Students News

PhD Student Irene Routté has received the 2024 Outstanding Doctoral Student Award from the Association for Community Organizing & Social Action (ACOSA). This award honors meritorious scholarship in the field of community practice.

Clinical Assistant Professor Ayesha Ghazi Edwin spoke with CBS Detroit about a new “right to sit” ordinance she introduced in her role as Ann Arbor City Council Member. MSW student Jessica Riley’s participation in the public comments is included as part of the story. The ordinance was approved in October.

Additional media coverage:

• MLive

U-M’s Anti-Racism Collaborative, an initiative of the National Center for Institutional Diversity, has announced the 2024 Anti-Racism Grants.

Professor Joseph Himle and Associate Professor Addie Weaver have received an Anti-Racism Grant for their project FARWell: The Formula for Anti-Racist Wellness and Therapy. This project  — a community-university partnership between My Brother’s Keeper, Formula 734, and social work researchers at U-M and The Ohio State University — will support the development and evaluation of a transdiagnostic cognitive behavioral therapy for depression and anxiety, designed for and by young Black men.

Joint PhD Student Irene Routté has received an Anti-Racism Graduate Research Grant for her project Landscapes of (Im)Mobility: Congolese Refugee Youth, the U.S. Resettlement System and Spatial Negotiations of Belonging.

Associate Professor Odessa Gonzalez Benson has received an Anti-Racist Digital Research Initiative Grant for her project A Digital Collection as Narrative and Visualization of the Journey of Resettled Refugees.

The Anti-Racism Grants are sponsored by the Office of the Vice President for Research in partnership with the National Center for Institutional Diversity’s Anti-Racism Collaborative, which aims to support and amplify the work of anti-racism scholars at U-M.

MSW student Lady Funcke has been named one of the Latinx Research Week 2024 Familismo Award Winners. Latinx Research Week is an interdisciplinary, conference-style series of events hosted annually on the U-M campus. The Familismo Award is a testament to individuals who embody the values of love, respect, ethics of care and community, which are essential for fostering supportive academic communities. 

“I am deeply touched to have been chosen for this award, as it signifies my commitment to welcoming and inclusive practices, caring deeply for the holistic success of individuals and communities, and nurturing sacred relationships through meaningful interactions and collaborative endeavors,” said Funcke.

MSW Student Kevin Nguyen has been selected as the 2024 U-M National Association of Social Workers (NASW) Student of the Year. In bestowing this award, NASW looks at criteria including demonstrated leadership qualities, contribution to the positive image of a social work program, commitment to political and community activities, success in academic performance and representation of the NASW Code of Ethics. The award ceremony will be held Friday, April 12, 2024, 6-8:30 PM in Lansing, Michigan.

MSW students Claudia Abboud and Cora Galpern spoke with PBS’s NewsHour about the option to vote “uncommitted” in last week’s state primary election. “I don’t think we have a whole lot of ways to really make sure that our voices are being heard,” Abboud said. “But this is one direct way that we can, that we have some power we can leverage, that we can do something and communicate what our wants and our needs are directly to the source.”

The School of Social Work student group Black Radical Healing Pathways (BRHP) received a 2024 Central Campus MLK Spirit Award. MSW students Kareem Isaac, Rhianna Womack, Ataia Templeton and Kyra Smith accepted the award on behalf of BRHP; they would also like to credit alumni Joseph “Jojo” Pearson-Green, MSW ’23, and Syncere Ellis, MSW ’23, who were on the leadership team last semester.

BRHP aspires to organize, educate, mobilize and empower Black students to work for transformative changes on campus, neighborhood and communities. Their focus is to nourish and cultivate the fighting spirits, critical consciousness and aesthetics of Black students.

The Central Campus Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Spirit Award program honors undergraduates, graduate students, and student groups on Central Campus who best exemplify the leadership and extraordinary vision of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

PhD student So’Phelia Morrow describes in a New York Amsterdam News editorial how seeing a squirrel chasing a butterfly sparked hope and inspired her to leave an abusive partner.

“The moment lasted only a second, but it was long enough for me to receive the message,” she wrote. “Although I never thought much about butterflies before, at that moment, I saw it as hope. I laughed to myself. Hope was flying in front of me. Change was going to come.”