Tag Archives: social work

Students: Travel to South Korea this summer

San José State University students have an opportunity to find out more about an opportunity to travel to South Korea this summer on a faculty-led, three unit course offered through the School of Social Work in the College of Applied Sciences and Arts. Professors Meekyung Han and Sang E. Lee will be leading the proposed course, which is open to undergraduate and graduate students.

The course, “Social Services and Social Work in S. Korea: History, Cultures and Social Changes,” will run June 15-29. It will provide students with a framework for understanding and critically analyzing the important cultural, economic, historical, social, political and global factors that inform the challenges facing social services and social workers in contemporary South Korea.

Informational sessions will be held Feb. 25, at 3 p.m. and Feb. 26, at 3 p.m. in the School of Social Work, Washington Square Hall 215. Additional informational sessions will be held in March.

For a full list of faculty-led programs, visit http://www.sjsu.edu/studyabroad/programs/. Programs are offered in the summer, winter and by the semester.

Additional summer programs offered through the College of Applied Sciences and Arts include RECL 111/GLST 188: Paris: City of Cultures, taught by Linda Levine and David Buseck, and MCOM 180: Global Leadership, taught by Mathew Cabot. More courses may be pending approval.

For more information on the program in Korea, email Professors Meekyung Han at meekyun.han@sjsu.edu or Sang E. Lee at sang.lee@sjsu.edu.

SWEEP: Ho Chi Minh City summit a success

San José State University’s Social Work Education Enhancement Program Director Alice Hines opened a two-day summit in Ho Chi Minh City on Dec. 9. The summit, “Bridging Vision to Practice Through Collaboration,” included meetings on Dec. 9 and 10 at Vietnam National University’s University of Social Sciences and Humanities.

The meetings included administrators from the eight partner universities as well as SWEEP IT staff who make the long-distance program work with WebEx technology from Cisco USA.

San José State University’s College of Applied Sciences and Arts is host to the Social Work Education Enhancement Program, an initiative that is working to:

  • Develop systems to strengthen higher education management and administration,
  • Devise processes to enhance faculty development opportunities and programs
  • Develop and employ relevant curriculum adaptable to Viet Nam’s changing knowledge and needs.

The program is a partnership with USAID and Cisco Systems.

 

 

Social Workers in the Library program gets high marks

Peter Allen Lee, a professor with the School of Social Work and Lili Luo, a professor with the School of Library and Information Sciences, received a College of Applied Sciences and Arts Incentive Grant for 2011-12 to evaluate a program created in 2007 that connects residents with social workers at public libraries. The San José State University professors’ evaluation of the program has been published as a journal article

(http://www.qqml.net/papers/July_Issue/8QQML_Journal_2012_Luo_Estreicher_Lee_Thomas_Thomas_1_73-82.pdf)

Lee and Luo set out to look at the efficacy of the program started in 2007 by local Librarian Deborah Estreicher and Lee. The goal of the program is to seek ways to increase access to information about social service programs and to look for ways the program can be improved. For the last few years, professional social workers, with the support of the National Association of Social Workers, have been volunteering to meet one-on-one twice a month with those seeking information about social services.  The program is not intended to provide an ongoing relationship between the patrons and social workers, but to help connect patrons with services in the community.

In questionnaires from those using the services, Lee and Luo found that they reported the service to be helpful or very helpful. The main areas in which people sought advice was in finding services for housing, food, health and mental  health services, and employment. In 20-minute sessions, social workers offered referral information to patrons to connect them with such services. Other services patrons sought included grief support, family counseling and legal advice.  The evaluation found that seeing patrons in the library, which included a waiting area and private room was rated well. Patrons also liked the undivided attention in the private session as well as the system of screening and appointment scheduling.

For a longer summary of the evaluation of the Social Work in the Libraries, see the attached PDF Social Workers in the Library. For the journal article, visit http://www.qqml.net/papers/July_Issue/8QQML_Journal_2012_Luo_Estreicher_Lee_Thomas_Thomas_1_73-82.pdf

SWEEP: Team visits Vinh University

 

This week members of the San José State University Social Work Education Enhancement Program team visited Vinh Univeristy, south of Hanoi in Vietnam. The team, including College of Applied Sciences and Arts Associate Dean Alice Hines who is the director of the SWEEP program, met with university leaders, faculty and students at Vinh University. Ed Cohen, a co-director of SWEEP, and Laurie Drabble, a team member, were also present to outline a memorandum of understanding between the College of Applied Sciences and Arts at SJSU and Vinh University. While in Vinh City, the group met with the rector and staff at a mental health facility. They discussed similarities and differences in mental health treatment services in Vietnam and the United States.

 

SWEEP: SJSU partners attend conference in Vietnam

 

The San José State University Social Work Education Enhancement Program team was invited to attend a conference at the Vietnamese Academy of Social Sciences in Hanoi on “Vietnam-US Partnership: Issues and Prospects.” Sweep Director Alice Hines discussed the SWEEP project and ways in which the strategic partnerships with Vietnamese universities, government ministries, USAID and Cisco Systems Inc. are contributing to the development of social work in Vietnam. Hines is pictured third from the right, with SWEEP co-director Ed Cohen and SJSU Professor Laurie Drabble. The three will be attending conference meetings in Hanoi this week.

San José State University’s College of Applied Sciences and Arts is host to the Social Work Education Enhancement Program, an initiative that is working to:

  • Develop systems to strengthen higher education management and administration,
  • Devise processes to enhance faculty development opportunities and programs
  • Develop and employ relevant curriculum adaptable to Viet Nam’s changing knowledge and needs.

SWEEP is funded through the US Agency for International Development with a three-year grant. Visitors from Viet Nam spent a week at SJSU in September, with a group of fellows expected to stay for a month in the spring. Members of the SJSU SWEEP team will also be traveling to Viet Nam in December for an annual conference.