Office of Global Activities News

Associate Professor Karen Staller, Joint PhD Social Work and Sociology Student Briana Starks and Visiting Scholar Håvard Aaslund co-edited the recent special double issue of Qualitative Social Work: Research and Practice, “Reflections on a Pandemic: Disruptions, Distractions, and Discoveries.” The double issue contains 86 reflexive essays submitted by authors from 35 different countries (and every continent except Antarctica).  Taken together, the essays paint a portrait of the breadth and depth of social work during the earliest months of the historic pandemic from every corner of the globe. Other U-M contributors to the issue include Assistant Professor Odessa Gonzalez Benson, and current doctoral students in Joint PhD Social Work and Sociology Finn Bell and Angela Perone.

The Office of Global Activities congratulates the following students for receiving this year's Global Independent Study Grant. A Global Independent Study offers students the ability to design a global social work opportunity in a foreign country while earning 1-6 elective credits. This summer these students will travel to 20 different countries.

Associate Dean for Educational Programs and Professor Mary Ruffolo and Assistant Director Office of Global Activities and LEO Adjunct Lecturer Katie Lopez received a grant from the U-M Health Sciences Council to create a sustainable global health platform involving three professional schools. They will pilot a comprehensive community needs assessment for the Ugandan Context to develop intervention and research projects to be carried out next year.

Associate Professor Sherrie Kossoudji was featured in The University Record Faculty Spotlight article, “Social work professor brings classroom to Mexican border” regarding her annual class trip to the Tucson/Nogales area at the U.S./Mexico border.

Katie Lopez, Assistant Director of the Office of Global Activities, has been appointed the 2017-2018 Chair of the Council on Global Engagement at the University of Michigan.

Each year the Office of Global Activities works with and supports students who complete global social work experiences around the globe. The Global Social Work Poster Fair is an opportunity for students who recently returned from abroad to share their global experience with the larger School of Social Work community.

During the summer of 2016, 60 students participated in a global experience in more than 30 different countries. Student experiences included global field placements, global independent studies, attending an international social work conference and serving in the Peace Corps as a part of the School's Peace Corps Master's International program.

At the Global Social Work Poster Fair I presented my work in India with classmates and faculty and demonstrated the impact I had on the children at Kamal Loachan Society.  Just today, I got a Facebook post from one of the children asking for homework help.

Arlene Chandra, MSW ‘18

See Arlene Chandra’s Poster

Guillermo Sanhueza (PhD’14) gave an interview (Spanish) with one of Chile's main TV channels, Canal 24 Horas, about his research on prisoner reentry in Chile.

Assistant Director of the Office of Global Activities Katie Lopez is a co-leader on a new M-Global Education Abroad Resource Grant, "Developing Core Competencies Critical to Intercultural Fieldwork: Peace Corps Prep Program".

Through a partnership of the International Center, School of Social Work, School of Information, School of Natural Resources and Environment, the Center for Global and Intercultural Studies, and the International Institute, an initiative called the Peace Corps Prep Program will be implemented here at U-M. Peace Corps Prep prepares undergrads for international development fieldwork and potential Peace Corps service. This program intends to build the following four competencies among undergraduate students:

1. Training and experience in a specific work sector
2. Foreign language skills
3. Intercultural competence
4. Professional and leadership development