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Spotlight: Social work students
Congratulations to our 2022 student bursary recipients!
These student members each received $500 to help them achieve their academic and professional goals while completing accredited social work programs at Canadian universities. For those who are continuing their studies, we wish them well in their academic pursuits. And for those who received the award in the last year of their program and have just graduated, we are delighted to welcome them as they take the next steps in their professional journeys.
MICHAELA SINGER | DALHOUSIE UNIVERSITY
In 2019 I had the incredible opportunity to travel to Greece to work in a dental clinic in Ritsona refugee camp. While in Greece, I realized my love for providing support, resources and advocacy for people. Since then, I have been inspired to pursue an education and a career in social work.
Since starting my journey at Dalhousie’s School of Social Work, I have learned so much about what it means to practice social work. I hope to take everything I have learned and apply it to my practice. I plan to someday gain my MSW and work within the healthcare system, where I can combine my knowledge from my social work education and my previous medical sciences degree. I am honoured to be accepted for this award and look forward to what my future career and academic endeavours have in store for me.
DANI SHERWOOD | DALHOUSIE UNIVERSITY
I am currently living in Kjipuktuk, where I am enrolled in the two-year Master of Social Work program at the Dalhousie University School of Social Work. I have completed all of my coursework and practicums, and am now focused on my thesis project entitled Social Work for Land Back: Environmental Social Work, Decolonization, Reconciliation, and Indigenous SelfDetermination. I have experience and interest in social work areas such as addictions, mental health, gender, sexuality, climate action, education, decolonization, settler responsibility, and spirituality, among others. I am curious to see where my career takes me next and I am very appreciative of support from the NSCSW. I feel empowered to further deepen my commitment to this journey as a social service provider/advocate/change maker/lifelong learner!
LAURA COUTURIER | DALHOUSIE UNIVERSITY
My earliest memories consist of me asking my parents why? “Why are there people living on the street?” or “why are people on TV angry because same-sex couples love each other?” More than 20 years later, I am not satisfied with the answers that I have been given or the systems that have upheld marginalization in society. My questions have now shifted to how? “How do we progress toward social justice?” and “how do I help?” These are questions that led me to social work, and that I ask myself daily in practice.
I graduated from Saint Mary’s University with my BA (hons.) in 2016 and, since graduating with my BSW from Dalhousie University in 2019, I have worked various roles within the Department of Community Services. In September 2022 I started working towards my MSW. My areas of interest include: reproductive mental health, addiction, epistemic injustice, family violence, LGBTQIA* issues, medical trauma, and moral injury amongst social workers. I am keen to see where my social work career takes me in the future and what answers I might find along the way!
SHAUNDA-LYNN JESSO | DALHOUSIE UNIVERSITY
My passion to pursue a social work career began after graduating from my BSc (Psychology) in 2014 from Mount Saint Vincent University. From here, I began working for the Department of Community Services (DCS) in 2015 as a support worker for a small-options home company. I began noticing parallels between my role and the DCS Disability Supports Program (DSP) social work role, which both involve resident-community engagement and promoting resident well-being.
These parallel work-related experiences inspired me to pursue an MSW to expand my scope of practice. While completing my MSW degree, I continued in my support worker role within the same small-options home company because I believe in creating lasting and meaningful professional connections. My prior work experience and my career pathway as an MSW will be beneficial to working within the DSP or within another related field of social work.
STEPHANIE GILL | DALHOUSIE UNIVERSITY
I received this award during my last year of the BSW program at Dalhousie University. I have chosen social work, or perhaps social work has chosen me, because of my lived experiences. I grew up in North-End Dartmouth and was raised by a single mother who received income assistance. Growing up poor, I witnessed my mother carry the weight of poverty and the associated shame and stigma that goes along with it. But I also witnessed my mother’s resilience and her ability to acknowledge the humanity in others, despite the way she had been treated.
My approach to social work is heavily influenced by who my mother was. To me, social work is fundamentally about protecting human rights and advocating for social justice. And I plan to use the skills and knowledge that I gained through the social work program to work at a structural level to address the root causes of social problems.
