Celebrating the Class of 2025
Congratulations Graduates!
Graduation is an opportunity to mark a key milestone in our students’ social work journey and to welcome them into our alumni network. It is a calling together of our community to recognize and celebrate our students’ completion of their studies with us and to confer upon them their degrees. It also marks a beginning, where graduates start the next step in their journeys as social work professionals. Even more so this year, we are excited to come together with families and loved ones at the magnificent United Palace in Washington Heights to honor and cheer for our Class of 2025.
Our 2025 Graduates
Graduates: Thank you for enriching us with your scholarship, creativity and passion during your time at Silver. This is indeed a time to celebrate.
Class of 2025 Student Speakers
Alexa is dedicated to student advocacy and mental health awareness. As Co-President of NYU Silver’s Undergraduate Student Government Association, she leads a team of student representatives and works with university administrators to elevate student voices and improve campus life.
Ruirui is an emerging leader at the intersection of social work and policy innovation. At NYU Silver, she has demonstrated a strong commitment to leadership, serving three years in the Undergraduate Student Government Association and currently as Co-President.
Abiola is deeply committed to social justice, policy engagement and legislative advocacy. Drawing from both academic and lived experience, Abiola is passionate about dismantling systemic barriers that impact low-income and marginalized communities.
Juhi focuses her research and scholarship on the integration and balance of critical reflection in the teaching and learning process for both social work students and practicum instructors. She serves as a Clinical Assistant Professor at NYU Silver. She is also a faculty lead instructor for the Practicum curriculum and coordinates the Seminar in Field Instruction (SIFI) program.
Nari focuses her research on advancing behavioral health equity in digital contexts for immigrant and racial/ethnic minority communities. Her scholarship integrates social work, data science and public health to examine how structural barriers and digital systems shape access to culturally and linguistically responsive mental health services.
We stand at the threshold of a world that feels uncertain — shifting beneath our feet in ways we never expected. The world we grew up in is not the world we are stepping into. But we never chose this path because it was easy. We chose it because we believe in something greater than ourselves.
From Leadership at Silver to Impact in the Profession
Students across our degree programs have made an extraordinary and positive impact among their peers, the University and the wider society. We give special recognition to those graduates who have served on our Student Leadership Council or Silver Peer Leaders, been inducted to the Phi Alpha Honor Society, Pi Pi Chapter or received special University awards honors.
What defines our class is more than our achievements—it’s our unwavering commitment to people, to justice and to each other ... We’ve learned to ask the questions others are too afraid to ask, to challenge injustice even when it’s uncomfortable and to center those whose voices are too often ignored.
Voices from the Class of 2025
Katanae Green, MSW ’25
“Growing up, I didn’t always see people in the helping professions who looked like me, who understood my world. That changed when I was in high school, where I joined an academic enrichment program that not only helped students get to college but supported them throughout their journey. It was in that program that I first experienced what it meant to be truly seen and supported, and I realized then that I wanted to give back in some way. That’s exactly why I’m here, and why so many of us are here. We are not just earning degrees; we are breaking cycles, opening doors and making space for voices that have long been unheard.”
Julia Mattis, MSW ’25
“At this moment of transition, I recall a lesson from my adaptive leadership class: “People’s resistance to change stems from a fear of loss.” This insight sparked a realization: if change equals loss, couldn’t loss equal change? Consider that. What if the losses we experience—whether missed opportunities or even your time in this program concluding—aren't endings, just doorways to transformation? Throughout history, progress has rarely emerged from comfort zones. Change demands confronting difficult realities and acknowledging what we must leave behind. The adaptive leadership framework teaches us that today’s challenges require more than established protocols—they demand fundamental shifts in mindsets, values and behaviors.
Mia Wei, MSW ’25
“I am here not just as an MSW graduate, but as someone shaped by the children, families and individuals I had the privilege to work with. I think about a three-year-old girl I supported in the classroom, struggling with big emotions but full of creativity and potential. I think about a mother navigating parenthood in a new country, bridging cultural values while seeking support. And I think about the resilience of a trauma survivor, tirelessly advocating for stability and safety for her children. These moments remind me that social work is not about fixing or rescuing—it’s about walking alongside people, amplifying their voices and believing in their capacity to heal and thrive.”
Social work teaches us that change begins in the everyday: in how we show up, in how we listen and in how we insist on dignity, especially when it is denied. We are not just researchers or clinicians ... We are guardians of dignity in a world that often forgets it.
NYU Silver Embraces the Core Values of the Social Work Profession
These core values, enumerated in the National Association of Social Workers Code of Ethics and embraced by social workers throughout the profession’s history, are the foundation of social work’s unique purpose and perspective:
• Service
• Social justice
• Dignity and worth of the person
• Importance of human relationships
• Integrity
• Competence
This constellation of core values reflects what is unique to the social work profession.
To my colleagues in my cohort, we earned this moment. We are doctors now, and with this privilege also comes a collective responsibility. As we take on cultures of inequity and injustice, may we endure with humility, empathy and audacity.