Penelope Yates Receives Scholarship from Society for Clinical Social Work

Penelope Yates, MSW ’15, was one of six MSW students from area social work schools who received scholarships of $500 at the October 2 annual awards ceremony held by the New York Society for Clinical Social Work. The scholarship program challenges first-year students to submit papers based on their beginning work with clients in their internships. Yates hadn’t had field work experience yet, so she based her paper on a New Yorker article about a real-life lesbian teen living homeless in New York. Yates said she would like to reach out to the author of that article to learn how the girl’s life turned out — did she make it off the streets and go to school? (Read Penelope’s paper here, and read the article on which it was based here.)

After an introduction by the Society members who had reviewed their papers, the students presented their work. Their topics covered everything from process recordings and supervisory guidance — in the case of a dual-diagnosed formerly homeless man — to independent research and advocacy on behalf of a transgender young woman in a psychiatric hospital, placed on a male ward, where she was victimized.

Professor Susan Egert, representing the Silver School, said: "It was impressive to see that within one year, these students have attained a working knowledge of the field of social work both in thought and practice. Penelope was a standout in her ability to understand and integrate theory into her writing."

Participating social work schools included Columbia, Fordham, Lehman and Hunter (CUNY), NYU Silver, and Wurzweiler (Yeshiva). Each school submitted its top three papers; to compensate for differences in curriculum, the best of these three was chosen.

About the Society: The New York Chapter of the Society holds events for ongoing clinical education and professional networking. A mentoring program for new MSWs offers expert assistance for all aspects of job searching, including settling into a new job. The charge for the mentoring service — and all Chapter events — is $5 per session. For information on membership and upcoming events, go to clinicalsw.org.