Cecelia Conslavo: Finding a New Calling in Forensic Psychology

by Amanda Hayman ’17

For Cecelia Conslavo, seeking out an internship in a field she has never worked in before while pursuing her Master of Social Work degree at Adelphi University’s Manhattan Center was daunting, but she decided to take a risk and pursue an internship at Queen’s Law Associates. Her risk paid off with a rewarding full-time position as a social work assistant at the criminal defense firm and a blossoming career in forensic social work.

“It was an area that I have not worked in before and I thought it would be challenging and I’m always open to a challenge,” Conslavo said, explaining that as a generalist in social work she had experience in many other areas, but not forensic social work. “I said, ‘Let me give this try with the internship,’ and it just worked out perfectly for me.”

Forensic social work is the application of social work to issues related to law and legal matters. Conslavo is currently working with the criminal justice system to help people who have been incarcerated find alternatives to jail for their sentences.

She credits Adelphi with giving her the tools to excel in the field. “Adelphi gave me the grounding to work better with the clients, especially with my substance abuse class,” Conslavo said. “Because I worked with substance abuse clients at the internship…I was better able to help my clients with their substance problems and have them [avoid] going to jail.”

Before coming to Adelphi, Conslavo received a bachelor’s in Social Work from York College. She was accepted into a one-year M.S.W. program at Adelphi and expects to complete her degree in late 2015. Conslavo has nothing but good thigs to say about Adelphi and the internship opportunity it provided that ultimately led to her job.

“I really enjoyed Adelphi and where they placed me happened to work out and be a perfect fit for me and, I really found my niche in what I wanted to do,” Conslavo said. “One of the things stressed is have an open mind when seeking out an internship…Don’t always say, ‘No, I don’t want to do that,’ because you may find that it’s exactly what you want.”