UNC Charlotte has always been in my backyard. I grew up in Charlotte and started my professional career as an educator in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg School System. Once I started to seriously consider graduate school, as a non-traditional student, it was important for me to find a program that would accompany my career as a teacher. UNC Charlotte had the perfect solution with their 3-Year Program MSW track. As a member of this cohort, I knew I could balance both roles as a professional and student to accomplish my goals.
I am grateful that UNC Charlotte’s curriculum placed such a strong emphasis on ethics. From the very first class, we were introduced to ethical dilemmas and provided a framework to navigate them. It was helpful to understand ethical dilemmas from the perspective of WHEN they happen, and not IF. Everyone will encounter them in their career and UNC Charlotte provided support along the way.
Every staff member in the School of Social Work positively impacted my experience at Charlotte. There are a few that I’d like to highlight:
Roger Suclupe – He was the first person that contacted me after I was accepted into Charlotte. He set the tone for what the program was going to be like. He brought an excitement and enthusiasm for social work that would inspire the room. He was the face of our MSW program for the first year and we greatly missed him when he stepped down to the BSW program.
Dr. Travis Hales – Most folks in our cohort were aspiring therapists wanting to work on the micro level. Dr. Hales had his work cut out for him and eventually showed us all the importance of macro social work and research. I was lucky enough to be his intern for my final year and I found myself applying for research positions.
Kris Taylor – Kris taught us for an entire year in back-to-back semester. She used to say that she was going to teach us what was wrong with everything and next semester she would teach us how to fix it. That specific course design was incredibly impactful and showed us we can show up as social worker and get the job done.
Jacqueline Garcia – Her family therapy class continues to stick out as one of the most helpful clinical courses that I took. Even though I don’t work with families, I find myself using what I learned about family therapy to help clients understand what family therapy should look like and how to find resources once they discharge HopeWay. She also was our practicum teacher for our final year and did a great job bridging the gap between school and stepping out into the real world.
Not necessarily a favorite by any means, but certainly an important one. We were a hybrid cohort, which meant we only met in person once a month at the Uptown Campus. This was helpful because we got to meet each other in person, and it strengthened our bond when we were interacting virtually. In March 2020, we randomly had a class on the main campus, which never happened, and it was right when COVID was starting to pop up everywhere. We all knew things were about to change, but not 100% sure how things would look for the next 2 years of our program. Our cohort eventually was changed from being a hybrid program to a distance learning program. We were not scheduled to meet in person for class anymore. Having that first year of in-person classes built a community that I was able to lean on during the isolating times of COVID. We now met on Zoom, but I knew these people and had created a bond that I don’t think would have happened if we started out 100% virtual. Even though it was school, and I had weekly assignments to worry about, I really enjoyed being in grad school during COVID because it was a community that I felt a part of. I didn’t feel as isolated because I was working on the same goal as 20 others, and we met every other week to talk about it. Again, not really a happy memory, but a powerful and important one.
Explore the stories of our Graduate Niners and Faculty who are making a meaningful impact at Charlotte.
