rose Hill campus. 

To find one's purpose is perhaps life's biggest challenge. As children, we are told we can be anything—but with that freedom can come an analysis paralysis. How do we choose, when the options are so vast?

Sometimes, we find ourselves headed down a career path that we don't find fulfilling. That doesn't align with our passions or our personal moral compass. We think, I wasn't put on earth to do this.

If the COVID-19 pandemic taught us anything, it is that life is precious—but it is fleeting. We have no time to waste. No time to sit and wonder what could have been, had we just taken the chance. To look back on a life of regret is to look into a shattered mirror; we see only fragments of who we are and that of which we are capable. 

At GSS, we have students of all ages entering social work from different fields: finance, tech, media, law—but they all have one thing in common: they want to take on a profession that makes more of a difference. Not toward some big corporation's stock value, but to a struggling single parent, an older adult in a nursing home, or a child acting out in school. 

Here are a few stories of GSS Community members who took the leap. 

First Generation M.S.W. Graduate Champions NYC Asylum Seekers

For years, Erica Vargas, LMSW, GSS ’23, was a teller at Chase Bank. Her branch was a short walk away from Fordham’s Lincoln Center campus. 

“I would actually go to Lincoln Center [Performing Arts Center] on my lunch break,” she said. “And I would see Fordham and say, ‘That’s such a beautiful campus.’”

Vargas’s mother immigrated to New York from El Salvador without a higher education degree or help. Once in the United States, she met her husband, an immigrant from the Dominican Republic, and they had four daughters together. America gave them and their children a better life. While Vargas had been successful in her career at that point, she felt destined for more. With no higher education under her belt yet, she wondered what going back to school would do for her. 

Little did she know that 20 years later, she’d graduate with her Master of Social Work degree (M.S.W.) from the school she passed on her lunch breaks. Moreover, she’s now using that degree to help asylum seekers obtain resources as an assistant director at Goddard Riverside Community Center. 

“When I see people become self-sufficient—when they can move out, transition into their own apartment, secure employment, and provide for their families,” Vargas said, “that’s what’s most rewarding about my job.”

From Journalism to Social Work: A Search for Connection

As a journalist, Madelynn Schulte, GSS ’21, didn’t find the connection she wanted.

She’d planned it all out in undergrad. Schulte wanted a profession where no two days were the same, and your job was to engage with others. And what’s at the heart of a good story? Relationships. How else could you facilitate a good interview, and get the quotes that make the front page? What better way to investigate the core issues than hearing it from the source? 

There was one problem: a journalist’s assignment is, first and foremost, to report the story. Then you go home. At the end of the day, even the longest profile pieces are only a snapshot in time; once the article goes to press, your job is done. Schulte wanted something more. 

She came to New York City for a role in Public Relations after graduating, but the job merely confirmed what she already knew: this career path wasn’t for her. She’d come this far and knew her passions lay in helping others and forming bonds. But how could she pivot out of PR? 

Luckily, Schulte was volunteering at Domus Foundation Inc. when a colleague asked her, what about social work? 

“I think she just graduated from Fordham, and she said, You know they have a Westchester campus, and I was like, I can do that,” she said. “And honestly, Fordham was the only place I applied.

“[I thought] Social work would lead me to a position where I could be in service to others,” Schulte said. “I didn’t know there were such different ways to practice social work. I was open to being on the administrative side of things or working clinically with individuals. I wanted to explore all possible routes.”

'A Moment of Reflection': M.S.W. Graduate Pursues Passion After Career in Finance

Frankie Heppell, GSS ’24, thinks humans are meant to do hard things—and she’s living proof. 

Climbing the corporate ladder from a call center representative to the head of global strategy for Credit and Collections at American Express was hard. Moving from London to New York—knowing no one in the country and with two small children—was hard. Navigating a global pandemic, mobilizing 6,000 employees to remote work, and dealing with a 24/7 work environment was, well, you know. 

However, deciding she needed a new career path was the challenge that trumped everything. As a newly single mother with two children, it’s not easy to take that leap—but Heppell said the nature of her work was cutthroat and, worst of all, felt empty. She wanted to do something with an impact. 

“To quote Socrates, ‘An unexamined life is not worth living,’” Heppell said. “So, when I left [American Express], I had a moment of reflection. I wanted to go into a helping profession.”

The Body Tells the Story: M.S.W. Student Using Degree to Support Narrative Healing

Fordham M.S.W. student Lisa Weinert believes Western culture doesn’t appreciate the body enough. In a rise-and-grind world, we treat our bodies as things to tolerate—hunched over a desk, moving from project to project, only noticing when something goes wrong, forcing a doctor visit. Our sophisticated organism is reduced to a mere vessel for task completion.

She began Narrative Healing, a mind-body writing community that offers individual and group coaching, workshops, and listening circles to “help writers (re) connect with their bodies, develop a sustainable writing practice to heal from trauma, and share their stories in the world.” 

She has come to Fordham to earn her M.S.W. and get clinical expertise to enhance her programs. She wants to create a bigger, more meaningful impact on those seeking help.

“I looked around at the people I admire most in the world…and they all had this degree,” she said. “And I was like, ‘this seems to be something I need to do.’”

Alumni in Action

This M.S.W. Alumni is Mentoring Students as a Bronx School Social Worker

M.S.W. Grad Impacts Classrooms Holistically as a School Social Worker

During her undergraduate education, Juliana Caputo, GSS ’24, was set on becoming a teacher. She wanted to help kids discover who they are and what they love about the world, and she figured heading up the classroom was the best way to do that. 

However, Caputo discovered a harsh reality: through no fault of their own, teachers have limited capacity and resources. Their priorities are academic, which can mean increasing test scores and other quantitative markers as signs of success. When your supervisor says exam results need to improve, as a teacher, your job is to help students score higher. 

“I wanted to be more of an emotional support,” Caputo said. 

So, Caputo switched her major to Psychology. But after graduating, she still didn’t have a clear path forward. Luckily, she received insight from her mother about a career choice that could make the societal change Caupto sought. 

“I decided I would go into social work, just like my mom,” she said.

'Don't Be Normal, Be Extraordinary': M.S.W. Grad Turns Internship into Full-Time Position Advocating for Disability Justice

Gabby Cocco, GSS ‘24, doesn’t believe in the myth of “normal.” 

 “What is normal, you know?” she asked during our interview. “There’s really no sense of normal. What’s normal for you may not be normal for others.” 

However, all too often, she sees individuals with disabilities described as “not normal” and missing out on their potential because of it. 

“Just because someone has a disability, or they look different, or they process certain things differently, does not mean that they’re not human,” Cocco said.

Two M.S.W. Students Selected to NYSSWEA Board

The Graduate School of Social Service is proud to announce that two of our Master of Social Work (M.S.W.) students have been selected to serve as student board members for the New York State Social Work Education Association (NYSSWEA).

The two students selected are Taylor Fields and Bryan Jimenez. We had the chance to ask them a few questions about this honor.

M.S.W. Students Make Connections at Career Fair

With over 30 employers in attendance, the 2024 MSW Career and Networking fair was a huge success for our Master of Social Work Students.

Students brought their polished resumes and best attitudes to the Westchester campus, where they mingled with employers seeking fresh graduates for social work positions.

GSS Celebrates Careers of Three Distinguished Faculty Members