Many students come to APSU without really knowing what they want to do in life. For those who want to help others but are not sure how, APSU’s Social Work Club offered Social Work Day on Friday, April 7, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Baptist Collegiate Ministry building on campus. Breakfast and lunch were free for any student who came.
“It’s a variety of different people coming to talk about what they do on a day to day basis as social workers in these different disciplines,” Social Work Club president Marie Cohen said.
Typically the Social Work Club holds a Social Work Day on the Hill once a year in March, where students from different universities would come to give presentations.
Social Work Club Day, where many who have graduated with social work degrees came to talk, was meant to be close to this event, but with spring break and all the events happening in March, they had to move it to April.
“This event is pretty much piggy-backing Social Work Day on the Hill. This is a student and faculty event. We invite everyone on campus to come and find out what social work is about,” Cohen said.
Though many people came to speak for various social work related workplaces and jobs, including people from Crisis 211, the Department of Children Services and Soldiers and Families Embraced, there were longer keynote speaker presentations at the beginning and end of the event.
“We invite different speakers from different disciplines. State Representative Joe Pitts came and spoke. He actually graduated here back in the 80s as a social work major,” Cohen said.
Pitts is a state representative over District 67. An advocate for social work related legislations to be passed, he talked about how it is important to take care of yourself with self-care in social work fields, APSU’s price of education and standardized testing.
The other keynote speakers were from End Slavery Tennessee, an independent organization aimed at opposing human trafficking and exploitation in Tennessee.
“This is the first time we’re having End Slavery Tennessee here, which is great because we need to bring attention to the sex-trafficking which is large here in Tennessee,” Cohen said.
A TBI agent spoke to the group as a whole about what qualified as human trafficking and what did not. He answered any questions the group had, and opened the floor for the End Slavery representative, Angela Adams.
“For Middle Tennessee they are the single point of contact. The TBI gets referrals about human trafficking. Our district does training, aftercare and prevention things. We’re going to have a guy from the actual TBI task force talk about it from his perspective,” Social Work Club member Paige Price said.
After the End Slavery presentation was over, closing remarks were given at 3:50 p.m.
The day was filled with various opportunities for social work students with internships and volunteer work, but it was also a good place for freshmen or upper division students in different majors to gauge whether they would like to work in any of the various fields represented, with experts in the field to give advice to prospective students.
“These events are not just for social work students. It’s open to all faculty all students. We appreciate APSU’s support,” Cohen said.
