PIONEERS OF UH SOCIAL WORK DISTANCE ED
PROGRAM
TAKING ROAD TRIP TO GRADUATION
First Graduates of Unique Teaching Project Ready to Walk the Stage
HOUSTON, May 24, 2005 – Two-dozen recent graduates of the
University of Houston’s Graduate School of Social Work are
unloading their cars after their road trip to graduation. They drove
from Corpus Christi to Houston for commencement ceremonies where
they became the first graduates of the school’s first Distance
Education Program.
“Those 24 students have been through a lot together and have
grown close because they are all experiencing the same thing,”
said Joseph Papick, director of the GSSW’s Child Welfare Education
Project (CWEP), which implemented the Corpus Christi program at
the direction of Ira Colby, dean of the GSSW. “They worked
all week, went to school on the weekends for four years, and worked
primarily with Child Protective Services (CPS) and three other local
social service agencies.”
The GSSW’s Child Welfare Education Project is a local program
that partners with CPS to provide educational support and stipends
for master’s degree of social work students. Those who successfully
complete the program move into careers with CPS.
The Corpus Christi Distance Education Program grew out of a call
for help from the Corpus Christi CPS. Papick says GSSW saw this
as an opportunity to make a difference in the challenging field
of child protective services.
“About four years ago, the Corpus CPS office contacted us
and said they desperately needed a program there to move MSWs into
CPS,” Papick said. “There were no social work schools
in that area, and interested students couldn’t move to Houston
for financial or personal reasons, so our Distance Education project
was born.” The class was formed in January 2001.
Professors from GSSW traveled to Corpus Christi on weekends for
lectures and support and stayed in touch with students through phone
calls and emails. Students received the same curriculum as those
at the Houston campus and were given the same kind of support and
resources as Houston students.
“It’s been a huge success. We had a conference room
and access to the UH library online,” Clara Trainer, a CPS
employee and one of the program’s first graduates, said. “We
were very resourceful in using the Internet a lot. Our education
was really contingent on the availability of the professors, their
willingness to travel, and time constraints.”
Upon graduation, participants must “pay back” their
financial assistance in the program by working in the CPS agency.
Most will continue their careers at CPS.
“The program was a great experience, and I hope it will continue
because the closest graduate schools are in the Valley and in San
Antonio,” Trainer said.
Though this is the first time UH’s GSSW has crafted a distance
education program, there are discussions to seek out opportunities
for other such programs, Papick said.
For more information on the UH Graduate School of Social Work,
please visit http://www.sw.uh.edu/
About the University of Houston
The University of Houston, Texas’ premier metropolitan research
and teaching institution, is home to more than 40 research centers
and institutes and sponsors more than 300 partnerships with corporate,
civic and governmental entities. UH, the most diverse research university
in the country, stands at the forefront of education, research and
service with more than 35,000 students.
For more information about UH visit the university’s ‘Newsroom’ at www.uh.edu/admin/media/newsroom.
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