{"id":197008,"date":"2024-02-22T11:14:29","date_gmt":"2024-02-22T16:14:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.syr.edu\/?p=197008"},"modified":"2024-04-18T10:41:27","modified_gmt":"2024-04-18T14:41:27","slug":"social-workers-united-students-spread-the-love-this-valentines-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.syr.edu\/blog\/2024\/02\/22\/social-workers-united-students-spread-the-love-this-valentines-day\/","title":{"rendered":"Social Workers United Students Spread the Love on Valentine\u2019s Day"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"

Social Workers United students from Falk College celebrated Valentine\u2019s Day and Mardi Gras with residents from Brookdale Summerfield Senior Living in Syracuse.<\/p><\/div>\n

This was going to be a story about the Social Workers United student group from the Falk College of Sport and Human Dynamics<\/a> and how it once again organized an event to benefit the Syracuse community.<\/p>\n

And it still is.<\/p>\n

But if you dig deeper, this story is much more than that.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s about how these students \u201ccontinue to exemplify the values of social work: service, commitment to clients, and social justice,\u201d says Jennifer Genovese<\/a>, school of social work assistant teaching professor and master of social work program director who oversees Social Workers United (SWU).<\/p>\n

It\u2019s about a woman named Dolly, a resident of Brookdale Summerfield Senior Living<\/a> in Syracuse who, before SWU students came to visit on Feb. 13, hadn\u2019t celebrated Valentine\u2019s Day since her husband died.<\/p>\n

And it\u2019s about the kindness that Dolly showed her students as a teacher years ago, the kindness that SWU students showed Dolly and her friends on Feb. 13, and the hope that even with the politics, wars and mass shootings that dominate our headlines today, kindness is still all around us.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are so proud of our future social workers,\u201d Genovese says. \u201cThey are shining a light toward a brighter future.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018An Amazing Group\u2019<\/strong><\/h2>\n

SWU is the student group of the School of Social Work<\/a> in Falk College. Each semester, the students organize a food or clothing drive, and this past fall they collected food for the Hendricks Chapel Food Pantry<\/a> which helps students experiencing food insecurity.<\/p>\n

Faculty advisors Nadaya Brantley<\/a>, Kristen Esposito<\/a>, and Genovese advise and support the SWU students as they develop service projects, but the students lead the projects. For their first project of the spring semester, the students arranged a Valentine\u2019s Day event for the residents of Brookdale Summerfield, an adult home and adult home memory care community for seniors.<\/p>\n

\"Items

Social Workers United students delivered handmade Valentine\u2019s Day cards with personal messages, heart-shaped donuts, and balloons to the Brookdale residents.<\/p><\/div>\n

On Feb. 13, the SWU students delivered handmade Valentine\u2019s Day cards with personal messages, heart-shaped donuts and balloons to the Brookdale residents, who were already celebrating Mardi Gras. SWU\u2019s arrival added a boost to the celebration.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe valentines were collected in the social work office, and I really thought one student, (SWU president) Mary Claytor, was just going to drop them off at Brookdale,\u201d Genovese says. \u201cI had no idea the entire group of students was going and bringing balloons and donuts. The students organized all of this and paid for it themselves as SWU does not receive funding. They are an amazing group!\u201d<\/p>\n

Claytor, a first-year graduate student and graduate assistant who\u2019s on track to obtain a master\u2019s degree in social work, says when the students arrived, each one went to a different table to deliver their cards and engage in conversations. It didn\u2019t take long before one of the residents shared a story about receiving two purple hearts from his service in World War II.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were so many incredible stories and lots of laughter,\u201d says Claytor, who\u2019s from Denver, Colorado. \u201cSome folks were so surprised that we would dedicate time to them and asked for us to come back soon! It was a great experience, and we were happy to do something special for a group of people who did not expect to be celebrated.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018A Calling to Help\u2019<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Keianah Greene, who is pursuing a master’s degree in clinical social work, entered the room with the other SWU students and went to a table where she met Dolly and her friends. Dolly said she hadn\u2019t celebrated Valentine\u2019s Day since her husband passed, but when she learned the students were coming, she wanted to attend and learn more about them.<\/p>\n

Greene, who\u2019s from the Bronx, New York, and now lives in Syracuse, explained why she wants to be a social worker before they discussed family and how important it is to be loving, kind and optimistic despite our daily struggles.<\/p>\n

\u201cDolly mentioned that she was a middle school teacher in Birmingham, Alabama and that her mother had told her at an early age that she had a calling to help people,\u201d Greene says. \u201cShe also mentioned the number of children she worked with and how they used school as an escape from problems they were having at home. So she always made sure to bring extra supplies for her classroom such as clothing, snacks and other necessities.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Social

Social Workers United student Keianah Greene (third from left) and Brookdale resident Dolly (second from left) had a heart-to-heart conversation about caring for other people.<\/p><\/div>\n

Dolly told Greene that caring for others is fulfilling, but making sure that all the children in her classroom were included was challenging. Dolly emphasized the value of support systems and self-care for social workers and other caregivers.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can\u2019t care for anyone if you don\u2019t take care of yourself first,\u201d Dolly told Greene.<\/p>\n

As Greene was saying goodbye, Dolly told her that on this Valentine\u2019s Day, she felt like she was reunited with her husband.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe was happy to say that she knew this was her husband\u2019s sign to come meet us (the students), and that our heart-to-heart conversation meant a lot,\u201d Greene says. \u201cI\u2019m glad that I was able to learn from her and also spread the love.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018Brightens Their Day\u2019<\/strong><\/h2>\n

During their visit, Claytor spoke with Brookdale\u2019s activities director about other ways the students might be able to get involved with the residents.<\/p>\n

They discussed Brookdale\u2019s game-and-movie nights, which would be an opportunity for students to engage with residents in a fun way. They talked about students helping the residents start a new garden with flowers, fruits and vegetables when the weather gets warmer.<\/p>\n

Claytor assured the director that the students would be happy to help in any way possible.<\/p>\n

\u201cDuring our conversation, she mentioned that the residents often feel forgotten,\u201d Claytor says. \u201cThey miss socializing with new people and having stimulating conversations about the future. She explained that it brightens their day when visitors come to see them, especially students.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kindness, it seems, is not a relic of the past that\u2019s being thrown out with landline telephones, DVDs and alarm clocks. It\u2019s all around us; we must know where to look.<\/p>\n

Visit the Falk College website<\/a> to learn more about the School of Social Work and its academic programs, experiential learning, and career opportunities.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This was going to be a story about the Social Workers United student group from the Falk College of Sport and Human Dynamics and how it once again organized an event to benefit the Syracuse community. And it still is….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":316,"featured_media":197009,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_post-type":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4365],"tags":[5629,10400,10431,10403,4543],"class_list":["post-197008","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-campus-community","tag-community-engagement","tag-engaged-citizenship","tag-falk-college-of-sport-and-human-dynamics","tag-human-thriving","tag-students"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.syr.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197008"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.syr.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.syr.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.syr.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/316"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.syr.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=197008"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/news.syr.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197008\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":197029,"href":"https:\/\/news.syr.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197008\/revisions\/197029"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.syr.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/197009"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.syr.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=197008"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.syr.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=197008"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.syr.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=197008"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}