{"id":66002,"date":"2022-04-25T08:48:36","date_gmt":"2022-04-25T15:48:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/?p=66002"},"modified":"2022-04-25T10:14:50","modified_gmt":"2022-04-25T17:14:50","slug":"social-work-without-borders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/social-work-without-borders\/","title":{"rendered":"Social work without borders"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cWhen I was younger, I never liked going to school,\u201d <\/span>Osvaldo Luna <\/span><\/b>said. \u201cBut along the way, I had teachers who made me love learning because it makes me a better human by helping me make choices that are grounded on facts and not just personal biases or values.\u201d<\/span> \"\"<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

From a young age, Luna knew he wanted to help people, and he knew he wanted a college degree. Growing up in the border town of Yuma, a proud son of migrant farmworkers, starting his path to higher education at Arizona Western College (AWC) felt like a natural starting point. They had a program in criminal justice, so after high school, he enrolled at AWC and graduated with his associate of arts degree in 2019. But during his time at AWC, he decided he wasn\u2019t interested in a career in criminal justice.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cUnfortunately, I wasn\u2019t sure what program to pursue\u2014that is, until I took a night course at AWC with <\/span>Ruth Whisler<\/span><\/b>,\u201d Luna said. \u201cI took Dr. Whisler\u2019s introductory course to social work, and I instantly fell in love with the material.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

During those courses, Luna learned that same professor also was a full-time faculty member at NAU Yuma, in the Bachelor of Social Work program (BSW).\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI asked her if I could apply for the program since I loved the material she was teaching, and I felt the urge to pursue a career in social work, so I applied and got accepted!\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The most memorable part of Luna\u2019s experience has been his faculty. Even before he had been accepted into the BSW program at NAU Yuma, Whisler was guiding Luna through the process of applying and being understanding of his situation at the time.\u00a0<\/span> \"\"<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cTo this day I consider Dr. Whisler as a mentor as she has been there for me when I need her,\u201d he said. \u201cSame goes for professor <\/span>Kara Ahearn<\/span><\/b>, who has always helped me, especially when I get a bad case of imposter syndrome.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>Ahearn recognized Luna\u2019s talents and skills and helped match him with an internship about which he was passionate, enabling him to work with low-income, farm worker populations through Campesinos Sin Fronteras.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThis nonprofit organization is dedicated to serving members of low-income, migrant and agricultural communities in Yuma County,\u201d Ahearn said.\u202f\u201cLuna\u2019s personal experiences and his passion for improving his community has consistently been a driving force in his success and his dedication to the physical and emotional well-being of vulnerable populations along the U.S.\/Mexico Border. It is an inspiration.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Luna has been working with Campesinos Sin Fronteras for the better part of a year and appreciated the opportunity to serve low-income families and farm workers, just like his family.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cDuring my time at Campesinos, I have worked with adults, seniors and youth,\u201d he said. \u201cI have come to learn how to work with each group, learning some immigration law, the effects of substance abuse and chronic illness. The biggest takeaway from my time at Campesinos Sin Fronteras will be the friendships I created and the fact that I love working with youth despite my initial reservations.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>After graduation, Luna plans to go right into the Master of Social Work (MSW) program offered in Yuma. While he admits to feeling a little burnt out from school, he wants to finish his MSW as quickly as possible so he can get out into the community to connect farm workers, children and other underserved populations with the resources they need to lead a happy and successful life.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\n

\"Northern<\/a>McKenzie McLoughlin | NAU Communications
\n(928) 523-4789 |\u00a0McKenzie.McLoughlin@nau.edu<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cWhen I was younger, I never liked going to school,\u201d Osvaldo Luna said. \u201cBut along the way, I had teachers who made me love learning because it makes me a better human by helping me make choices that are grounded on facts and not just personal biases or values.\u201d From a young age, Luna knew…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":81,"featured_media":66008,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1815],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-66002","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lumberjack-features"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66002","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/81"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66002"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66002\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/66008"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66002"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66002"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66002"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}