For this year’s Social Action Initiative project, "Uplifting Voices," students connected social work theory to practice by interviewing people in the community, and these are now featured on the StoryCorps site.
When Katherine Darling, a Hudson Valley, New York, resident in her third year of the Online Master of Social Work program, was looking for a way to highlight the 2024 Social Action Initiative theme of economic justice and inequality, she thought of the weekly National Public Radio (NPR) program she’s a fan of: StoryCorps, which emphasizes that everyone has an important story to tell. She and four other students in Adelphi’s School of Social Work started with a recorded interview with a mother in her community. This grew into 15 interviews with people from economically disadvantaged groups in a project they titled “Uplifting Voices: Speaking Truth to Power.” And now the stories shared by Darling and her fellow social work student group members are inspiring listeners on the StoryCorps site.
According to Darling, the experience gave her group real-time practice in identifying economic injustice in their communities, which they concluded impacted more people than they had realized.
“The engagement on a personal level was a lightbulb moment,” said Darling. “We weren’t engaging with them as social workers or even as student social workers, just on a personal level with genuine curiosity. We talk about that a lot in the School, but I think it can be hard to model, so this project was really successful.”
Putting Theory Into Practice
For the Social Action Initiative Committee co-chairs this fall, Professor Wahiba Abu-Ras, PhD, and Assistant Professor Sara Terrana, PhD, who is also interim faculty director for the Center for Nonprofit Leadership, the group’s experience was a clear demonstration of how the school is living the mission of connecting theory to practice.
“The initiative engages students in hands-on social justice projects to promote real-world advocacy and systemic change,” said Dr. Terrana. “All social work students in practicum placements must participate, and projects range from legislative advocacy to media campaigns.”
Recent themes have included gender justice (2023), environmental justice (2022) and racial justice (2021), allowing students to develop leadership and social action skills through practical, student-centered initiatives. This program aims to foster deeper engagement with social issues while contributing to community impact.
The School of Social Work has a long history of students participating in the Social Active Initiative.
The School of Social Work has a long history of students participating in the Social Active Initiative. But Dr. Abu-Ras said there has been a significant shift in student engagement in social action since COVID-19.
“Before the pandemic, particularly before 2019, students generally adopted a more passive learning approach, often relying on traditional, instructor-led methods,” she said. “Social action initiatives were typically limited to structured, one-day events where students participated in speaker-led sessions, resulting in a more observational form of learning. However, in the aftermath of COVID-19, there has been a profound transformation in student engagement. Students have increasingly assumed active roles, taking greater initiative, demonstrating self-direction, and actively participating in social action projects. This shift highlights the evolution from passive to active learning, particularly through hands-on, experiential learning approaches that have become more integral to the curriculum in response to the pandemic’s challenges and opportunities.”
Since 2021, the School has offered two options that make it easier for students on all five campuses to participate—one-day event options in Albany or on one of the Adelphi campuses—where they interact with lawmakers or an online small group project. In 2024, 373 students participated and there were also four one-day activism events: two in Albany, one at the Adelphi New York City–Brooklyn Center and another at the main Garden City campus. There were 28 online groups.
Group Three’s Process
In addition to Darling, who was Group Three’s leader, the members of the group were:
- Takira Bell, now in her specialized year in the Online MSW program
- Tamara Metellus, MSW ’24, a graduate of the online program
- Shawn Noralez, now in his specialized year at the Brooklyn campus as part of the CAMBA, Inc., cohort
- Sima Rokowsky, now in her specialized year as part of the Online MSW cohort partnered with The New Seminary
Darling said that although the members had never met before, they bonded over their shared purpose and common goal setting. They met their interview subjects in their own communities and focused on the social work skills of active listening, holding space and providing empathy.
They were also moved by the people they met. “During the interview process, our group members learned to tune into their subjects and amplify the power of the emotions expressed without judgment,” she said.
For example, Metellus interviewed a woman about the financial constraints of healthcare workers, and Rokowsky spoke to a friend about the effects of being an observant Jew in Brooklyn. Darling said the woman she interviewed, Angela, was someone she had often greeted at their sons’ school, but it wasn’t until this project that they had a deep conversation. That’s when she learned Angela was struggling to access programs for people from economically disadvantaged groups.
“Our interview was really powerful for me,” said Darling, who also volunteers as a student member of the Social Action Committee. “She talked about how hard it was for her as a woman with limited education in a rural setting to do the things she needed for her son.”
It was these compelling stories and how Group Three presented them—with visually effective slides that included quotes about how the project had impacted each of the students—that Dr. Terrana said stood out to the awards committee. Further, since it’s encouraged for students to connect with their elected officials, Darling said her group—which comes from different parts of New York state—was able to send their interview recordings to a number of political offices. They also each submitted one of their interviews to StoryCorps.
Dr. Terrana said these steps demonstrate how the Social Action Initiative helps students to live the School of Social Work mission. “This is about learning while doing. We want our students to get involved in the community. We want to get them involved in Albany. We want them to leave our program with the understanding and know-how that whatever the social problem is that they’re passionate about, they can take action.”