Undergraduate Student Wins 'Student Social Worker of the Year' Award

By Kathryn Podolsky

Oscar Rivera exudes the sort of calm usually found in seasoned doctors and visiting chaplains, a quality one hopes for in a time of crisis or personal need.

His dedication to the field of social work and to his community, as well as the manner in which he deals with fellow human beings, have resulted in Rivera's being named the Student Social Worker of the Year by the Florida Chapter of the National Association of Social Workers (NASW).

A senior in the Bachelor of Social Work (B.S.W.) program at the University of Central Florida in Orlando, Rivera recently began an internship with the Alzheimer Resource Center, Inc., also in Orlando, where he helps Alzheimer patients' caregivers find services and support groups.

"Even though he has been in the field of social work for a short time, veteran social workers can learn from the gentle manner with which Oscar skillfully counsels troubled caregivers," said Shellie Brassler, executive director of the Alzheimer Resource Center.

High praise from a director he has worked for less than two months.

Rivera was born in Puerto Rico in 1974 and moved to Orlando in 1991. When his grandfather fell ill, and cancer was the diagnosis, Rivera returned to Puerto Rico and was his caregiver for 10 months. The experience helped him decide what he wanted to do with his life.

"I was the person to stay with him all day long," Rivera said, "and after I met the social worker who worked for the hospice, I wanted to come back to Florida and go to school [to become a social worker.]"

He entered the B.S.W. program in 2002 and has been working steadily within the field ever since. According to Robin Kohn, the B.S.W. program coordinator who wrote letters supporting Rivera's nomination for the state award, Rivera is "conscientious, intelligent, energetic, resourceful and polite." He is the recipient of three academic achievement scholarships, an active member of the B.S.W. Student Association, the B.S.W. student representative for the Central Unit Chapter of the NASW, and a volunteer in Deland where he resides for the Meals on Wheels program, the Florida Lutheran Retirement Center and the Alliance Community for Retirement.

Included in this lengthy resume will be a Minor in Aging Studies, a reflection of Rivera's special interest in the aging population. The Research and Mentoring Program (RAMP), in which his mentor is Mary Van Hook, professor of social work, has Hook and Rivera working together on a project that focuses on the ways in which older adults use religion to cope with difficult life events. The resulting paper will be presented in March at the Second National Gerontological Social Work Conference in Anaheim, Calif.

Dedicated to the disadvantaged and oppressed in our society, social workers have historically been the champions of those less fortunate, with an emphasis on promoting social change and the empowerment of human beings.

According to a recent contribution to a local paper, Rivera and fellow student Mary Mann write, "The hours are long, the challenges are many, and it is by no means glamorous. As a profession, social work requires devotion to making a difference for those who are truly in need ... yet every day over a half million social workers wake up believing they will give a child, a family or a senior citizen renewed hope."

Rivera plans to start graduate school this fall in UCF's Master of Social Work (M.S.W.) program. He will accept the Student Social Worker of the Year Award at the NASW-Florida conference on June 10, 2004, in Deerfield Beach, Fla.