MSW graduates first class
by Norm Miller
Louisiana Christian University’s Master of Social Work program prepares students to function competently and effectively in a rapidly changing world through an academically challenging social work education within a Christian environment.
As of May 2019, seven students have completed this degree.
“This is a successful achievement for our students and the program,” said Sherry Duffy, Associate Professor of Social Work and Social Work Program Director. “Launching the program and sending these graduates into the marketplace shows the team effort and hard work by the School of Human Behavior.”
Duffy expressed thanks to LCU’s administration, faculty, as well as the Rapides Foundation, whose financial support helped launch and sustain the program.
“The Rapides Foundation’s decision to partner with Louisiana Christian University in underwriting a significant portion of our Master’s in Social Work degree brought that program to reality and into fruition with seven graduates entering the world to serve others,” said Dr. Rick Brewer. “Our vision for students and the public to benefit from the Foundation’s support and our graduates’ training will favorably impact their careers and the people they serve.”
Duffy said she is “gratified and excited because we are definitely giving back and investing in our community by providing quality, qualified, professional workers for our community and beyond.”
Karlee Beville said the program is “different from the rest in how it prepared us for real life issues and taught us an ethical protocol in handling what life throws at us.”
Beville has friends training for social work at other schools, and she says, “LCU’s program far surpasses the rest. We were taught ethics in a way no other local college can because we are taught through the lens of a Christian worldview.”
“The MSW professors are so helpful and down to earth,” Beville continued. “I was very blessed to have gone straight from the BSW into the MSW degree, and to have Sheri Duffy as a mentor in both my undergraduate and graduate programs. I greatly respect her professional opinion and her ability to answer all of my oddly specific questions.”
Beville said her professors were so willing to “go out of their way to help each of us, and get to know us all as people, as well as future clinicians. They really loved us well.”
“The more I learned about social work, the more I fell in love with every population of individuals I could assist,” Beville said. “From substance abuse to grief counseling, school social work to adoption, I wanted to do it all. I am so thankful that the Lord gave me a passion for something, and great teachers to help guide my passion for others. They gave so much one-on-one attention to really make sure we understood the material and how to apply it to our careers.”
Beville said she pursued social work because she “felt that it was God’s calling on my life. Social work provides a wonderful opportunity to step in and assist individuals in any stage of life and to be the hands and feet of Christ to those in the hardest times of their life.”