Student Groups
Student Councils
The USGA provides a forum for student participation in the educational program and offers a channel of communication between students, faculty, and administration. The USGA sponsors social activities, social work forums, and special events for undergraduates.
The Graduate Student Association (GSA) is an elected student organization that acts as a liaison between the students and the administration and faculty of the Silver School of Social Work. The GSA invites graduate students to bring feedback about the program, suggest events and come to them for direction and assistance. The GSA also plans several events for the student body throughout the academic year, such as student-to-student forums, informal networking events, mentoring programs, coffee workshops, end-of-semester celebrations, career panels, and a graduation party.
The PhD Student Association (PhDSA) of the New York University (NYU) Silver School of Social Work (SSSW) is hereby constituted to represent its membership at New York University and in the greater community and to increase the role and impact of its members. The PhDSA is also constituted to create and implement services and activities, which its membership shall consider essential to fulfilling the experience of attending the PhD doctoral program at the Silver School of Social Work at New York University.
Identity-Based Student Groups
The Black Women's Social Work Coalition seeks to cultivate a space for holistic support within NYU Silver to establish and implement a lively network in the academic program to share information and resources to further our development within the Social Work profession. The coalition strives for sustainability and continuity as members transition from the academic program to other impactful spaces in academia, the community, the workforce and the profession as a whole.
The Chinese Student Support group is an organization created to help international Chinese students with the transition to NYU and the U.S through community and multicultural exploration. The CSSG holds weekly or bi-weekly support group meet ups for its members and they invite you to inquire for more information.
We First Gen Students of Color are here to raise visibility to the first generation experience of BIPOC folks in higher academia. We intend to expand accessibility and resources to first gen students of color to and within NYU Silver through student life engagement, networking opportunities with alums, as well as through campus community building. We want to offer a brave space for first generation students of color to connect and share their narratives throughout their years at NYU and we hope to be a new community of support to the current and for the future first generation students to come.
I Recognize You (IRY) is a student group geared towards providing peer support to all womxn identifying people of color. IRY is a student group that seeks to bring all womxn identifying people of color together to share their individual experiences both inside and outside of the classroom around topics such as identity, socioeconomic status, leadership, discrimination, and many others. IRY will run as both a support group where members can seek advice and assistance from one another, and also a self-care group where members can practice mindfulness and wellness techniques. IRY believes in and upholds the core values of integrity, respect, competence and social justice. IRY is a space that promotes inclusivity and bears no judgment. Members are encouraged to come as they are, as they will be able to seek sisterhood within the other members. IRY is committed to the professional development of its future social workers through the practice of self-preservation and community.
The Latinx Social Work Student Organization provides support and guidance to Latinx students attending NYU Silver School of Social Work. The Latinx Social Work Student Organization helps students deepen their understanding of health and social welfare issues facing the Latinx community within NYC, the broader United States and globally. Our focus is to provide students and the NYU Silver School of Social Work community with greater opportunities to increase cultural competence and effectiveness in providing services to this diverse and multifaceted community.
The Silver Silvers provides a space of connection and support to students who are 40+. In addition we work with the school to create programming geared towards issues of interest to older students. We welcome people of all backgrounds, races, gender expression and abilities in our effort to create a vibrant and diverse age-affirming community.
The Students of Color Collective (SOCC) works to provide a safe space for self-identified students of color at the Silver School to come together for peer support. SOCC also works with the larger School to create programming and educational opportunities related to racial diversity issues.
W.A.G. (White Accountability Group) is a space for white-identifying students at the Silver School of Social Work to dismantle patterns of racism and injustice within themselves, with the intention of transforming their broader school, work, and personal communities. Using Layla Saad’s Me and White Supremacy book and journal as a guide, students identify, examine, and challenge the ways in which they both experience privilege from and perpetuate white supremacy. Members of this group strive to create a space that fosters openness and accountability, and commit to taking an active role in unlearning, resisting, and challenging white supremacy. This is an open group and people are welcome to join at any time.
Special Interest and Service Groups
Our mission is to advocate for the relationship between humans and animals to enhance mental and physical health and healing.
The mission of NYU Silver's CannaHealth organization is to provide NYU students with the tools and resources needed to positively impact the nascent cannabis industry from a social work perspective. NYU Silver’s CannaHealth group will explore the intersection of cannabis on mental health, social policy, and social justice. Utilizing a biopsychosocial approach, NYU CannaHealth will increase educational opportunities to improve clinical practice and policies in the cannabis space while serving as a unifying body for other healthcare professions' students at NYU to join. Leveraging an extensive network of NYU students and partner organizations, we will develop NYU into a global thought leader in the space, exercising its capabilities to facilitate safety, transparency, and comprehensive quality care.
"Macro practice" is a part of the social work field which emphasizes the "big picture" responses to social justice problems. Where "micro" or "clinical social work" is focused on individuals and their relationships, "macro social work" focuses on organizational-level, community-level, and policy-level interventions, important but often over looked aspects of social work practice and education. The mission of the Macro Social Work Student Network is to develop a geographically diverse network of and for macro-practice social work graduate students in order to: 1. Share and augment macro practice knowledge that is lacking at NYU Silver; 2. Maintain self-awareness of macro practice as a minority method in the social work field; 3. Share our work and raise awareness of macro-social work with the rest of the NYU Silver and social work community. This will be done through discussions and events geared towards macro social work topics, careers, and opportunities for engagement.
silver.mswsn@nyu.edu
The Abolitionist Social Work Club seeks to provide a space for social work students to learn how to apply the principles of abolition to social work practice; both in our field placements and as we continue into our social work careers after graduating. We will work through real life scenarios that members bring to meetings and work on continuing our political education and political action within an abolitionist framework. This will be accomplished through community dialogue among members and through guest speakers who have more experience with an abolitionist praxis. This club is for anyone interested in learning more about abolition!
NYU SAPS approaches psychedelic assisted psychotherapy through a social justice lens and seeks to mobilize such therapies as a tool to actively address generational trauma, institutional racism and toxic hierarchical mindsets. We seek to center the needs of the marginalized and dispossessed and reduce the barriers of access to therapy generally and psychedelic assisted psychotherapy specifically.
NYU SAPS also explores ways to respectfully incorporate indigenous and marginalized perspectives on non-ordinary states of mind with discussions of emerging clinical research and practices. We aspire to ground members in the cultural and contextual history of therapeutic psychedelic use in the United States and beyond.
Members of the NYU Student Association for Psychedelic Studies will enter the job market uniquely prepared to participate in cutting edge research, deploy strengths based strategies for harm reduction and offer effective, safe and accessible therapy grounded in the principles which guide the field of social work.
Phi Alpha National Honor Society est. 1964 recognizes students in social work for their achievements in academia. The Pi Pi chapter at NYU est. 2009 invites into membership those students who demonstrate academic excellence, as well as those who are committed to providing community service throughout the year. Eligibility is limited to the top 35% student GPAs for each program, with the remaining criteria listed below:
BS: 9 SW credits and 37.5% completion (49 credits)
MSW: 37.5% completion (25 credits)
** Advanced Standing w/ at least 9 Silver MSW Credits completed (top 35% of these two groups combined)
PhD: 37.5% completion (8 credits)
The Sex Positive Social Work Group was created to give us, as Silver students, tools to affirm sex and sexuality in a positive therapeutic environment through active discussion of such topics as sexual desire, consent, health, monogamy/non-monogamy, kink/BDSM, and trauma. All learning will be done through LGBTQIA+ inclusive, anti-racist, and strengths-based lenses.
The Silver Psychoanalysis Forum provides a space for the Silver community to explore the application of psychoanalytic tools and theory to the practice of clinical social work. This community also offers an opportunity to network and exchange ideas on the topic of psychoanalysis as a practice and as a potential career path.
The content of the forum and readings will focus on contemporary trends in the discipline, as well the history of psychoanalytic thought. We take special interest in psychoanalytic perspectives as they relate to current social justice frameworks.
silver.psychoanalysisforum@nyu.edu
Inactive Student Groups
Below is a list of student groups that do not have current leadership. If you are interested in pursuing activities through one of the below organizations, please email silver.inclusivestudentlife@nyu.edu for more information.
This group provides a safe space for Asian Pacific Islander/American (API/A) graduate students to explore identity as developing API/A social workers and to seek support with other API/A Silver School students. Members will engage in activities that enhance their practice as social workers, network with other professionals in the field, and advocate for equitable change in underrepresented communities.
We invite you to join us in exploring Indian heritage and help us create a safe community space to bond, share and advocate for equitable and inclusive mental health practices. Our vision is to have two intersecting committees which help Indian Diaspora students and other students to network, grow and learn from each other. Members of our Indian Diaspora committee will find a safe space to share their hopes and concerns, and connect with each other. The India Special Interest Group (SIG) welcomes a larger community of students who hold a common interest in mental health and Indian culture. Collectively, our hope is to create a collaborative space where we can support each other in our academic and career goals, while we celebrate our culture.
The mission statement is to provide support to newly arrived immigrant families whose children are in Special needs school. The organization will support the families by providing support serving as an interpreter during IEP meetings, evaluations and helping them find resources for their children. Each club member will conduct these meetings or evaluations during one of the week days. The club will also have workshops for the families in person twice a month (on a weekend) where the workshops will be facilitated by a Professional in the field who will counsel them if needed and provide a safe place to express their concerns. The guiding principles of the organization is to make sure that the children information are kept confidential and made sure that the families are being helped according to their needs.
Hidden Voices Coalition is a student group geared towards creating a validating space (many are denied), where people can discuss their mental illness and/or any form of discrimination caused by their other identities. Also, students will have opportunities to advocate against discrimination towards all their “marginalized” identities in Silver. Examples of advocacy opportunities are students collaborating with the administration on the Bias response protocol, and collaborating with a research group. The partnership with the research group focuses on historically marginalized groups changing the narrative within research, by using new measurements centered on historical marginalized experience, not the white gaze.
The Radical Social Work Collective seeks to create a space where students can educate themselves in social work practice that is anti-oppressive, meaning anti-capitalist, anti-imperialist, and anti-racist. We want to critically engage with the field of social work, addressing the field’s role in perpetuating oppression through the historical and ongoing harm it has done to communities of color and indigenous communities. We are against all forms of oppression (homophobia, ableism, sexism, transphobia, xenophobia, etc,) and advocate self-determination for oppressed peoples across the globe. We commit ourselves to practices that are community-centered and the least harmful to marginalized people and their communities.
We will encourage discussions related to the radical leftist tradition in social work on the micro, mezzo, and macro levels and explore how to incorporate anti-oppressive values in our future practices. We want to create a space to study decolonial theory and imagine alternative futures of care rooted in transformative justice and mutual aid. We believe there are many ways to explore these topics, including reading decolonial, anti-racist literature, attending or hosting panels and speakers, and potentially engaging in direct action as a collective. We want the RSWC to be rooted in accountability to each other, the communities we work with, and to ourselves.
As Angela Davis said, “Radical simply means grasping things at the root.” We define radical as going further than addressing the symptoms of the violent systems we inhabit and actually addressing why issues like racism and poverty persist. This means learning about social divisions as being intentional creations with material motivations, that will only cease to exist once we abolish class society.
The guiding beliefs of the RSWC are decolonization, anti-racism, and anti-capitalism. We commit ourselves to enact these beliefs in not just rhetoric, but in practice. Thus, participants will be asked to consider their positionality within the white supremacist, settler-colonial United States, the RSWC, and social work as a whole. People that are afforded more privileges due to their identities (white students, cisgender students, able-bodied students, men, and economically-privileged students) will center the voices of others. This will be a collaborative space of non-judgemental learning, but white students and students of privileged identities will not rely on their marginalized peers as unpaid and unreciprocated sources of labor and knowledge because privilege affords the ability to educate oneself about oppression.
This club will be as accessible as possible for students with disabilities, jobs, and/or children. Meeting times will be made as accessible as possible, taking into consideration members' varying schedules. Members' children will be welcome to our club meetings. If we are watching a video, it will be captioned. Any printed material will available in accessible forms (such as large print, for example) and will be provided to people for free. Readings will be suggested and not mandatory in consideration of people's schedules and capacities. To the best of our ability, we will work to ensure that our meeting spaces will also be accessible to people who may use mobility aids. Additionally, we want to be able to provide food for members as our meeting times may happen during lunch or dinner hours.
Lastly, we want this club to be non-hierarchical, meaning that no student's voice will be counted over another's. Instead, knowledge will be shared horizontally and reciprocally. We hope that with time, the facilitation of meetings will rotate to ensure no one person becomes the leader of the group. Any roles or responsibilities will be rotated based on people's capacity and interests. We recognize that all people are experts in their own life experiences.
silver.rswc@nyu.edu
The Silver Jewish Community (SJC) seeks to bring together Jewish Silver School of Social Work students and the larger New York City Jewish community in order to provide a space for discussion, connection, and outreach. The SJC is dedicated to combatting social injustice and inequality through the principal of 'tikkun olam' and will use its platform and influence to be a force of good, positivity, and influential change within NYC and the surrounding areas. The SJC understands Judaism and Jewish Identity are deeply personal and on a spectrum and thus respects all facets of Jewish Identity and practice.
The Silver Mindfulness Collective is a group and support system for those in the MSW program that wish to learn more about what mindfulness is and how to implement mindful and holistic techniques into both their practice and everyday lives.
We know through research that practicing mindfulness brings about an improved sense of self-awareness, decreases stresses levels, exercises empathy, helps concentration, improves emotional intelligence and overall and mental clarity.
Our goal is to provide future social workers the skills, self-confidence and tools to acquire further knowledge of these benefits through meetings, workshops, yoga practices, speakers, service and other learning opportunities. We hope that by discovering the benefits of mindfulness that it will enrich the lives of future social workers.
silver.mindfulnesscollective@nyu.edu
Silver Peer Support seeks to provide a safe space for graduate level students to come together to discuss relevant and pertinent issues experienced throughout the graduate years. The organization will hold weekly meetings to facilitate discussion on the field placement experience, social justice issues, current events, and other experiences that impact the student experience as a Master of Social Work candidate at New York University. Silver Peer Support aims to provide extra support at a very critical time in the emerging social worker’s career.
silver.peersupport@nyu.edu
The Social Work Arts Network (SWAN) is catered to students who are interested in integrating the arts into their social work practice (including--but certainly not limited to--visual arts, theatre, music, dance, and creative writing). SWAN believes that creative expression can be deeply healing and empowering for individuals and communities, which perfectly aligns with social work tenets and values. As such, we hope to 1) educate the broader Silver community about arts-based practice, and 2) create opportunities for students to build skills, knowledge, and connections that will enable them to pursue arts-based practice effectively and responsibly. Specific goals include: providing opportunities for students to network with, and learn from, those who are actively integrating the arts into their social work, therapeutic, and/or community-building practice; fostering spaces wherein Silver students with similar interests can connect and help one another develop knowledge and skills in this realm of practice; connecting individuals (in NYU’s network and beyond) across professional and recreational disciplines to foster collaborative relationships; and providing opportunities for members to explore how this work is already being done out in the world!
Social Workers Approaching God (SWAG) is a socially minded group of students interested in the role of faith-based social work practice. SWAG is committed to the development of well-informed social work practices that are also related to faith and/or religious needs and services, which includes vulnerable and underrepresented population and the broader community. The mission will be fulfilled through information sessions, regular 'bible study'-like meetings, peer to peer talks, and community outreach. SWAG is also affiliated with the greater graduate fellowship of NYU, Graduate Christian Fellowship (GCF).
Trans+Queer=Collective is a group for LGBTQ+ students at NYU’s Silver School of Social Work. T+Q=C works toward providing a supportive environment for LGBTQ+ to build community at the Silver School of Social Work regardless of race, ethnicity, or political viewpoint. T+Q=C is committed to providing emotional and educational support around social issues to both the Silver community and the NYU community at large.