The Social Work Department held a Social Work Awareness Day event in the Student Union Building Thursday afternoon.
“March is Social Work Awareness Month,” said Kay Montgomery, visiting assistant professor of social work. “Our students did this event as a Social Work Awareness Day at Union.” Along the wall of the sub were tables set up displaying various organizations and businesses involved with social work issues.
Seniors majoring in social work are required to take a seminar class along with a practicum that involves an internship with social work organizations in Jackson. Through these internships, students were able to display who they were interning for and make connections with other businesses to present their work as well. There were 22 agencies represented.
“It is an awareness event, but it’s also for networking,” Montgomery said. “We wanted to let people know what services were available and job opportunities.”
“We really wanted to show students how broad social work can be,” said Quinlan Draper, senior social work major. “Some work in businesses, schools and hospitals. We wanted to show students that social work is not defined to one specific setting.”
Emily Carter, senior social work major, is interning Area Relief Ministries in Jackson. Her main focus is with the Hub Club and Art Program where she helps teach gang prevention curriculum. She loves working with the kids but would really like to find a job helping abused or battered women.
“I picked social work because the field provides a lot of opportunities to work with various populations of people,” she said.