University students from across the United States receive scholarships
Washington, D.C. - The National Association of Social Workers Foundation (NASWF) has announced the 2013 Consuelo W. Gosnell Memorial Scholarship recipients. The Gosnell Scholarships are awarded for one academic year to students who have demonstrated a commitment to working with, or a special affinity for American Indian/Alaska Native and Hispanic/Latino populations. These candidates have also demonstrated a commitment to working with public or voluntary non-profit agencies or local grassroots organizations. They are all Master of Social Work candidates.
This year’s awardees:
- Zachary Alti (Fordham University) is the founding Editor-in-Chief of Fordham’s first student-run social work journal, 21st Century Social Justice, and plans to work with African-American and Hispanic trauma victims.
- Alexis Dominique Reyes Ball (Portland State University) has worked with Latino communities in the US, including migrant workers, and has spent time in Mexico learning about the effects of globalization on local populations.
- Cynthia Gutierrez Bernstein (Rutgers University) grew up in Nicaragua and has worked with agencies that assist immigrants in the US, and which provide oncology social work. She intends to return to Nicaragua to work with impoverished children and families there.
- Chenoa Marie Crowshoe-Patterson (University of Denver) is a member of the Blackfeet community (Piikani), and she intends to build a practice based on indigenous culture, values and beliefs to deal with historical trauma in Indigenous communities.
- Catherine Ann Faulkner (University of Chicago) plans to study Social Services Administration and to work with immigrant communities, especially in health care.
- Elisa Meza (University of California, Berkeley) grew up near the US-Mexico border and has helped with grassroots organizing of Latino youth. She has also worked as a school social worker.
- Rebeca Ozuna Barge (The Catholic University of America) has worked with ESL and literacy programs for Latino immigrants and with Spanish-language domestic violence programs.
- Morgan Vera Pardue (University of Maryland) has worked in various countries, most recently in Ecuador doing medical social work in the field of infectious diseases, and intends to work supporting health equality in the US.
- Alina Perez has worked with a variety of communities, including minority children in the welfare and juvenile justice systems, the homeless veterans.
- Nalleli Yadira Sandoval (University of California, Berkeley) has conducted research on issues facing Latinas in Silicon Valley and works to address socio-economic disparities in the Latino community.
The Gosnell Scholarships were (or The Gosnell Scholarship Fund was) established through a bequest of Consuelo Gosnell, a social work practitioner who was born in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico and died in Texas in 1987. Gosnell was a champion of civil and human rights and worked diligently to ameliorate conditions for critically underserved American Indians and Latinos in the Southwest. Gosnell practiced for many years in federal agencies, including the U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, and the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
For more information about the NASW Foundation or educational scholarships, please visit www.naswfoundation.org or e-mail naswfoundation@naswdc.org.
# # #
The National Association of Social Workers Foundation (NASWF) is a charitable organization created to enhance the well-being of individuals, families, and communities through the advancement of social work practice.
The National Association of Social Workers (NASW), in Washington, DC, is the largest membership organization of professional social workers with nearly 140,000 members. It promotes, develops, and protects the practice of social work and social workers. NASW also seeks to enhance the well-being of individuals, families, and communities through its advocacy.