The text below is the speech I gave this week in reception of the 2007 MSW Student of the Year for the State of Indiana. I’ll write more about this event in just a second (click here to read more about it). But, for now, here’s what I said at the podium (by the way, Sherry Gass is a good friend of mine and a Professor in the MSW program at IU. She is the one who nominated me and introduced me to the folks at the gala; just to give you some background).

 

“Thanks, Sherry. Sherry Gass is a tremendous asset to our profession and especially to the IU School of Social Work. Some of you may know that she is like the gateway into the School of Social Work for most MSW students as she teaches the first class of the program; a survey of social work so to speak. She has been a great teacher to me, a mentor, and someone I am so happy to call “a friend”. When MSW students begin their program at the IUSSW, before they even enter the classroom on their first day, they are all required to read the captivating work of Barbara Ehrenreich, Nickel and Dimed. Sherry, as a great facilitator of learning, provides a solid framework for students to think critically about Ehrenreich’s words and experience outlined in this book. It’s a book about people living in the margins in America; Folks working in low wage jobs, trying to find meaning and value in a society that all too often devalues life as it equates success with stature and income. Clearly, this exercise, for beginning MSW students, starts a great discourse for the beginning of our work as ‘professional social workers’. It introduces us, or reintroduces us, to life on the margin.

Through my experience as an MSW student, I’ve come to learn that the Social Work Profession is, perhaps, the only practicing profession that centers itself on people who live in the same margins that Ehrenreich documents. And I add that we, Social Work Professionals, are better off for it. Quite frankly, I don’t care about life inside of the margins for existence there is stodgy, mainstream, common, and completely boring. I’ve turned down subscriptions to other professions, like law, medicine, and engineering because they do not hold at their core the great esteem for who the French Philosopher Emmanual Levinas calls the other (come on…no speech is complete without reference to a French Philosopher) I wanted a profession that places the value of life above strata, above income, and above garnering respect from the academy. Cause we do, don’t we? That is why I am now proud to carry the MSW credentials.

With these things said, using the critical thinking skills and frameworks presented through out the MSW program, I call into question our profession’s current rallying slogan, Help Starts Here. I get the context of the word Help indicated in this slogan: it is meant to denote the spirit and concern of our work. I understand that when we say help we mean us doing something to make this world better. But, I am afraid of the word’s other meanings. In America, Help has for too long been used as a noun, a way to describe servants. Isn’t there a better way to articulate our work as professionals? In recognition of my sincere interest for working outside and not within the margins, it seems that the word help better qualifies what happens to the Social Worker, not the folks we serve. For it is exactly our people, our populations that give us, Social Work professionals, meaning, future, and livelihood. Clearly, Help Starts Here because we are helped by the populations we serve just as much, if not more, than we help them. Hopefully, somewhere in the mix, we don’t really help others, but we appreciate others, we care for others, and we love others…others, of course, meaning the people who fill our offices, our therapy rooms, and our home visits. If I were a Social Work Marketing Professional, I would amend said motto to proclaim, “Social Work: Abundant Life Starts Here” or “Social Work: Upholding the Preciousness of Life” or better yet “Social Work: A group of people who think you are irrevocably and totally awesome!”

I hope that I am receiving this award, not because of good grades or because of sitting in front of the classroom, but because I took a tip from the undertow current that oozes out of the teachers, mentors, and friends at the school and in the profession. Their message spells this motivating truth: All life is precious. The gift of my MSW education is a gift of understanding and critical analysis. Thanks Sherry Gass, and all those in the hallways of the school and the offices of this profession, for teaching me the tremendous value of our lives together.”