Imagine embarking on a journey of hope and hard work, one that leads to the proud moment of celebrating 18 graduates earning their bachelor’s degrees in social work. Richard Kenney and Ericka Freeman are the driving forces behind earning accreditation for UT Tyler’s Bachelor of Social Work program. In our conversation, Kenney explains what accreditation means, not just for the graduates but for the countless lives they are set to transform, particularly in East Texas’s underserved communities.
TRANSCRIPT
LANDESS:
Committing to a 4-year university program that’s in the process of getting accreditation is a big risk, but this spring, 18 students will receive their Bachelor of Social Work degrees at UT Tyler because they took that risk. UT Tyler Radio Connects with Social Work Program Director Richard Kenney. Rich, you and your students were taking a giant leap of faith.
KENNEY:
There’s no question about that. But we had been through this process before, my colleague Ericka Freeman and myself, at our respective universities we came from, and we believed that we could make this happen — get the accreditation for the school.
LANDESS:
How in the world did you convince students to jump in and say one of these days we’re going to be getting that accreditation, so in the meantime, keep paying your tuition, keep taking your classes, and it’s going to be there.
KENNEY:
That was somewhat of a challenge, but I was very impressed with the students. They weren’t as worried about it as I was.
LANDESS:
Interesting.
KENNEY:
And they saw the larger picture. And I think they believed in us. I think that’s what really helped. They believed in us, and we kept the students informed every step of the way. I think being transparent, inviting them to ask questions about the accreditation helped.
LANDESS:
So tell us more about the process to get that accreditation from the Council on Social Work Education. It took three and a half years.
KENNEY:
Three and a half years, also known as “CSWE.” Three-and-a-half-year process in which they visited our campus once, and they did virtual visits twice each November, and during those visits, they asked us many questions based on what we had submitted to them. We submitted three major volumes. The first one was what they called the self-study, which is an overview of our program. We covered such topics as mission and goals, the field practicum, curriculum and assessment. And they interviewed, when they did these visits, they interviewed faculty, administration, students to see how we were doing, and apparently we did pretty well.
LANDESS:
Apparently you did. Some folks may not be aware of the need for more qualified social workers in East Texas and across the state. Are there not enough programs, not enough applicants, either or both?
KENNEY:
You know, that’s a great question. Probably a little bit of all. I think one of the problems is that people don’t know what social work is. If we could reach high schools and help to educate high school students as to what social work was, I think that would have more or higher enrollment. So it’s really a process of trying to educate the community about what social work is.
LANDESS:
So give me in a nutshell what is social work today?
KENNEY:
What is social work?
LANDESS:
I asked you first.
KENNEY:
And the best. You know, there are many definitions, but the best definition I ever heard came from a 5-year-old girl by the name of Melissa. And I met Melissa and her mom in a homeless shelter. And we were, a team of social workers and I were helping them to find housing, job, training for mom and a school for Melissa. And once we had done that, I remember visiting them in their new residence, and Melissa — one day said to me, “When I grow up, I want to be a social worker.” And I said, “Melissa, why?” And she said, “They help you do better.”
LANDESS:
Wow.
KENNEY: And that’s always been something I’ve remembered.
LANDESS:
Yeah, from the mouths of babes. Kids, they get it. We talked about this program being a leap of faith, and one of the 18 who took a chance on this 4-year social work program is about to graduate with her degree. She’s Emily Fowler of Tyler. Emily, were you ever afraid that this chance you were taking might not work out?
FOWLER:
I was a little afraid, but I mean, I really like taking chances and, you know, having challenges and things like that. So, like Professor Kenney said, like they always kept us in the loop, you know we got to attend those meetings when the accreditation process was happening. So I felt really confident that this was going to happen because you know they didn’t hide anything from us.
LANDESS:
You’re in your early 20s. What got you interested in social work to begin with?
FOWLER:
Oh goodness. There’s a lot of things that got me interested in social work, just due to my background and as a kid, you know growing up and things happening. But I mean there really is a need for people to go out into the community and help others. You know we need more advocates and things like that for people who are going through anything. I mean, personally, I want to focus on people who are unhoused and finding housing for them. But I mean, what I love about social work is that you can literally do anything.
LANDESS:
And you can put, make a major change in someone’s life, change the direction of their life, certainly. You’re from Tyler. After you graduate, will you stay in East Texas?
FOWLER:
I will. Yes, so I will be going to UT Arlington online to do my master’s, but I do plan on staying in Tyler and, you know, maybe branching out a little bit into different areas of East Texas, but I do plan on staying here.
LANDESS:
What kind of- When you talk about working with the unhoused, we see the folks who are living under the bridge here in Tyler, and certainly any number of organizations make an effort to touch base with them to be sure they’re OK. Medical care as much as they can possibly help. What do you think as a young person? Where will you grab the tail of that tiger? How will you begin to address that, do you think?
FOWLER:
So I believe macro work is also micro work. And you know, you need to meet the individual needs of people. I mean it’s important to focus on community, but I think to start addressing the needs is to focus on everybody’s individual needs. You can’t help everyone at once because they all aren’t going through the same thing. Some people already have a job, they just need housing. But some people are unhoused and don’t have a job. I mean, there’s just so many things. You can’t just have a one solution for everything.
LANDESS:
It’s not a one-size-fits-all deal?
FOWLER: Right.
LANDESS: Exactly. So any advice for someone considering this field, from a student’s perspective?
FOWLER:
Do it, take the chance. It’s so worth it, especially here at UT Tyler. I love that it’s a very small program. It’s more intimate. Our professors are so amazing. You know they want to help you every chance possible. You know, even if you just want to stop by their office to chit chat, you know, like they just want to be a part of your lives.
LANDESS:
How about from the director’s perspective, Rich?
KEENEY:
I would suggest that a student interested in social work meet with a social worker. Try to find a social worker. Ask them if they could spend the day with the social worker to see actually what they do. Most social workers are very happy to do that. I’d also recommend students begin to read some of the social work periodicals. Several magazines that I recommend are “Social Work Today” and “The New Social Worker.” Both of these publications are free online, and they give a wonderful overview of what the program and of what social work is.
LANDESS:
I understand there’s also a Social Work Club. How does that work?
KENNEY:
We’re very proud of our Social Work Club. Over the past 2 years, the students have been engaged with over 25 activities. They’ve been involved with visiting nursing centers, assisted living centers, rather. They’ve worked with different community agencies such as the Alzheimer’s Alliance, PATH, CASA for Kids, and it’s made up entirely of students that they don’t necessarily have to be social work majors. We look at anybody on campus. Anybody who wants to join is welcome to join us. And we’re very fortunate that we’ve had some great leadership. We’ve had several presidents over the past few years, and our current president is Emily.
LANDESS:
Is sitting next to you. So what’s that been like being president of the club? How do you, how do you direct the activities and that sort of thing?
FOWLER:
Our thing is community and collaboration. You know it’s very important to collaborate and have everyone’s ideas come in. So you know I don’t, I don’t view myself as just president and you know, doing all the things, you know like I want to communicate with the other officers and club members.
LANDESS:
Any final thoughts you’d like to share, Rich?
KENNEY:
We continue to grow, and if students have questions, I welcome them to come visit me for more of an overview, to maybe see the campus. But we’re glad to spend time with new students and help them out.
LANDESS:
Thanks for listening as UT Tyler Radio Connects with Social Worker Program Director Richard Kenney and soon-to-be Social Worker Emily Fowler. For UT Tyler Radio News, I’m Mike Landess.
(Transcripts are automatically generated and may contain phonetic spellings and other spelling and punctuation errors. Grammar errors contained in the original recording are not typically corrected.)
