Congratulations to Julia Gutman and MaKayla Liebeck — two students in the School of Social Work recognized with the distinguished Ginsberg Family Award from UW-Madison this year. Each year, 25 undergraduate juniors and seniors across campus are recognized for their contributions in the areas of leadership, service, and scholarship. From this year’s announcement:
Julia Gutman is a sophomore majoring in Social Welfare. This academic year, Julia served as both the Food Recovery Network director of operations and the education coordinator with the newly established Social Justice Hub. In her education coordinator role, Julia developed the education program for the hub which included: dialogue-based workshops, 5-minute trainings, a high school leadership/social justice program, and a social justice comic strip. Throughout her involvement, she has also taken an active role in continuing to build her strengths as a social justice educator and completed the inaugural gAlpha Social Impact program and the Social Justice Leadership Retreat. Julia balances all her obligations well, shares her enthusiasm and passion freely, and is a role model within the Social Justice Hub intern team. Through her contributions to her community, she has created a social justice education program that will continue to serve the UW-Madison community far into the future.
For MaKayla Liebeck, community service is not necessarily just the act of doing something without pay, it is an intention that you lead your life by regardless of the pay or lack thereof. A first-generation student, MaKayla came from a small hometown with very little diversity, not truly understanding the extent to which race shaped how people experienced the world. After taking her first ethnic studies course, her curiosity led her to a research assistant positions with the Social Kids Lab and the Prejudice and Intergroup Relations Lab (Drs. Shutts and Devine) to study how racial stereotypes form in children and how racial biases impact everyday life. MaKayla founded Live Free Madison providing services to students going through recovery creating substance-free events and also volunteers with Kids at Heart, creating spaces where the elderly and the youth can unite and interact with one another. She’s currently working as an intern for Dane County Child Protective Services.