Ms. Silvia Barragan and Ms. Kellie Scott Given Instructionally Related Activities Proposal Awards

Please join the School of Social Work in congratulating Ms. Silvia Barragan and Ms. Kellie Scott, on their Instructionally Related Activities (IRA) Proposal Awards for AY 2022-2023! Please see below the descriptions of their IRA proposals awarded. Many thanks to them for enriching our students’ learning experiences! Looking forward to hearing the updates on these projects as the semester progresses!! Thank you again!

Ms. Barragan, Silvia
Title: Who I Am Impacts How I Help Others
Description: The Who I Am Impacts How I Help Others project provides our SDSU Social work graduate students with an opportunity to explore their cultural identities and how they inform their social work practice. The interns work with Kayla Mulholland, MSW Filmmaker and Visual Anthropologist, to learn how to utilize different forms of art and media to engage each other both individually and in their community. The students will learn how to use film and ethnographic inquiry in their social work practice. This class is divided into a five-part series, in which students begin working on developing their ideas through photographic auto ethnographies and continue the development through storyboarding, audio recording and then filming and editing their own short films. The students use self-reflection in their writing, development and film productions to explore their cultural identities and to teach their peers about their diverse life experiences and backgrounds. For the short film projects, the students will be tasked with exploring how themselves or a loved one overcame struggles due to their cultural identities, as it relates to their intersectionality and the larger social-political context. The completed projects are shared by the students with their class and community.

Documentary filmmaking is an amazing tool to identify social justice problems and advocate for social justice reform and change. Social workers specialize in creating social change through micro and macro actions, as highlighted by the social work code of ethics. Therefore, merging these two worlds gives the social work community more power and ability to create social change and impact on a large scale.

Ms. Scott, Kellie
Title: Test Performance Workshop and Anxiety Support Group
Description: This IRA project will help prepare advanced-year MSW students for their upcoming comprehensive exam. MSW students who were identified as needing additional support on the program assessment taken last Spring will be invited to attend an in-person test performance workshop offered for both campuses, where they will be provided with tips on how to study more effectively, best practices for taking multiple-choice exams, and coping strategies for test anxiety. Participating students take a questionnaire to identify possible test anxiety and be referred to SASC as well as attend as well encouraged to participate in a stress and anxiety peer support group led by an LCSW.