THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, August 5, 1994 TAG: 9408040233
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 03 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JO-ANN CLEGG, CORRESPONDENT
LENGTH: Medium: 91 lines
IT'S NOT SURPRISING that Moses Newsome, dean and professor in the Ethelyn R. Strong School of Social Work at Norfolk State University and the recently picked president-elect of the National Council on Social Work Education, chose a career in human services.
``I just sort of grew up in it,'' said Newsome, who grew up in Charleston, W.Va., as the son of a minister father and schoolteacher mother.
Indeed, most of what is included in the field of social work today did fall under the direction of teachers, preachers and families back when the formal welfare system was concerned primarily with the care of orphaned or abandoned children and others deemed incapable of caring for themselves.
The solution to problems then frequently consisted of little more than investigation by the welfare system followed by institutionalization of the client.
Much has changed in the past 40 years, and Moses Newsome, who has a doctorate in social work, and his wife Barbara, who also holds a doctorate in social work and teaches at NSU, have been on the cutting edge of that change.
``We supported each other's degrees,'' he said of the path that took the two from their undergraduate work in Toledo, Ohio, to their current positions. Each took turns being the primary breadwinner as the other completed the grueling series of courses, exams, internships, dissertations and defenses needed for advanced academic work.
Along the way, the Newsomes added two daughters to the family: Ayanna, a 20-year-old psychology major at Old Dominion, and Mariana, a rising 10th-grader at Princess Anne High School.
The family's Pembroke area waterfront home - shared with a tri-color Sheltie named Cici - is a comfortable retreat for the busy Newsomes. In addition to his academic duties at Norfolk State and his involvement with the CSWE, Moses Newsome is active in a number of community and professional endeavors, many through the United Way where he chairs the Minority Advisory Council.
In his 10 years at Norfolk State, Newsome has seen the university's fledging graduate school of social work grow in both size and acceptance. Under his leadership the Strong School of Social Work will begin offering a doctoral program in 1995, the first in the university's history.
His proven track record at Norfolk State, and before that at Howard University where he was associate dean, have won him the respect of colleagues locally and across the country.
``He is a tremendous asset to us here at Norfolk State,'' university president Dr. Harrison B. Wilson said, ``and I have no doubt that he will be the same to the CSWE.''
The 2,600-member organization represents the country's 120 graduate and 419 undergraduate programs in social work education. Among its most important duties are setting and administering the standards for accreditation of social work schools.
In practical terms that means the CSWE determines what the students study, how they study it and what they must accomplish in order to get their degrees.
In being at the helm of the accrediting agency, Newsome will have tremendous impact on the practice of social work well into the 21st century.
``I want to put the `social' back in social work education,'' Newsome said, adding quickly that he has seen positive changes in that direction in the 20 years he's been in the field.
``We've become more diverse insofar as the students we attract are concerned,'' he said. ``We've gotten away from the traditional picture of the white female social worker by attracting more minorities, including more males.''
He sees other positive changes already being made and has his own plans for more. Among these on his list are impressing tomorrow's social workers with the need for less rigidity in the system, a change he feels is already under way.
He would emphasize better understanding of the multiple problems faced by social work clients such as those encountered by pregnant teens who are also child abuse victims and substance abusers.
The time is long past when social workers can look at client problems from a narrow vantage point. ``What happens all over the world affects all of us,'' Newsome said. ``We have to look beyond the region, state and nation. We have to take a global view.''
Making sure that the country's social work students have that larger view is just one of the many things that the Virginia Beach man will be working on in his four-year tenure with the Council on Social Work Education. ILLUSTRATION: Photo by JO-ANN CLEGG
Moses Newsome and his wife Barbara both hold doctorates in social
work and teach at Norfolk State University. Each took turns being
their family's primary breadwinner.
by CNB