0:04

Committing to a four-year university program

0:06

that's in the process of getting accreditation

0:09

is a big risk , but this

0:11

spring 18 students will receive their Bachelor

0:13

of Social Work degrees at UT Tyler

0:15

. Because they took that risk . Ut

0:18

Tyler Radio connects with Social Work Program Director

0:20

Richard Kenney Rich . You and your students

0:22

were taking a giant leap of faith

0:25

.

0:25

There's no question about that . But

0:28

we had been through this process

0:30

before my colleague

0:32

Erica Freeman and myself at

0:34

our respective universities

0:36

. We came from and we believed

0:38

that we could make this happen

0:41

get the accreditation for the

0:43

school .

0:44

How in the world did you convince students

0:46

to jump in and say one of these days

0:48

we're going to be getting that accreditation , so in

0:50

the meantime , keep paying your tuition , keep taking

0:52

your classes and it's going to be there .

0:54

That was somewhat of a challenge , but

0:57

I was very impressed

0:59

with the students . They weren't

1:02

as worried about it as I was .

1:05

Interesting .

1:06

They weren't as worried about it

1:08

as I was and they saw the larger picture and

1:10

I think they believed in us . I think that's

1:13

what really helped is that they believed

1:15

in us and we kept the students informed

1:18

every step of the way . I think being

1:20

transparent , inviting them

1:22

to ask questions about the accreditation

1:25

, helped .

1:27

So tell us more about the process

1:29

to get that accreditation from the Council

1:31

on Social Work Education . It took three

1:33

and a half years .

1:34

Three and a half years , also known as CSWE

1:37

. Three

1:39

and a half year process in which

1:41

they visited our campus

1:43

once and they did virtual

1:46

visits twice each

1:48

November , and during those visits

1:51

they asked us many questions

1:53

based on what we

1:55

had submitted to them . We submitted three

1:58

major volumes . The first one

2:01

was what they called the self-study . The

2:06

first one was what they called the self-study , which is an

2:09

overview of our program . We covered such topics as mission

2:11

and goals , the field

2:13

practicum , curriculum and

2:16

assessment , and they

2:18

interviewed , when

2:21

they did these visits , they interviewed

2:23

faculty administration

2:25

students to

2:28

see how we were doing and apparently

2:30

we did pretty well .

2:31

Apparently you did . Some folks

2:33

may not be aware of the need for more qualified

2:35

social workers in East Texas and across the

2:37

state . Are there not enough programs

2:39

, not enough applicants , either or

2:42

both ?

2:43

You know that's a great question . Probably

2:46

a little bit of all . I

2:48

think one of the problems is that people

2:50

don't know what social work is . If

2:53

we could reach high schools and help

2:55

to educate high school students

2:58

as to what social work was , I

3:00

think that would have more or higher

3:03

enrollment . So it's really

3:05

a process of trying to educate the community

3:07

about what social work is

3:09

.

3:10

So give me in a nutshell what is social

3:12

work today ?

3:14

What is social work ?

3:16

I'll ask you first .

3:17

And the best

3:20

. You know , there are many definitions

3:22

, but the best definition I ever heard

3:24

came from a five-year-old

3:26

girl by the name of Melissa . And

3:29

I met Melissa and her mom in

3:31

a homeless shelter and

3:34

we were a team

3:36

of social workers and I were helping

3:40

them to find housing , job

3:43

, training for mom and a

3:46

school for Melissa . And

3:48

once we had done that , I

3:50

remember visiting them in their new residence

3:53

and Melissa

3:55

one day said to me when

3:57

I grow up I want to be a social worker . And

4:00

I said , melissa , why ? And

4:02

she said they help you do better

4:05

. Wow and

4:08

that's always been something I've remembered

4:10

, yeah from the mouths of babes .

4:12

Yeah , yeah , kids , they get

4:14

it . We talked about this program

4:16

being a leap of faith , and one of the 18 who

4:19

took a chance on this four-year social

4:21

work program is about to graduate

4:23

with her degree . She's Emily

4:25

Fowler of Tyler . Emily , were you ever

4:27

afraid that this chance you were taking might not

4:29

work out ?

4:31

I was a little afraid , but I mean

4:33

I really like taking chances and

4:35

, you know , having challenges and things

4:37

like that . So , like

4:40

Professor Kinney said , like they always kept us

4:42

in the loop , you know we

4:44

got to attend those meetings when the accreditation

4:46

process was happening . So I felt really confident that this was going to happen

4:49

, because you know we got to attend those meetings when the accreditation process was happening . So

4:51

I felt really confident that this was going to happen because you know they didn't hide

4:53

anything from us .

4:55

You're in your early 20s . What got you interested

4:58

in social work to begin with ?

5:00

Oh goodness , there's a lot of things that

5:02

got me interested in social work , just

5:04

due to my background and as a kid , you

5:06

know growing up and things happening Just due to my background

5:08

and as a kid , you know growing up and things happening . But I mean there really is a need

5:10

for people to go out into the community

5:13

and help others . You know we

5:15

need more advocates and things like that for people

5:17

who are going through anything . I mean , personally

5:19

, I want to focus on people

5:21

who are unhoused and

5:24

finding housing for them . But I

5:26

mean , what I love about social work is that

5:28

you can literally do anything .

5:30

And and you can put , make a

5:32

major change in someone's

5:35

life , change the direction of their life

5:37

. Certainly You're from Tyler . After

5:40

you graduate , will you stay in East Texas ?

5:42

I will . Yes , so I will be going to

5:44

UT Arlington online to do my master's

5:46

, but I do plan on staying

5:48

in Tyler and , you know

5:50

, maybe branching out a little bit into different

5:52

areas of East Texas , but I do plan on staying

5:54

here .

5:56

What kind of ? When you talk about working with the

5:58

unhoused , we see the

6:00

folks that are living under the ridge here in Tyler

6:02

and certainly any number

6:04

of organizations make an effort to touch

6:07

base with them to be sure they're okay . Medical

6:13

care as much as they can possibly help . What do you think as

6:16

a young person ? Where will you grab

6:18

the tail of that tiger ? How will you begin

6:21

to address that , do you think ?

6:27

Well . So I believe macro work is also micro work and you

6:30

know you need to meet the individual needs of

6:32

people . You know you can all . I mean

6:34

it's important to focus on community , but I think

6:36

to start addressing the needs is to focus

6:38

on everybody's individual needs . Same

6:49

things Some people already have a job , they just need housing . But some

6:51

people are unhoused and don't have a job . I mean , there's just so many

6:53

things . You can't just have a one solution for everything .

6:55

Yeah , it's not a one-size-fits-all deal , correct

6:57

? Yeah , exactly . So any

7:00

advice for someone considering this field

7:02

from a student's perspective ?

7:06

Do it , take the chance . It's so worth

7:08

it , especially here here at UT Tyler . I

7:11

love that . It's a very small program . It's

7:13

more intimate . Our professors are so amazing

7:15

. You know they want to help you every

7:18

chance possible . You know , even

7:20

if you just want to stop by their office to chit chat

7:22

, you know like they just want to be a part

7:24

of your lives .

7:27

How about , from the director's perspective , rich

7:29

?

7:31

I would suggest that a student interested

7:33

in social work meet with a

7:35

social worker . Try to find a social worker

7:37

. Ask them if they could

7:39

spend the day with the social

7:42

worker to see actually what they do . Most

7:45

social workers are very happy to do that . I'd

7:47

also recommend students begin

7:50

to read some of the social

7:52

work periodicals . Several

7:54

magazines

7:56

that I recommend are Social Work Today

7:58

and the New Social Worker

8:00

. Both

8:03

of these publications are free online

8:05

and they give a wonderful

8:07

overview of what the program and they give some wonderful overview

8:09

of what the program , of what social

8:11

work is .

8:13

I understand there's also a social work

8:15

club . How does that work ?

8:18

We're very proud of our social work club . Over

8:21

the past two years , the students have been engaged

8:23

with over 25 activities

8:26

. They've

8:33

been involved with visiting nursing centers , assisted living centers

8:35

. Rather , they've worked with different

8:38

community agencies such

8:40

as the Alzheimer's Alliance , path

8:43

, casa for Kids

8:45

, and it's

8:47

made up entirely of students that they don't

8:50

necessarily have to be social work majors . We

8:52

look at anybody on campus . Anybody

8:55

that wants to join are welcome

8:57

to join us , and we're

8:59

very fortunate that we've had some great leadership

9:02

. We've had several presidents

9:04

over the past few years and our current president

9:06

is Emily .

9:07

Is sitting next to you . So

9:11

what's that been like being president of the club . How do you , how do you direct the activities

9:13

and that sort of thing .

9:14

So I like our thing

9:16

is community and collaboration . You

9:18

know it's very important to collaborate and

9:20

have everyone's ideas come in . So

9:23

you know I don't , I don't view myself

9:25

as just president and you know , doing

9:27

all the things you know like I want to

9:29

communicate with the other officers and club members

9:32

.

9:33

Any final thoughts you'd like to share , Rich ?

9:35

We continue to grow and

9:38

if students

9:41

have questions I welcome them to

9:43

come visit me for

9:46

more of an overview , to maybe

9:48

see the campus . But we're glad to spend

9:51

time with new students and help

9:53

them out .

9:54

Thanks for listening as UT Tyler Radio connects

9:56

with Social Worker Program Director Richard

9:58

Kenney and soon-to-be Social Worker

10:01

Emily Fowler . For UT

10:03

Tyler Radio News , I'm Mike Landis .