New scholarship helps Phila. social workers get ahead

A new scholarship announced earlier this month will enable five employees of the Philadelphia Department of Human Services to receive a Penn education — while still working full-time.

Scholarship recipients will receive $30,000 from Penn and $24,000 from DHS to receive a Master in Social Work degree from the School of Social Policy and Practice.

According to DHS Commissioner Anne Ambrose, the scholarship will allow employees to pursue a degree they could not otherwise afford.

In order for a case worker to become a supervisor at DHS, a Master in Social Work is essential, Ambrose said.

“Many people from DHS would consider a degree from Penn incredibly prestigious,” Ambrose said. “The work at Penn done under [SP2 Dean Richard Gelles] involves more analytics and leadership development” than work done at Temple University and Bryn Mawr College, she said, adding that “it brings additional resources to the department that we don’t currently have.”

In June 2008, while discussing the opportunities available to DHS employees with Gelles, both Ambrose and Gelles agreed that Penn tuition rates were prohibitively high for many social workers at DHS.

“Traditionally, DHS employees have gone to Temple or Bryn Mawr because those were the schools they could afford,” Ambrose said.

According to SP2’s Associate Dean for Enrollment Management Mary Mazzola, the 2010-2011 tuition estimate for part-time MSW students comes to $4,655 per course. A required 16 courses brings the total cost to $74,480. DHS reported the starting wage for its employees without a master’s degree as $31,339 per year.

Before exploring the possibility of providing financial support to employees looking to earn their master’s degree at Penn, Ambrose was approached by Robin Burkert — a “terrific employee” — for a letter of recommendation to Temple University. Burkert later informed Ambrose that she had also been accepted to Penn but could not afford tuition.

The first-ever recipient of the scholarship, Burkert is currently pursuing her Masters at SP2 and maintaining a 4.0 average, Ambrose said.

According to Mazzola, to gain acceptance to the Masters in Social Work program, DHS employees must demonstrate not only academic ability but work experience in the human service arena.

“They are reviewed in the same way every other applicant to the MSW program is reviewed,” Mazzola said.

Once admitted to the program, DHS workers will take the same courses as all other MSW students. SP2 offers both full-time and part-time programs comprised of the same classes, which differ only in the length of time required for completion.

Mazzola explained that full-time students complete the degree in two years, taking four classes per semester. “Part-time students, like DHS students, take two classes a semester for three years, but also must take two summer classes in their first and second years,” she said.

According to Ambrose, scholarship recipients will be chosen on the basis of conversations with their supervisors, results of employee performance evaluations and ratings assigned by her, the department’s deputy commissioner and its operations director.

Once candidates have been approved by DHS, they will then be submitted to Gelles for review.

“Ultimately, we’d probably have to make some tough choices, because I’m sure the best of the best here would be interested in taking advantage of this opportunity,” Ambrose said.

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