SOCIAL WORK NEWSLETTER
Celebrating Those Who Make Our Program Great
Back to the Classroom
Change is in the works – I’m moving back to the classroom this fall as a full-time social
work faculty member! My last ten years as head of the department of Sociology,
Anthropology and Social Work were filled with many challenges, some surprises and
many changes at the university. During this time I have seen the Social Work program
experience tremendous growth. We’ve added new faculty, many new majors, expanded
the program to the Salina Campus, and last spring we admitted our largest class ever and
it appears that this trend is holding. I’ve been a social worker for a long time so it’s not
at all surprising to me to see that interest in our great profession is growing; this is a good
thing because, as you are all aware, the demand for us is growing too.
This newsletter highlights great social workers who have made a difference in our
program – there are many more of you out there who continue to contribute every day in
order to make the lives of those we serve better. I love hearing of the remarkable job you
all are doing.
A big thanks to everybody for helping us make Social Work education at K-State a topnotch opportunity for all!
Betsy Cauble
In This Issue
Focus on the Field
Coming Home Event – April 2, 2016 – SAVE THE DATE!!!!!
Salina Update
Manhattan Update
Highlighting our Adjunct Instructors
Student Awards
March is National Social Work Month and was a great time to reflect on the professionals
who give their time to make the K-State Social Work Program successful. Our program
is graduating more students than ever before and we have extended our campus west to
Salina, we are on a roll and excited to share our news with you as we honor those who
make it possible. And, we need your continued support to keep the ball rolling smoothly
down the road.
Focus on the Field: Dan Clayton, LBSW (2003)
Many of you have served as field instructors and all of you have had a practicum and
field instructor, so you’re aware of the importance of the field practicum experience to
integrating your social work education. The Council of Social Work Education
recognizes field education as its signature pedagogy. “Signature pedagogy represents
the central form of instruction and learning in which a profession socializes its students
to perform the role of practitioner…. In social work, the signature pedagogy is field
education. The intent of field education is to connect the theoretical and conceptual
contribution of the classroom with the practical world of the practice setting. It is a basic
precept of social work education that the two interrelated components of curriculum—
classroom and field—are of equal importance within the curriculum, and each
contributes to the development of the requisite competencies of professional practice.”
CSWE Educational Policy and Standards, 2008.
We had a total of 47 Social Work graduates in calendar year 2015. However, we’ll be
following that up with a whopping 35 students in the field in the Spring of 2016! This
will be the largest graduating class in the history of the KSU Social Work program. That
said, we’ll need as many practicum placements as we can find throughout the state.
Anyone who is interested in providing a practicum site and field instruction for a K-State
student, please contact Kim Morgan at kmorg@ksu.edu. We’re always looking for great
new placement opportunities.
We’re happy and proud to have many excellent placements and field instructors, and we
would like to take the opportunity in each newsletter to shine a light on one. Dan
Clayton, LBSW (2003) is a social worker at Homecare & Hospice, Inc., in Manhattan.
Social work is a second career for Dan, who once worked as a project
manager for a company that did hotel renovation across the country.
When Dan was injured in 1998 and could barely move, much less do
physical work, he struggled with no longer being able to provide for
his family and says “the injury shifted my identity, and no one helped
me with that.” When his Vocational Rehabilitation counselor was
working with him on choosing a major, Dan opted for Social Work
because he wanted to work with adults in crisis. As a non-traditional
student who worked through chronic pain, Dan was nominated by the
Social Work faculty and was selected to receive an Extraordinary
Student Award.
Dan’s practicum at Homecare & Hospice, while not exactly how he
had anticipated working with adults, sparked his passion for working
with those who are facing a terminal illness and their loved ones.
Hired after his practicum, Dan has been there ever since, and over the last eight years has
provided field instruction for 12 students and worked with 4-5 others placed in the
agency. In addition, Dan contributes to social work education by speaking to the Field
Preparation class each semester about his work. Dan says he enjoys working with
students, who bring new perspectives . “I get to help them see how to put their education
into practice. They’re always surprised when we visit with clients and I don’t have an
agenda. I work with them on starting where the client is and being flexible.”
Dan’s clear and direct feedback has helped shape the professional growth of many, many
K-State Social Work students and we appreciate him immensely!
Let us know if you and your agency are interested in helping the K-State Social Work
Program carry on its great tradition of field education . . .we need you!
“Coming Home” Celebration April 2nd
Please join us April 2nd, 2016 as we celebrate the 42nd year of the Social Work Program at
K-State! We have been accredited by the Council on Social Work Education since 1974
and have been going strong ever since. On April 2nd we will celebrate this
accomplishment and the retirement of Jacque Gibbons, who has been with the program
since the early 1980’s. Join us for the fun!
SAVE THE DATE: April 2nd, 3:30-6:30 Student Union, details forthcoming via snail
mail.
Westward We Go!
Most of you know that three years ago our program expanded to the K-State Salina
campus. Remember that once famous baseball movie? “If you build it they will come?”
This certainly applies to our Salina program: We have 44 majors and 4 faculty on that
campus. 10 students graduated this spring thanks to our tremendous faculty there and the
support of field instructors in the area. Salina faculty David Norlin, Jennifer Davis, Sarah
Pilgrim and Deb Marseline do a great job bringing quality social work education to the
heart of our state. Thanks Salina group!
Salina Faculty Research
Drs. Jennifer Davis and Sarah Pilgrim, assistant professors on the Salina campus have
completed a pilot study to explore and identify the processes by which veterans transition
from a military career to civilian social work. Veterans of all branches who are current
Kansas State social work students and alumni participated in the study. They provided
information regarding how they were able to integrate the professional values of the
military and social work while undergoing professional socialization in the K-State social
work program and in practice. The findings from this study are being prepared for
publication and will inform a national study. Kudos to Jennifer and Sarah!
Back to Manhattan
The number of social work majors continues to swell on the Manhattan campus: In 2008
we had 113 majors and as of fall 2014 we had 220! Mentioned earlier in the field
section, our graduating class in Spring of 2016 will be 35 students, the largest class ever.
The good news is that Betsy Cauble, head of the Department of Sociology,
Anthropology, and Social Work for the past 10 years, left that post this summer and
joined our faculty full-time this fall: Welcome back, Betsy, we need you! Another bright
spot in our faculty news is that Lorenza Lockett, instructor with us for 8 years, has
finished his PhD and has been hired as a tenure track Assistant Professor –
congratulations, Dr. Lockett!
We Couldn’t Do it Without These Folks
Adjunct faculty are critical to us in order to teach each of our core classes during the year.
In keeping with the theme of this newsletter, we’d like to shine the spotlight on the three
social work professionals who’ve been keeping us afloat . . .
Cherri Harper, MSW, PhD
Cherri has been committed to social work education for 30
years and brings a wealth of expertise to our program. She’s
been in private practice for 32 years and specializes in
biofeedback, EMDR and other trauma treatment methods.
Cherri brings her mind/body/spirit focus into our senior
practice classrooms each semester when she teaches the
“Social Worker Self-Care” module. When she’s not teaching
and seeing clients Cherri’s enthusiasm for her work spreads to
the community as a group leader for Integral Transformative
Practice, which focuses on personal and societal evolution.
Her passions also include organic gardening, helping people to
move “off the grid” via solar energy and, of course, her family. Thank you, Cherri, for
everything you do to help us graduate great social workers!
Barb Krehbiel Gehring, MSW
Barb Krehbiel Gehring received her MSW from the Jane Adams
School of Social Work, University of Illimois at Chicago in
1991. She has practiced in Indiana and South Dakota. She first
taught social work in Trinidad and Tobago. She divides her
time teaching part time at Kansas State, co-pastoring with her
husband Richard at Manhattan Mennonite Church and practicing
spiritual direction. Barb and Richard recently fulfilled their
dream of traveling to each of our fifty states by age 50! Barb
brings a wealth of cultural experiences to the classroom when
she teaches Practice II, Groups and HBSE for us . . .thanks
Barb!
Molly Sanderson, MSW
Molly received her MSW from the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, UT. She has
enjoyed practicing as a medical social worker in Utah, Pennsylvania and Kansas, serving
in a variety of health care settings, primarily serving older adults and their families.
Molly teaches Practice I for us; her expertise in health care social work is a great asset to
the program and helps students prepare for the ever growing older adult population.
When Molly isn’t teaching for us she is enjoying her many hobbies and activities . . .and,
of course, her family. Thanks, Molly, for helping us to prepare social workers who are
ready to help their clients tackle the many challenges they will face.
Debi Holcomb, MSW
Debi is currently an analyst with the Governor’s Domestic Violence Fatality Review
Board. She earned her Master’s Degree in Social Work Administration from the
University of Kansas and her Bachelor’s Degree in Social Work from Kansas State
University. She has been dedicated to work on behalf of crime victims in Kansas since
1994, working in a community program as shelter staff, the Protection from Abuse
Coordinator, Volunteer Coordinator, Police Response Advocate Coordinator, and Client
Services Director and was the first Victim Services Director of the Kansas Department of
Corrections, which provides services to all crime victims. Debi’s expertise and
experiences are shared with our students when she teaches our practice classes. Thanks,
Debi!
Community Advisory Committee
We’d be remiss if we didn’t also thank our faithful Community Advisory Committees for
helping us over many years: Thanks to each of you for going the distance with us.
Jackie Anschutz
Paula Barrows-Hunt
Laci Cornelison
Tammy Feldkamp
Debi Holcomb
Joe Kordalski
Scott Montoya
Earl Robinson
Linda Arthington
Lisa Claudel
Tanya Draper-Douthit
Karla Hagemeister
Michelle Houston
Misty Lester
Rosemary Neaderhiser
Jenny Stroup
Student Awards – Salina
Ms. Gina Nelson-Fishel was selected as a recipient of the prestigious Phi Kappa Phi
Sophomore Scholastic Award for the College of Arts and Sciences. The award is to honor
the most outstanding sophomore in each college for their scholastic achievements. The
Deans of the colleges designate the recipients of these awards. Ms. Nelson-Fishel, social
work student, is one of two designated most outstanding sophomores from Kansas State
University, College of Arts and Sciences.
Ms. Taya Smith, social work student, was selected "Student of the Year" by the Minority
Student Union, Kansas State University Salina at their 1st Annual Red Heels Awards
Program on Friday February 13, 2015. Congratulations to these women!
Student Awards - Manhattan
The Dorla Jane (Dodie) Abbott Social Work Scholarship was endowed by Dodie Abbott
in 2011 to be awarded each year to a student in good standing with demonstrated need
majoring in Social Work. Savannah Whipple is the 2015 recipient of this award.
Dodie Abbott is a native Kansan, born in Great Bend, who attended Hutchinson
Community College, then graduated from K-State in Sociology in 1951 (there was no
social work program here at that time). She worked for Wyandotte Co. SRS and then
earned her MSW at KU in 1957. She worked in child welfare for a time and then went to
work as a social worker at the University of Kansas Medical Center, where she worked
for 32 years, eventually becoming Assistant Director of the Social Work Department,
until her retirement. She served as field instructor for many practicum students over the
years, mostly from KU, but remembers 2 or 3 K-Staters who she said were very good
students. After her retirement, she made 3 or 4 trips to Phoenix each year to visit her
sister, who had MS. Since her sister’s death, her focus has become golf, which she took
up at around the age of 70. She lives in Merriam, KS with her niece, two dogs, and two
cats.
The Elizabeth Bliss Garzio Endowment Scholarship in Social Science was established by
the late Professor Emeritus, Ang Garzio, to honor his former wife, Elizabeth (Betty) Bliss
Garzio. Betty, a retired social worker, devoted much of her life to the care of their
developmentally disabled son, Eric, who lives and works at Big Lakes Developmental
Center here in Manhattan. The award is given to a senior who has earned academic merit
and who has the potential and likelihood to pursue graduate education in social work.
This year, the Elizabeth Bliss Garzio Endowment Scholarship in Social Science is
awarded to Henrietta (Natashya) Slaffey.
The Grace and Glenn W. Long Memorial Scholarship was established to perpetuate the
memory of Grace and Glenn at Kansas State University and to provide financial
assistance to students majoring in Sociology and Social Work. The fund was begun in
1990 by Ivalee Long, Glenn’s second wife. Glenn and Grace were married for 30 years.
Grace died in 1973 and Ivalee and Glenn were married in 1979. Glenn received a
certificate for 33 years of service to the Economics and Sociology Departments. He
worked at Kansas State University from 1933 to 1971 when he retired. This year’s Grace
and Glenn W. Long Memorial Scholarship will be awarded to Rachel Gastmann.
Outstanding Graduating Seniors
Each year the faculty honors a student from each graduating class for their leadership and
contributions while in the practice sequence. The recipients of these awards stand out as
upholding the values and ethics of the profession, demonstrating self-awareness, and
personal and professional growth. The winners of the Outstanding Graduating Senior
awards are Kendra Klaus, Alison Nwafor and Cortney Lee.
Helping Out
We’ve set up a new fund through the KSU Foundation that is specifically to help with
Social Work Program needs, to include the April 2nd Coming Home Celebration
mentioned above. If you feel you can help, please do! Any amount is appreciated and
will help us to further serve our students. Click here to make a gift to the Social Work
Excellence Fund; it’s easy to donate!
From the faculty:
Janice Dinkel, Program Director
Kim Morgan, Director of Field Practicum
Jacque Gibbons, Associate Professor
Don Kurtz, Associate Professor
Betsy Cauble, Senior Program Coordinator
Lorenza Lockett, Assistant Professor
David Norlin, Instructor
Jennifer Davis, Salina Program Coordinator
Sarah Pilgrim, Assistant Professor
Deb Marseline, Practicum Coordinator at Salina