Dean's Message
Christian Molidor, MSW, Ph.D., Dean & Professor of Social Work
My Future Colleagues:
Your graduate education in social work is probably one of the most essential undertakings you will ever embark upon. Your experience here will take planning, commitment and hard work in order for you to realize your dreams and achieve your professional goals. Because of the investment of your time and energy, I hope you will take the time to learn why a degree from the Louisiana State University School of Social Work (SSW) is such a worthwhile pursuit. Our primary mission is to prepare you to be an extraordinarily competent and ethical social worker who has the ability to respond to the needs of the community in terms of clinical practice, policy formulation, community work and the ability to advocate for the socially vulnerable citizens, especially families and children.
Perhaps you already have a good idea what you would like to accomplish in the future -- whether it's working with high-risk youth, helping senior citizens battle depression, saving children and families struggling with poverty or violence, or becoming an effective advocate for communities. Or maybe, like many of our entering students, the only thing you're sure of is that you want to make a positive difference in the world, but you haven't yet decided how you will do that.
In either case, SSW offers you options that you will not find anywhere else. Social work is one of the most versatile graduate degrees you can earn, preparing you to work effectively in a wide variety of both clinical and community practice settings. You will develop a solid foundation of professional skills you can use in an almost unlimited number of ways.
One of our 1998 graduates currently serves as Secretary of the Department of Social Services for the State of Louisiana. In this position, she was an instrumental member of the disaster-response team for the State of Louisiana in the wake of one of the nation’s greatest natural disasters Hurricane Katrina. Prior to this most prestigious appointment, she provided counseling and education to chronically mentally residents residing in a transitional home, led a suicide survivors support group and a children’s bereavement group for a twenty-four hour crisis intervention center. The kind of flexibility that social work provides creates an almost unlimited number of rewarding career paths for our graduates, and also offers them a measure of economic security in today's volatile job market. In fact, the U.S. Department of Labor predicts that social work employment in all areas will “grow faster than average” over the next several years.
Of course, the real value of a degree from SSW goes well beyond these practical considerations. As a social worker myself, I can tell you that this profession brings a profound sense of personal satisfaction and almost daily reminders of the positive difference each of us can make in the world. Those are the rewards that make your hard work and investment truly worthwhile.
Welcome, from our students, faculty and staff, to the LSU School of Social Work.
