Published on : June 30, 2009
For Immediate Release
Contact:
Carrie Murdock deGuzman
1.703.519.2057, [email protected]
June 30, 2009 – ALEXANDRIA, VA—CSWE and the Harvard Institutes for Higher Education will combine efforts to help attract more social work managers and leaders to apply for two 2-week education, training, and mentoring programs at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. In the 2010 academic year CSWE will fund up to one/third of the program expenses for five social work administrators accepted to Harvard’s Management Development Program (MDP) or Institute for Management and Leadership in Education (MLE).
One of the CSWE Leadership Institute’s initiatives is to prepare future leaders for high-profile positions within social work academia while making the profession’s value and knowledge more visible to the entire higher education community. The Harvard Graduate School of Education’s MDP and MLE programs provide a vehicle for these goals and an opportunity to develop criteria for identifying candidates from diverse backgrounds. Both programs meet the gamut of social work administrators’ needs—from those in middle management to university vice presidents and everything inbetween.
“Our combined effort with the Harvard Graduate School of Education is not only an opportunity for social work leaders to acquire a distinct learning experience that directly exposes participants to various educational formats and personal interactions,” said CSWE Executive Director Julia M. Watkins, who is a 1991 graduate of the Harvard Graduate School of Education’s Institute for Educational Management (IEM). “It is a chance to establish a social work case study that can be integrated into management and leadership coursework of other professions.”
Accepted applicants are exposed to a cross section of educational modules and skill sets to be an effective manager and leader. Participants of both programs attend lecturers, discussions, case study sessions, role plays, and workshops using cutting-edge technology.
Without a CSWE Leadership Institute scholarship, the Harvard Graduate School of Education’s current MLE tuition is $7,425, and its MDP tuition is $6,885. Applicants self-select for either the MDP or MLE program, by visiting www.gse.harvard.edu/ppe/highered and provide their contact information, job responsibilities, and answers to three essay questions. These essays ask applicants to discuss both the challenges facing their institution, as well as their own, and the personal contributions they feel they would bring to the selected program. References from the applicant’s current supervisor and past or present colleague are also required and can be submitted after the above. There is no application fee.
Program directors, department heads, assistant deans, or others with 6+ years of administrator experience are encouraged to apply for the MDP program. Generally, administrators with 12+ years of experience are the best fit for the MLE program. However, many factors are considered during this process, and applicants should not be discouraged from applying if other qualitative experience makes them good candidates for either program.
The CSWE Leadership Institute in Social Work Education strives to develop leadership among its members through educational programming, scholarship opportunities, and relationship building activities. This agreement with Harvard fulfills the scholarship portion of its mission. The other two portions are carried out at CSWE’s Annual Program Meeting through networking receptions and Leadership Development Institutes (LDIs). Part of the annual call for proposals process, LDIs are 3-hour sessions given by senior faculty or administrators with special expertise in enhancing social workers’ skills in various leadership capacities or in training future generations of social work leaders.
The Leadership Institute is guided by CSWE’s Commission on Professional Development, which is chaired by Fran Danis (University of Texas-Arlington). One volunteer CSWE membership entity within this commission is the Council on Leadership Development, which oversees the direction of the Leadership Institute and its scholarships. This council consists of its chair, Francine Vecchiolla (Springfield College), and Maria Aranda (University of Southern California), Tricia B. Bent-Goodley (Howard University), Sam Copeland (Stephen F. Austin State University), Michael R. Daley (University of South Alabama), Susan Bair Egan (Fordham University), Cynthia Moniz (Plymouth State University), Lirio K. Negroni (University of Connecticut), Michael Patchner (Indiana University), and Carolyn Tice (University of Maryland-Baltimore County).
The Council on Social Work Education is a nonprofit national association representing more than 3,000 individual members as well as graduate and undergraduate programs of professional social work education. Founded in 1952, this partnership of educational and professional institutions, social welfare agencies, and private citizens is recognized by the Council on Higher Education Accreditation as the sole accrediting agency for social work education in the United States.
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To learn about the CSWE Leadership Institute’s scholarship opportunities, e-mail us at [email protected]. Questions about the application process can be directed to the Harvard Graduate School of Education at [email protected]