g1v1ng Instead of paper and pens. they brought helping hands. instead of textbooks, they broughttoys.lnstead of a classroom, the students in Social Work 412 met in the community, and their subject was service. While many senior-level classes had projects that served as "trial runs" for future careers, in the Social Work Community Practice class taught by social work instructor Kathy Helpenstill, students' projects took them into the city of Searcy in order to meetthe required 20 hours of community service. "The goal [of the project] is that we, as future social workers, will learn how to function as a social service provider within the scope of a community," senior Lindsey Turk said. Rogers added that she was pleasantly surprised at how giving the Wai-Mart customers were, but she was even more pleased with the reception to the Hope Cottage benefit concert that the group hosted at the Underground Coffeehouse, where over 300 people showed up and the group raised almost $200. "It felt wonderful even though it was so much work," Rogers said. "It was good seeing all the people coming in and looking at the posters when so many people don't even know there is a shelter." Rogers added that the class helped her see how even the tedious details could affect great change. "A big part of the class is learning to work around your roadblocks and how to work within a community," Rogers said. "In the end, it took ten minutes to go around and hand out flyers, but that could change an entire life." Helpenstill said she wanted her students to see the connection between assessment and application and to learn to complete what seemed like overwhelming tasks. In Community Practice, each student was assigned to one of three different organizations in order to create service projects and fundraising events. One group worked with Hope Cottage, a women's shelter serving the women and children of White County who were victims of abusive relationships. The group hosted a concert to raise money for Hope Cottage and to raise awareness about domestic violence. Senior Sunnie Rogers chose to work with Hope Cottage along with six other students. Rogers said she started the Awareness Day by going to Wai-Mart and setting up tables for each of the In an Interview and Interrogation class on Nov. 9, junior Clayton West reviews notes. The class gave students the opportunity to conduct interviews before beginning their careers·it<l criminal justice. Abby Kellett "I want to take away the stigma of 'getting started' in the community on a grass-roots or organizational level," Helpenstill said. "I wantthem to know how to network with the community and find partners to make change more effective." women who died in Arkansas in 2009 as a result of domestic violence-20 in all- with information and photos profiling each of the women. "It was heartwarming to see people come up and say, 'I was a survivor myself. My mom was a 20-year survivor. Thanks so much for your work,"' Rogers said. Turk said she learned who really benefited from1-h-e·charity events. "I am benefi;ing, in that I'm learning how much work it is working with a community," Turk said. "This project has taught me how much of a servant you have to be in order to do social work. Your job has to be infused with selflessness." Nicole Cuillo behavioral sciences/fcs 16 9 -~
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NTc5NA==