News

Yeongmin Kim has been selected for the 2013 Doctoral Student Research Paper Award.  This award recognizes a student who submits a paper that exemplifies high quality research relevant to social work. Yeongmin won the award for his paper titled: "Child support and subsequent nonmarital fertility with a new partner."

Yeongmin chose social work as his undergraduate major with a vague idea that he would like to know the ways to improve lives of disadvantaged people in a systematic way, and continues to journey towards this goal at UW-Madison. After completing his bachelor's and master's degrees in South Korea, Yeongmin moved to Wisconsin with general research interests in the issue of child care of parental employment. Given the increase of mothers' labor force participation and the significant impacts of early childhood education on children's well-being, Yeongmin believes it is critical to understand the intertwined relationship between child care and parental employment and design social policies that facilitate parental employment as well as child development. Under his general interests in this area, Yeongmin is writing his dissertation, which examines child care by nonresident fathers and the implication for children and mothers' economic well-being.  

Sarah Font is the 2013 recipient of the Irving Piliavin Award.  This award is given to a SSW doctoral student who is...

In Hong Kong, new standards mandating improved psychosocial care service in palliative care were recently approved, but physicians, nurses, and social workers have received little training to address psychosocial needs. 

To help address the skills gap, Dr. Betty Kramer, an internationally-recognized palliative care social worker and researcher at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, was invited to travel to Hong Kong to provide training through the Hong Kong Hospital Authority.

This January, Dr. Kramer made the long trek to China to conduct a two-day workshop for palliative and end-of-life care workers and give a lecture to over 300 health care professionals.   Although some training had previously been provided by palliative care physicians and nurses, Dr. Kramer is the first social work scholar invited to provide a commissioned training to palliative care service providers, and the training is the first to address psychosocial needs in palliative and end-of-life care.

Dr. Kramer remarked that she enjoyed the opportunity...

BSW alumna Monica Paulson, 23, of Green Bay, Wis., has been accepted into the Peace Corps and will depart for Nicaragua March 5 to begin training as a community health volunteer. Paulson will make a difference promoting health outreach activities, train healthcare providers and develop non-formal health education programs.

Paulson said she is anticipating her journey to Latin America will be a life-changing adventure. 

“The opportunity that Peace Corps gives you to live and work in a community, building relationships within that community, is invaluable,” she said.

Paulson is the daughter of Don and Mary Paulson and a 2008 graduate of Notre Dame Academy High School in Green Bay. She earned a bachelor’s degree in social work from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2012. 

“The environment at the University of Wisconsin encourages the idea of service both at a local and global level,”...