StoryCorps Podcast: Professor Aronoff, Davis, & Haslam Straughan Discuss Their Careers & the Role of Social Justice in Education
Professor Nina Aronoff, Ashley Davis, and Hope Haslam Straughan from BU School of Social Work discuss their motivations for entering the social work field, their multigenerational friendship, and how they navigate teaching racism as white women in an episode of the podcast, StoryCorps. By sharing their unique journeys, they offer insights into how white social workers can foster meaningful conversations about topics outside their racial identities in the classroom and in the field.
Listen to the Episode Below
Excerpt from StoryCorps:
“Davis: We have a long history of being social workers and social work educators. I’m curious to know what drew each of you to pursue social work?
Haslam Straughan: I was in college, studying psychology, sociology and religion, and ended up doing an internship as a volunteer probation officer in inner city, Birmingham, where I met my first social worker. She was my supervisor, and the way she talked about the adolescent males who were involved with the juvenile justice system and their families and the communities in which they lived was radically different than some of the ways I was learning about these things in my classes. And I came to understand that was the strengths perspective of social work. I thought, ‘This is who I meant to be in this world, believing that there’s hope and possibility, resilience and resources that everybody has, and then finding ways to collaborate and work with folks.’ And I started a trail towards social work. How about you, Nina?
Aronoff: Well, my path was very different, being a writer and an artist. My work life was always sort of what I did on the side to support my real life, which was my artwork. By the time I was approaching 30, that seemed a little unsustainable to be mowing lawns, or my immediately previous job was as a bike messenger. I also got to a point in my life where it became very clear that I needed to be a service. I needed to be of use. I needed work that aligned with my values and to integrate them into my life. So I thought, ‘Oh, be a therapist. This is great.’ I’d grown up around a lot of therapists and interesting people with interesting thoughts, and I thought this would be a good match for me. How about you, Ashley?
Davis: When I was graduating from college with a degree in cognitive science, so many different paths opened to me, but I wasn’t really sure which one was going to be the right fit. I decided to do a year of public service to sample different things and to get a sense of what I wanted, get some experience. I was working at a multi service family shelter, and through my work there, I was really able to see lawyers and educators and people running a nonprofit, doing different kinds of direct service, and making a difference. I was captivated by all of these different possibilities, but it was the social worker whose role really spoke to me. I saw in her work was the ways that she viewed the families, the women in particular, as being very capable and resilient, and that she treated them with such respect. I identified with her, and I wanted to learn more about how she came to think about things that way. And I think it also helped that while she saw people really affected and needing support and resources and help, she also recognized that the problems were actually structural problems that needed to be addressed, and policy problems that needed to be tackled. I understood social work as somewhere you could help individuals, and at the same time think about advocating for change on a larger level, which was really going to make a difference. I still believe that. My social work training has been pivotal in how I see the world and think about social problems and identify as somebody who cares a lot about social justice. It’s so interesting how each of us have people in our lives who helped us get to finding this as our passion and our profession of choice.”