After years of working in the trenches to provide services for those in need on her
Southern Ute reservation in southern Colorado, Shelly Thompson (MSW '06) was ready
to take on a leadership role.
But she didn't find it in on the political path she'd been following. Instead, she
found it in social work. "It was my intention to get an MPA [master of public administration],"
says Thompson. "But God's intention was for me to get an MSW."
Learning close to home
Thompson is a 2006 GSSW graduate, but she didn't earn her master's degree at the University's Denver campus. Instead, she is one of 62 students from five tribes and several small
communities to earn an MSW through GSSW's personal and virtual Four Corners program. Local students are already applying to the Four Corners program, whose fourth cohort of MSW students began in summer 2008.
Some students, including Thompson, come to the program with a recent bachelor's degree from Fort Lewis College in Durango. Others have been working locally in their
fields for decades. About a third of the graduates are American Indians from the Acoma,
Southern Ute, Ute Mountain, Navajo and Shawnee tribes. Most students stay in the Four
Corners area after graduation, earning leadership positions in local or tribal social
service agencies, where the need for trained social workers is great.
Courses address native history, policy and clinical intervention. This focus on American
Indian social work practice will be instrumental for social work graduates as they
apply their knowledge and skills in agencies in the Four Corners area.
Helping her people
Thompson had worked for her tribe in victims' and health services programs, witnessing firsthand the need for social workers to
combat the tribe's domestic violence, substance and sex abuse problems. Thompson credits the program
with changing her life.
She says the instruction made her more aware of her interactional style and helped
her relate to different personality types. The interactive television courses, she
says, were like having a teacher in the room. After graduation, Thompson enrolled
in DU's Sturm College of Law. She plans to return to the reservation after earning her law degree and combine
her social work education with her knowledge of tribal law to run for a seat on the
tribal council.
"My social work education gave me a better awareness of myself," says Thompson. "It
opened my eyes to the need for services and treatment for my people."
