College of Education and Social Work

2024 - 2025 Spotlight

PRIZE Signing Day, June 2025

The College of Education and Social Work celebrated our two PRIZE student signers at the PRIZE signing ceremony on June 26, 2025. President Bernotsky and Rammy joined in the celebration. Learn more about this special event, and the PRIZE Program.

Another Successful Camp Abilities led by CESW's Dr. Elizabeth Foster

Visit the Camp Abilities article to read more about Dr. Foster and the 2025 Camp Abilities held this past Memorial Day weekend.

Celebrating Our 2025 Outstanding Social Work and Teacher Education Seniors! 

 

Congratulations to our 1871 Award Winners for 2025!

Highlighting Faculty & Student Involvement at PHENND Conference

The recent PHENND conference on February 21st, From Financial Aid to Economic Inclusion: The Intersection of Money and Community Engagement, highlighted the innovative strategies that Philadelphia WCU, main campus CCESI, and the student success centers use to support students. It was a powerful collaboration showcasing how we help students navigate essential resources so they can succeed in school—everything from connecting them to the benefits hub, fresh food, and transportation, to employing students through federal work-study and graduate assistantships. The resource pantry coordinator, Michelle Williams, alongside Victoria Rodway (who helped create the Philadelphia resource pantry), Laila Tull (a GA supporting the pantry’s operations), and Dominique Rasley (a current BSW student on the Philadelphia campus), played a key role in developing and presenting our initiatives to several area universities. Three of the students presenting are recent BSW graduates and are now continuing their work as MSW students, furthering their commitment to student support and advocacy. The conference sparked important discussions about expanding financial and community-based support models, reinforcing the importance of integrating economic inclusion into student success initiatives.

Celebrating Two of Our Award-Winning Students and One Alumnus!

All about the RAM Initiative: A Q&A with Dr. Dawn Patterson

Q: Can you give a brief overview of the program and how it got started?

A: The Real Achievement Matters (RAM) Initiative is a program for young adults between the ages of 18-24 years old with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) to attend college. In 2018, Dr. Monica Lepore, with other colleagues across the university, initiated the 2-year (48 credit) program by accepting 2 students to enroll in college courses to earn a certificate of completion. Giving young adults with IDD the opportunity to have comparable college experiences as their chronologically aged peers is monumental. WCU is one of 19 institutions of higher ed in PA to offer this type of program.

Q: What type of support are individuals within the program receiving?

A: The students in the program receive peer-to-peer support from matriculating college students from majors across the university. Students in the RAM Initiative have peer mentors attend their classes with them as a note taker, to re-explain information, and to assist as needed with collaborative class activities. The peer mentors also assist with homework during study hall and hang out during lunch or social events. Each student has a Peer Mentor administrator that oversees everything about their student.

Q: What types of activities are these students involved in?

A: The students in the RAM Initiative are included in all aspects of being a WCU student. They attend college courses in their Career Pathway (area of interest), they carry full-time loads (12-credits) each semester, they attend sporting and arts events, join Greek life, and are members of clubs. As part of their program each semester the students in the program have an internship where they have practical application related to their career aspirations, for them to have hands-on experiences.

Q: Can you share a success story from the program?

A: There are many. Nate & Emily completing their 2 years in 2020 and not being able to attend commencement until 2021 to celebrate their accomplishment.

Liv completed her program with an interest in nutrition. She was interested in attending a community college but instead chose to return to WCU to take another nutrition course, independently.

Zack beginning his college education in Fall 2020 when the entire university was learning remotely. Prior to being a college student Zack did not own a cell phone, and his first semester in, he was taking classes on Zoom while face timing with his peer mentor. In Zack’s final semester, he stated aloud, that he now knows that he is not dumb, because he completed college.

Mary Paige, after two-years of waiting was able to begin her college education, at her mom’s alma mater, because she was able to find off-campus housing. Mary Paige is our first student to have an off-campus internship at the Melton Center.

Jadon completed his program in Spring 2024. He was able to have an internship with the Marketing Department and make valuable contributions to a few big-name companies, such as Google & Spotify.

Paul, who came from a small private school, after his first week on campus had to reduce his load from 12 credits to 6 because the campus was EXTREMELY overwhelming for him. Now Paul navigates campus independently and has become part of the art department. At one point, Paul stated that he would love to live on campus. Paul has gained enough confidence in himself to have two jobs; one as a host at a restaurant, and the other at a grocery store near his house.

Joey wants to be an accountant and continues to learn the necessary skills . He navigates campus and the surrounding community independently. Most recently Joey attended Meet the Firms night, an annual event in the accounting department and met different firms in an extremely over stimulating environment.

Q: Are there any future plans for the program?

A: Dr. Commisso and I believe in the RAM Initiative and the students who are accepted to attend WCU. Our primary goal is for each of the students to realize that they are bright, and they can accomplish a tremendous amount when they believe in themselves and have the tools to be successful. If we had the resources, we would grow the program. At this time, we can only accept 3 students per semester because we have a limited number of peer mentors, and they change from semester to semester and year to year.

Congratulations to the 2024 Scholarship Awardees!

On October 29th, 2024, faculty, staff, students, and families gathered in the Sykes Ballroom for the College of Education and Social Work Scholarship Ceremony. During this ceremony, over 30 different scholarships were awarded to 42 students. The College of Education and Social Work congratulates those students for their hard work, and we look forward to seeing their continued success.  

A Q&A with Professor Dave Barry about his podcast, "I Still Believe in School".

Q: What prompted you to start the podcast?

A: I started the "I Still Believe in School" podcast as a response to the overwhelmingly negative messaging about teaching/school that we're hearing in recent years. My WCU students have told me that they want to hear about the positives about becoming a teacher, so I felt compelled as their teacher to provide that to them. So, what "I Still Believe in School" offers listeners is an opportunity to hear from my favorite teachers/educators about the positives of teaching - what inspired them to teach, their funniest stories, the opportunities facing schools, and why - despite all the challenges - they still believe in school. I also wanted a chance to give back to everyday teachers who are doing their best to support their students, so the second part of the show is a game show called "teacher feature trivia". I use ChatGPT to make a 10-question quiz based on my guests' teaching expertise and for every question they get correct, I donate $10 to a Donors Choose teacher fundraising project of their choice.

Q: How do you brainstorm topics each week?

A: The topics of the show are always relatively consistent from week to week - talking with an educator about the "good stuff" about teaching. What's different from week to week is the perspective and teaching experience of the guests that I interview. So far, I've talked with early childhood teachers, a sex educator, a music teacher, a theater teacher, an education librarian, and others. Though they all come to their work from different perspectives and expertise, all of them have wisdom and positive stories about teaching to share.

Q: Has starting the podcast changed your perspective of teaching or has it remained relatively the same?

A: I'm noticing some interesting changes in my perspective that I believe are making me a better teacher to my WCU students. First, it's rare that I get to connect with my teacher friends about what they love about teaching - it's just not something that comes up in everyday conversation - so it is such an incredible gift to be able to talk with teachers I have so much love and respect for about teaching. As a researcher, I find that I'm starting to see some interesting "themes" emerge regarding what makes an excellent teacher from a wide variety of people. Further, it's put me in such a positive head space about teaching that I feel better equipped to speak back to some of the overwhelming negativity I hear about teaching; not to negate that teaching is hard and that there are challenges that need to be addressed, but that there are things we have that we can capitalize on to move forward.

Q: Anything else that you want to add about the podcast that people should know?

A: If you are listening and enjoying the show, it would really help me out if you could leave a 5-star review on Spotify and Apple Podcasts! I'm hoping to get some sponsorships soon so I can continue to produce the show and fund the Donors Choose projects.

CESW Kicks off the 24-25 Academic Year!

On Friday, September 6th, 2024, the faculty and staff of the College of Education and Social Work gathered in the Sykes Ballrooms to kick off the 2024-2025 academic year.  It was a morning filled with music, laughter, and learning.  Those who earned promotion were celebrated; the goals from the previous three years were reviewed, and the CESW Dean Desha Williams focused on the path ahead.  The morning culminated with time spent catching up with friends and colleagues over a delicious lunch.  The CESW is looking forward to a great year!

Welcome New Faculty and Staff 2024! 

New Faculty

 

New Staff