STUDENT EXCELLENCE
Award wizardry
B.S.W. senior Austin Ezzard followed an award-winning junior year by being named one of two student winners of the Tristen Sloane Presidential Award for Community Multicultural Enrichment. The award is part of VCU’s Presidential Awards for Community Multicultural Enrichment (PACME).
“The work that I have been able to do is because people listen, and they have care and compassion for the student voice,” says Ezzard, who graduated in May. During his career, he worked in the Office of the President, served as the president of Pi Lambda Phi’s VA Omega Rho Chapter at VCU and was a VCU representative to the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia.
‘Fighting to end homelessness’
Jae Lange walking through Monroe Park
Jae Lange says they were a social worker long before a job or degree could make it official. “I was born one, and I will die one,” says Jae, a B.S.W. student and direct service specialist for a grant-funded project administered by the school.
Their work with Marsha and Marian’s Neighbors was recognized by the Virginia Housing Alliance, which in 2024 named Jae an Emerging Leader. The youth shared-housing program in Richmond is for young adults ages 18-24 who are pregnant, parenting and/or identify as LGBTQ+ and are experiencing homelessness. “I am so proud to be fighting alongside my team and my community, fighting to end homelessness,” says Jae, who experienced homelessness and unstable housing from ages 19 to 22.
Now presenting
Seven social work students presented at VCU’s spring Graduate Research Symposium and Poster Symposium for Undergraduate Research:
- Ph.D. student Kade Goldin, M.S.W., M.Ed., presented on Exploring Factors of Social Well-Being for Non-Binary People.
- Ph.D. student Rose E. Miola, M.S.W., M.T.S., LCSW, presented on Exploring the Role of Critical Consciousness on Complex Trauma among Adopted Adults.
- Ph.D. student Samuel Ochinang, M.S.W., LCSW presented on Predictors of Suicidality in First-Year College Students: Examining a Five-Factor Impulsivity Model within an Ideation-to-Action Framework.
- M.S.W. students Lindsay Cunningham and Lilly Hettrick presented on Assessing the Impact of Race, Ethnicity and English-Speaking Status on Traffic Stop Outcomes in Virginia.
- B.S.W. student Paloma Rodriguez Saucedo presented on Does Ethnic Racial Discrimination and Alcohol Use Predict Anxiety Symptoms in Females.
- B.S.W student Doryan Slack, presented on Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act: A Black Mother’s Nightmare.
“My next step is wanting to get my (M.S.W.) … and eventually a Ph.D. I definitely want to pursue research in the future,” Rodriguez Saucedo says.
How they found their research
VCU News featured Rodriguez Saucedo and Ph.D. student Victoria Cashio speaking about their research interests.
Rodriguez Saucedo’s work focuses on understanding cultural processes and experiences and impacts on psychological, educational and health outcomes/disparities. “My research over the summer ... let me expand into a demographic I would like to focus on: Latine and Black young adults and the factors that affect their mental health," she says.
Cashio, a commissioned behavioral health science officer in the U.S. Army, focuses on promoting equality and well-being for people who identify within the gender-diverse community. “The socialization of the gender binary has negative impacts on all of us, but within the transgender-gender-diverse community, these social norms perpetuate stigma, discrimination and resultant health disparities,” she says.
Multicultural + social work vibes
VCU M.S.W. graduates – and one prominent alum – were seemingly everywhere in May at the VCU Office of Multicultural Student Affairs’ six Cultural Achievement Ceremonies for graduates:
- Aimee Layo (speaker), Amala Thomas (closing speaker) and Reebha Aggarwal (reader) participated in the Asian Pacific Islander South Asian American Graduation Ceremony
- Ramiel Martinez was the student speaker at the Lavender Graduation Ceremony.
- Alum and author Ronnie Sidney II (M.S.’14) was the keynote speaker at the Accessibility Achievement Ceremony.
- Beck Oh of the OMSA staff planned the Lavender ceremony and the Native, Tribal and Indigenous Ceremony.
Class of 2024 profiles
VCU School of Social Work’s Class of 2024 featured a diverse mix of graduates and areas of interest. VCU News featured two: Angela-Marie Rone and Angela Matijczak.
Rone earned her. M.S.W. after receiving her B.S.W. in 2023, and planned to begin a full-time position at the Henrico County Department of Social Services, where she interned as part of her field placement. “I am really just passionate about supporting and encouraging personal growth and fostering youth development. That’s the reason why I really came into social work. When it comes to that intersection between the juvenile justice system and the child welfare system, those are the two systems that I just really have that heart for.”
Matijczak earned her Ph.D in social work. LGBTQIA+ youth and their relationships with pets and family have been the main components of her research in recent years.
“I think that generally most people would agree the relationship you have with family members are the most important relationships you have. Your pets are part of your daily routine. Both of those are bound to have an effect on mental health in the LGBTQ+ population,” she says. “It’s important to be promoting mental health in this population. We want to help them be their most happy, joyful self.”
Ph.D. distinctions & destinations
Aaron Kemmerer
Sunny Kim
Angela Matijczak
Hilary Stim
Britney Pitts
Mauricio Yabar
Katie Kim
Samuel Ochinang
Graduates
Aaron Kemmerer was one of two students nationally to receive the LGBTQ Caucus of Faculty & Students in Social Work 2024 SSWR Scholarship. Previously honored by the Grand Challenges for Social Work for his doctoral dissertation, Kemmerer graduated in May 2024 and is an assistant professor of social work at the University of North Carolina at Pembroke.
Sunny Kim received the Korean American Social Work Educators Association’s Outstanding Dissertation Proposal Award for contributions to aging research, policy and practice. The May 2024 graduate is now a postdoctoral research fellow, Drexel University Urban Health Collaborative.
Angela Matijczak, a May 2024 graduate, is now an assistant professor in the Helen Bader School of Social Welfare at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
Hilary Stim, a May 2024 graduate, is now an assistant professor of social work at Nazareth University.
Britney Pitts, a December 2023 graduate, is now an assistant teaching professor at Syracuse University.
Mauricio Yabar, a May 2024 graduate, is now an assistant professor of social work at Slippery Rock University.
Current students
As a second-year Ph.D. student, Katie Kim was named a doctoral fellow in the Council on Social Work Education’s Minority Fellowship Program. Her research focuses on the impacts of adverse childhood experiences. “Honestly, when I heard the news, it took my breath away for a moment,” she says. “I felt a strong, quiet thankfulness wash over me.”
As a first-year Ph.D. student, Samuel Ochinang was recognized at the annual U.S. Army Medical Center of Excellence Graduate School Research and Education Symposium, where his presentation on impulsivity and suicide among first-year college students won the Best Research Abstract award. He also serves as an active duty Army major in the Medical Service Corps. “I see my research as a tribute or an ode to the individual struggling with suicide.”