The New Social Worker Vol. 20, No. 4, Fall 2013 | Page 19

Our message to social work students
is that college is the best time in your life
to be bold and active. Colleges are full
of resources, and, despite red tape, they
tend to be supportive of student activities that promote awareness and social
change. This is your time to be heard
and make a difference! Remember, the
first step is to have an idea.

Encouraging Students With a
Passion for Social Justice—A
Professor’s Perspective

Although the story told here is
student-led action, social work faculty
play an important role, as well. Too
often, students feel they can’t develop
an event, form a group, or write a letter
to a representative until they graduate
and are officially licensed social workers.
Sometimes what they need is encouragement and guidance. If faculty want to
inspire students to work toward social
justice, we need to do more than teach it.

Our first job is to identify passion in
students where it exists. The indicators
are there, although subtle at times. Passions may surface in the context of paper
assignments, classroom discussions, or

during informal conversations outside of
class. As a professor at the University of
St. Thomas, I often see and hear students
express a desire for change in the world.
Typically, though, it is paired with a
sense of powerlessness to influence
meaningful change.

After witnessing the success of the
Half the Sky event, it is clear to me that
any student can turn passion into social
action. A college campus is the perfect
place for it. Professors can seize the
opportunity when students hint at an
issue that concerns them. We can start
the conversation, let them know they
do have power, and often an interested
audience—“if we create an event, they
will come.”

Our second task is to be armed with
information. Find out what is needed to
schedule an event on campus, start a new
student group, and what financial resources are available to them. We need
to convey that they do not have to start
from scratch, as when I was in college.
Half the Sky is not the only social issue
with existing resources to start action. A
Google search of “(social issue) toolkits”
will reveal that others have done much
of the hard work already. Toolkits may
include films, discussion questions, pre-

written letters to Congress, and ideas and
materials for running educational events.

A final task for professors is to
spread the word to other faculty who
may choose to embed it in their course,
as I did, and offer credit to students for
attending the events. To be clear, it is not
our job as faculty to co-opt the process
from students, but we do have a role—
indeed a responsibility—to help them
recognize their power and voice, now, as
students.
Nora Smyth is a social work student at St.
Catherine University, volunteer at Domestic
Abuse Project in Minneapolis, and a mother to
her 3-year-old daughter. Nora is dedicated to
ending gender-based violence.
Helen Garcia is a senior social work student at
St. Catherine University and active in promoting awareness about violence against women.
Ande Nesmith, Ph.D., MSW, is an assistant
professor at the University of St. Thomas.
Her passion is in teaching research methods
and encouraging undergraduate research. She
teaches in the joint social work program of the
University of St. Thomas and St. Catherine
University.

The New Social Worker

Fall 2013

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