NYU Silver School of Social Work

Dean Lindsey wearing graduation academic attire and speaking at a podium branded with an NYU Silver banner

NYU Silver Class of 2025: Thank you for enriching us with your scholarship, creativity and passion!

Dean Michael A. Lindsey
Overhead photo of a decorated graduation cap with the words It's a beautiful day to change lives

We never chose this path because it was easy. We chose it because we believe in something greater than ourselves.

Abiola Brooks, MSW ’25
Graduates cheering while holding a phone up for selfies and waving pompoms in the air

What defines our class is more than our achievements—it’s our unwavering commitment to people, to justice, and to each other.

Ruirui Chen and Alexa Vanegas, BS ’25
A view of the stage at Silver's graduation ceremony with a speaker at the podium, seated doctoral graduates and faculty, and Silver flags lining the background

We are not just researchers or clinicians ... We are guardians of dignity in a world that often forgets it.

Nari Yoo, PhD ’25
A line of doctoral graduates walking through an auditorium holding large embroidered violet banners while the audience looks on

As we take on cultures of inequity and injustice, may we endure with humility, empathy and audacity.

Juhi Malhotra, DSW ’25

Taking His Work With Fellow Veterans Personally

A disappointing experience with a civilian VA social worker when he was just out of the U.S. Marine Corps motivated Mohamed Hassan to pursue his MSW and serve fellow veterans himself. Now he’s a social worker at one of the country’s largest VA medical centers where he helps homeless and housing insecure veterans find and keep permanent housing.

Mohamed Hassan headshot
Mohamed Hassan
MSW ’22
Social Worker, Michael E. DeBakey Veterans Affairs Medical Center

Facts & Figures

#12
U.S. News & World Report ranking for Best Grad Schools for Social Work
600+
Placement agencies in our network
6
Faculty inducted into the American Academy of Social Work and Social Welfare
95%
MSW grads employed or continuing education six months post-graduation
650K
Hours of service our students provide to vulnerable individuals and families each year
4
Campuses in the U.S. and China
8
Full- and part-time pathways to the MSW
22K+
Alums who have elevated lives

Finding Her Path in Social Work and Fulfilling Her Professional Dream

Cristina Favaro always had a passion for working with children, especially during their early years, but her path to doing so was anything but linear. Fortunately, she found her calling in social work. Now, as an NYU Silver MSW graduate, she is in the inaugural cohort of The Jewish Board of Family and Children’s Services’ Social Work Residency, where she works with babies, toddlers, and young children with behavioral, developmental, and emotional difficulties.

Cristina Favaro stands in front of a red brick wall and white paned window wearing a black mortarboard with a purple tassel and a purple academic gown with a gold master’s hood.
Cristina Favaro
MSW ’23
Social Work Resident, Jewish Board of Family and Children’s Services

Advancing Social Justice

While earning his degree at Silver, Michael Sanders (front row center), MSW ’19—father, army veteran, and entrepreneur—was the vice president of the NYU Military Alliance, an NYU Social Sector Leadership Diversity Fellow, a Silver Student Leadership Council Fellow, a member of the Students of Color Collective, and one of two students on the School’s Social Justice Praxis Committee. Michael, who is now a Social Service Advocate at the Committee for Public Counsel Services in Boston, observed, “Being a social worker means fighting for social justice and never forgetting our responsibility to our clients, to ourselves, and to society as a whole.”

Michael Sanders posing with fellow Silver student leaders all wearing pink Social Worker Agent of Change shirts

Pioneering Research & Evidence-Based Solutions

The Silver School Faculty is Examining Society’s Pressing Problems.

Developing Culturally Specific Interventions to Assist Youth of Color in Crisis

Researchers at NYU Silver were among the first to identify an alarming rise in suicide deaths, attempts and thoughts among Black and Brown young people. Now they are partnering with colleagues across NYU and beyond to unravel the mystery of why suicide is rising among youth of color and to develop effective, culturally specific interventions.

A female presenting, Latinx-presenting youth with a look of despair on their face leans their chin against their crossed arms.

Leading a Federally Funded Partnership to Prevent Child Maltreatment

Being trauma-informed helps child welfare service providers to better address the consequences of child maltreatment, and with a 5-year, $2.6 million federal grant, NYU Silver Assistant Professor Kathrine Sullivan is spearheading a partnership with the New York City’s Administration for Children’s Services and NYU Grossman School of Medicine that will expand this expertise in NYC. In addition to funding the training of existing child welfare providers, the grant will also enable the establishment of the CHAMP Institute at NYU Silver to provide specialized training to 10 MSW students each year in trauma-informed care in order to prevent child maltreatment.

Kathrine Sullivan headshot

Harnessing Virtual Reality & AI to Prepare MSW Students for Clinical Practice

With a grant from our Constance and Martin Silver Center on Data Science and Social Equity, Drs. Nicholas Lanzieri and Anne Dempsey are partnering with colleagues from NYU Tandon School of Engineering and NYU Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development to develop and test an AI-powered, virtual reality simulation template that is designed specifically to enable students to gain and apply social work skills.

Still image from a current virtual reality simulation on which the VR template will improved. It shows a busy Grand Street Subway station with people coming and going from a train to the left of the platform and stairs to the right. A pop up map of Lower Manhattan with a pin on the Grand Street subway stop is on the left and VR directional icons are overlaid on the bottom. Text below reads "A VR template in development will improve upon current simulation-based learning experiences, such as the one shown above."
Research
Unlocking Music’s Power: PhD candidate Aaron Rodwin’s NIH-funded research explores music’s influence on young adults’ mental illness recovery. Learn more!
Headshot of Aaron Rodwin
Silver News
Explore the ways experts re-envisioned child and family wellness practice at the inaugural Elliott Wesley Carten Memorial Lectureship.
Cover of the Elliott Wesley Carten Lectureship program next to a group photo of Richard Lally, Alma Carten, Anne Williams-Isom, and Dean Michael Lindsey on either side of the event banner..
Student News
Discover how NYU Silver students mobilized to provide peers with free, convenient access to nutritious food and everyday essentials.
Two students who manage the Silver Shelf pose in front the large, steel shelf, which is stocked with groceries, personal care items and cleaning supplies.