The UAB Department of Social Work celebrated Social Work Month with students and their families, community partners, and faculty members on March 27, 2019, at the Hill Student Center Ballroom.

Wes Akins, Coordinator of Mental Health/Counseling at UAB 1917 Clinic, was the keynote speaker. We recognized the Social Work Outstanding student, Eggleston Scholarship awardee, SSWO officers, students who went to Kenya, graduating BSW and MSW students, adjunct faculty members, field supervisors, service learning community partners, and students who went to D.C. Fly-in, Alabama Conference of Social Work, and Alabama Arise Legislative Day. Twenty-six students were inducted into Phi Alpha Honors Society.

Pictures of our awardees can be seen below, and more of them can be found on the College of Arts and Sciences Facebook page.

Sid Chandra, a senior majoring in the Undergraduate Neuroscience Program, writes about his experiences in the program and at UAB.

When I was a freshman in high school, my grandfather was diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia, an untreatable neurodegenerative condition. Over the years, I watched my grandfather lose the ability to recognize and communicate with the people closest to him. It was frustrating to watch him suffer and not be able to do anything to help him. I began to read about his condition and similar neurodegenerative disorders, such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease. To understand disease research articles, I needed to understand the basic biology of the brain, so I read Neuroscience for Dummies by Frank Amthor, a UAB neurobiologist. I began to become fascinated by the brain and diseases that cause it to malfunction.

When deciding where to attend college, UAB attracted me because of the strong neuroscience research, the well-established Undergraduate Neuroscience Program (UNP), and the resources available to students from the UAB Honors College. Soon after joining UAB, I began to seek out research mentors. With help from Dr. Cristin Gavin, co-director of the UNP, and Dr. Diane Tucker, director of the Science and Technology Honors Program, I was able to join the lab of Dr. Andy West, an expert in Parkinson’s disease. In the West lab, I focused on studying the role of a protein kinase called LRRK2 in rodent models of Parkinson’s disease and strategies to target LRRK2 for therapeutic benefit. After three years of working with Dr. West, he moved to continue his career at Duke University, and I joined Dr. Talene Yacoubian’s lab. In Yacoubian lab, I have focused on understanding how modulation of the 14-3-3 protein influences neuropathology in rodent models of Parkinson’s disease. I have been fortunate to publish my results in peer reviewed journals, communicate my science across the country at several regional and national conferences, and win competitive fellowships to support my research during the summers. My experiences in the West and Yacoubian labs have solidified my interest in basic and translational research and affirmed that I want these practices to be a significant part of my career.

Outside of the lab, I have been heavily involved with UAB Student Multicultural and Diversity Programs as a Free Food for Thought facilitator, board member of the Social Justice Advocacy Council, and a SMDP retreat leader. Through these endeavors, I have had the opportunity to advocate for marginalized groups and help educate my peers on social issuing plaguing our world. Additionally, I have had the opportunity to work substantially with the UAB Honors College as a communications chair for the Honors College Leadership Council and as an Honors College Ambassador. Through my experiences with SMDP and the Honors College, I have grown as a person and as a leader. I intend for advocacy to be an important part of my career going forward.

All of my experiences and success at UAB could not have been accomplished without the help of several mentors — Drs. West, Gavin, Tucker, and Yacoubian (and many more). UAB is truly a unique university in that students here do not learn only in a classroom, but they are given experiential opportunities to grow professionally and personally. My experiences at UAB have inspired me to become a physician-scientist, so that I may investigate the molecular basis of disease, develop mechanism-based therapies, and treat patients directly in the clinic. By providing research opportunities, coursework, and fantastic mentorship, the UNP has fully prepared me for the challenges that lie ahead. This summer, I will begin an M.D.-Ph.D. program to start my journey of becoming a physician-scientist and join the fight against incurable disease.

This year the Student Social Work Organization sponsored a 10-year-old girl who loves Disney princesses for Christmas through AIDS Alabama. She asked for nail kits, Disney lip gloss kit, Auburn twin bedding, a Visa gift card, and hair products (headbands, bows, and more). SSWO and faculty were able to collect everything she asked for and much more!

The department thank everyone who participated for their support in making this girl's holiday bright and filled with joy and blessing.

The Student Social Work Organization (SSWO) hosted a health and hygiene supplies drive for a non-profit organization run by our own MSW (former BSW) student, Caroline Richey.

SSWO collected bars of soap, toothpastes, toothbrushes, rolled gauze, Neosporin, deodorants, medical tapes, and more for DominicanKids.

One of the Social Work foundation courses, SW 222: Social Work Values, allows students to become familiar with working in the field of social work while being as imaginative as they wish. This freedom opened up many doors for students Haylee Frazer, Khawlah Abdein, Claudia Watring, and Lynn Bass. These students decided to organize a fundraiser for Youth Towers where they were fulfilling their service learning hours. Youth Towers organization connects young homeless persons to the resources they so desperately need. Alice Westery is Youth Towers' executive director.

The fundraiser was put on in the Roots and Revelry parlor. Haylee, Khawlah, Claudia, and Lynn made many phone calls and sent emails to companies asking for sponsorships and donations. They had meetings that lasted hours organizing the event, and spent many hours contacting each other with ideas and updates. As they were doing so, they found each other’s strength: Lynn is more adept in correspondence; Claudia is a professional with proposals and documents; Khawlah contributes engagement and creativity; and Haylee is a strategist in organizing the group relations and the oversight of the event's many parts. These students learned the importance of team work, without which they would not have been nearly as successful.

The event featured a services booth, which donated services to those who purchased raffle tickets. These services were donated by local entrepreneurs who have businesses in photography, massage, ballroom dancing, art, and cooking. On the terrace attendees could find gospel, rap, spoken word, transgender poetry, grilling, and testimonials from clients who struggled with homelessness before they found Youth Towers.

Haylee, Khawlah, Claudia, and Lynn are extremely grateful for this experience and proud of the $2,500+ they raised in the process. These students, as a group, went into this project uncertain but optimistic of the change they could make. They kept working toward their goal, and it was a fun and entertaining event which was put on to relieve homelessness.

The Department of Sociology recognizes the 2018 honors award recipients. They are:

• Outstanding Graduate Recipient: Soumya Niranjan
• Outstanding Online MA Graduate Recipient: Stacey Benson
• The William Cockerham Graduate Paper Award: Fabrice Julien
• Outstanding Undergraduate Recipient: Madison Allen
• The Annie P. and Ferris S. Ritchey, Sr. Endowed Scholarship Honor Recipient (2017-2018): Alex Odom
• 2017-2018 Honor Students: Sharlese Gray and Nadia Hollings

You can see more pictures of these talented students on the department's Facebook page.

Fast-track student Garrett Higginbotham won second place in the Physical and Applied Sciences category at the 2018 UAB Spring EXPO. The EXPO celebrates excellence in research, creative activity and scholarship by showcasing the academic endeavors of undergraduate students. This provides a platform for practicing and strengthening presentation skills, sharing work, engaging with like-minded peers, exchanging research experiences and ideas as well as receiving feedback from both peers and faculty.

Ahmed Ghatasheh, Kevin Campbell, and Simon Harris were chosen as the department's Outstanding Ph.D. Student, Outstanding Master's Student, and Outstanding Undergraduate Student, respectively.

Congratulations to all.