School of Social Work teaching service, from Waco to Moldova

Baylor’s School of Social Work is perhaps the University’s fastest growing program; 86 students graduated from the program last month, double the previous year’s class. To put that in perspective, the three-year-old program graduated more students than Truett Seminary, Baylor Law School and the Louise Herrington School of Nursing.

Baylor social work students from Waco to Washington, D.C., worked with churches and charities this past year that received large grants from the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship. Locally, graduate student Kelly Baker (pictured) worked with University Baptist Church to plan out a mentoring program between neighborhood children and college students, after-school tutoring, parenting classes, and English as a Second Language classes. The grant will enable the congregation to launch these new ministries.

In Washington, another graduate intern, Lance Summey, worked at Bread for the World to begin an initiative that involved identifying and cultivating “leadership churches” that will embrace anti-hunger and anti-poverty advocacy. According to Diana Garland, dean of the School of Social Work, “The grant will be the springboard for this initiative, and Bread for the World has hired Lance to go to Washington, D.C., and serve as their Director of Development and Membership.”

Meanwhile, the School also has partnered with the College of Theology and Education (CTE) in Kishinev, Moldova. Tracey Kelley, an adjunct professor at Baylor, taught two courses last month at CTE to students from all over Moldova.

What an impact from such a young program!

Sic ’em, School of Social Work!