News

Methodist Children’s Home residents are enjoying a new “escape room” activity challenge at the MCH Boys Ranch designed with clues that reinforce MCH Life Skills in an entertaining way. Maegan Molnar, home life manager at the Boys Ranch, and Sarah Pitman, social work graduate intern from Baylor University, have been working since January to convert the Fern Cone building at the Ranch into the intricate escape room game consisting of Western props, activities and riddles that youth must work together to solve. To access the full article, click here

Join our "Women Empowerment Series: Learning to Boldly Equip and Empower Women and Girls", hosted by the SERVE team at the Garland School of Social Work and sponsored by the Grant Me The Wisdom Foundation. CEUs are provided for conference attendance. We have several great guest speakers lined up, and our SERVE team members will be on a Q&A panel. Topics include: empowering women and girls in areas of mental health, leadership and mentorship, and congregations. Thursday evening, we will welcome keynote speaker Anna Coffey, Chief Executive Officer of The Women’s Home. Ms. Coffey has a background in social work, public health and law. She has served women in a wide range of roles from working with rural women in West Africa to helping women make smart decisions about health care. RSVP HERE: Conference registration for March 28-29. The SERVE Project is a grant-funded, research-based project seeking to Support, Encourage, Respect, Value, and Empower women and girls: SERVE Project Website.

WACO, Texas (March 12, 2019) – Baylor University graduate programs were among those nationally ranked in the 2020 U.S. News & World Report Best Graduate Schools rankings, released today. The latest rankings in law, business, nursing and health disciplines, education, engineering, the sciences and social sciences and humanities are published online at www.usnews.com/grad. [...] Social Work graduate programs in the Diana R. Garland School of Social Work moved up nine places to No. 59.

March is Women's History Month, and Baylor has several fun and informative events lined up for you! Check out our featured events, and be on the lookout as more are planned.

The board elected Bethany Molinar Rivera, youth and families program director of Ciudad Nueva, as its new president. The realignment at the network reflects natural changes and a desire to use the strengths of all of the people involved, said Molinar Rivera, a graduate of Baylor University’s Truett Theological Seminary and Diana R. Garland School of Social Work. To access the full article, click here

(RNS) — A “Safe Churches and Ministers” video features a woman recalling how, from the first day she worked as an interim youth minister, the senior pastor of a prestigious Baptist church began making inappropriate sexual advances. “Is her story familiar?” asks a narrator after the woman describes too-long hugs, inappropriate conversations and an offer to share a hotel room at a denominational meeting. Read full article here.

Unfortunately, and tragically, the news released earlier this month about sexual violence in Baptist life was not surprising. My mentor and our social work school’s namesake, Diana Garland, was telling these stories at least a decade ago. Yet, the news was still heartbreaking. It provoked anger – in my house, in my church and in my school. It re-surfaced trauma and reminded us of so much pain lived and experienced, still, by far too many in our immediate circle of friends and family. Read the full article here.

Baylor University today announced a gift of $2 million to create an endowed Chair in Global Leadership within Baylor’s Diana R. Garland School of Social Work. The gift, which was made by Baylor parents from California, will support the School’s nationally renowned Global Mission Leadership (GML) program, whose purpose is to contribute to Christ-centered international development through culturally informed education. In addition to providing programmatic funding for the GML program, the gift also will support a full-time faculty member to lead the program and help grow its outreach and curriculum to equip not only GML students, but also Garland School students interested in serving globally. Read the full article here.

At the Diana R. Garland School of Social Work, we celebrate and honor Black History Month by providing education regarding Black History Month, featuring faculty who are engaging in events promoting Black History Month, and providing information about local events celebrating Black History Month. Click here for our resources and information.

"I recently interviewed someone for research who said, 'You know, there are scars that have healed, and then there are scars that are still open.' I have thought about those insightful words a lot." Hear from Master Teacher Dr. Gaynor Yancey on scars...from the Civil Rights Movement to childhood experiences, and being people who help "the scars heal."

Dr. Brianna Lemmons recently published a new article: "Game Changers: A Critical Race Theory Analysis of the Economic, Social, and Political Factors Impacting Black Fatherhood and Family Formation." To access the full article, click here.

Dr. Jennifer S. Dickey, lecturer and director of the GML program, treated California Baptist University students to a lecture on the influence of perceptions. She spoke as part of CBU's Culture and Justice Lecture Series. Click here to access the full article.

Give Light is a $1.1 billion comprehensive philanthropic campaign for the future of Baylor. This campaign, which officially launched in November, supports Illuminate, Baylor's academic strategic plan, and will impact every aspect of campus life - academics, athletics, student life and service learning, while also bolstering financial support for students and the campus community. In conjunction with this campaign, and in honor of the role faith has played in our master's program, friends created a matching gift for the W.O. Carver Endowed Scholarship acknowledging the legacy of the Carver School where Diana Garland served and that influenced so much of who we are today. To access the full story, click here.

The Center for Public Justice has named the recipients of the 2019 Shared Justice Student-Faculty Research Prize, a semester-long research project in which students will write a comprehensive policy report on a social safety net program and its impact in their local community. Ana O’Quin (Baylor University, ‘20), advised by Dr. Stephanie Boddie, will research teenagers’ access to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) in Waco, Texas.