December 2005

The first class of Masters of Social Work students graduated this month from the collaborative program launched by UW Oshkosh and UW Green Bay in 2003. Consisting of 16 students from the Oshkosh campus and 14 from Green Bay, the graduating class is expected to help fill a need in northeastern Wisconsin for individuals with advanced degrees in this field.

The students are the first to enroll in the master's degree program approved in 2002 by the Board of Regents. The Board designated the program to be “a highly innovative model for collaboration among UW-campuses” and to meet a regional need for social workers with advanced education. The only other MSW programs offered in the UW System are at Madison and Milwaukee.

Collaborative program director Judy Martin, a professor of Social Work at UW-Green Bay, called the first graduates — all of them women — the “founding mothers” of the new program and declared them “ready to take leadership positions in the field of social work throughout the region.”

“This group of students worked extremely hard to obtain their degrees,” she said. “The faculty has been excited about teaching this group of motivated and committed students.”

Martin noted that many of the students were working full time, doing a required 16-hour-a-week placement in a social work setting, and raising families while doing required course readings and assignments. Several students changed jobs while in the program, some moved, and five of the 30 had new babies. “This very talented group of students 'did it all' and did it well,” she said.

The program is tailored to meet needs of students with professional experience.

According to Martin, students can enter the program through either institution. “However, we have ONE program, and all students have to meet the same requirements and have access to the same benefits,” she explained.

Faculty members at both institutions teach the courses. Some classes are offered on each campus, and others meet at a central location between the two campuses. Students chose one of the two sponsoring campuses to be their “home” campus from which they'll get their degrees.

Congratulations to the graduates and to the Departments of Social Work on both campuses for this wonderful mark of success!

Information on this page was obtained from separate press releases distributed by UW Oshkosh and UW Green Bay

UW Oshkosh Department of Social Work home page

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