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For Immediate Release
August 27, 2004 |
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NASW Foundation Announces Consuelo W. Gosnell Memorial
Scholarship Recipients for 2004-2005
Washington —The National Association of Social Workers Foundation
(NASWF) announces the 2004-2005 Consuelo W. Gosnell Memorial Scholarship
recipients.
The scholarships are awarded for one academic year to students who
have demonstrated a commitment to working with, or have a special
affinity with American Indian, Alaskan native, or Hispanic and Latino
populations. These candidates have also demonstrated a commitment
to working with public or voluntary non-profit agencies or local
grassroots organizations. They are all MSW candidates.
This year's awardees include:
Emily Benson University of Minnesota
 Ms. Benson has worked extensively with American Indian communities
in Minnesota where she tutored young adults at the Division of Indian
Work, advocated for families at the Ain Dah Yung (Our Home) shelter—the
first of its kind in the nation—by facilitating parenting groups,
court advocacy, and assisting families with basic needs such as housing,
education, and financial and employment needs.
Jessica Cassellius Augsburg College
Ms. Cassellius has lived in Cuidaad Valles, Mexico where she volunteered
as a translator with medical and dental teams providing free care
to indigenous people. She has also lived in Guadalajara , Mexico
where she completed an internship at a women's drug and alcohol rehabilitation
center. Most recently she traveled with a team to Mazatlan , Mexico
where she used a mobile feeding unit to provide healthy meals for
people. In Mazatlan , she also worked to build a group of volunteers
who were to start community centers in those communities. Currently,
Ms. Cassellius is the only bi-lingual employee at a non-profit agency
in Minneapolis that provides emergency assistance with basic needs
such as food, clothing, and financial assistance. Her personal experience
living in a foreign country has allowed her to empathize and work
better with the Hispanic population in Minneapolis .
Rocio Chavez University of Southern
California
 Ms. Chavez understands the importance of social work in the community.
She has worked as a mentor to high-risk Latina girls where she discussed
issues such as education, improving self-esteem, and avoiding peer
pressure and risky behavior. Currently, she provides individual and
group counseling, as well as crisis intervention in the Placentia
Yorba Linda Unified School District . She also provides teacher consultations
regarding students who are difficult to manage in the classroom.
Being bilingual and bicultural makes her a strong asset in the school.
Emilia Jones University of California , Berkeley
Working with disenfranchised families comes naturally to Ms. Jones.
Since an early age, she has been a volunteer, with her mother, to
Project Open Hand—serving meals to people with HIV/AIDS in the San
Francisco Bay area. It was this early exposure to grassroots community
activism and the harsh realities of poverty, homelessness, and prostitution
that has molded Ms. Jones career in social work. She has worked as
a volunteer Spanish teacher at two inner city after-school programs,
exposing predominantly African American children to a cross-cultural
experience they might not have had otherwise. She has served as a
coordinator at St. Vincent 's soup kitchen on weekends—helping plan,
prepare, and distribute meals to the homeless, mainly immigrants
from Mexico and Central America . Ms. Jones completed an internship
at La Casa de las Madres, a residential shelter for battered women
and children. She most recently worked as an Independent Life Skills
Worker providing life skills lessons to more than 60 African American
and Latino foster youth living in the Oakland inner city.
Katherine Koester Arizona State University
 Ms. Koester has studied in Costa Rica , Israel , and India —providing
a variety of services for disenfranchised people in each of them.
Through those experiences, she learned more than most people about
different cultures and has a strong commitment to ending violence
and oppression. Back in the U.S. , she works in a Domestic Violence
and Sexual Assault program on the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian
Community where she facilitates two teen dating violence prevention
groups. She is also actively involved with AWARE—a non-profit organization
which seeks to enhance the effectiveness of healing practitioners
by providing opportunities for cross-cultural learning and exchange.
Marissa Nuvayestewa Washington University , St.
Louis
Ms. Vuvayestewa is a Hopi and Tewa Indian from the Hopi Reservation
in Arizona . She is currently a member of the American Indian Student
Organization at Washington University in St. Louis where she engages
the community through events to help close the gap between social
and cultural barriers that exist in society. She plans on using her
learning experiences to address the needs of her community on the
reservation. She also plans to be active in the political arena,
empowering the tribal community through social change efforts, beginning
with the tribal government and ending with the federal government.
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The Gosnell Scholarship was established through a bequest of Consuelo
Gosnell, a social work practitioner who was born in Ciudad Juarez
, Mexico and died in Texas in 1987. Gosnell was a champion of civil
and human rights and worked diligently to ameliorate conditions for
critically under served American Indians and Latinos in the Southwest.
Gosnell practiced for many years in federal agencies, including the
U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare and the Bureau
of Indian Affairs.
For more information about the NASW Foundation or educational scholarships,
please contact NASWF via email at naswfoundation@naswdc.org
The National Association of Social Workers Foundation (NASWF),
in Washington , DC , focuses
on enhancing the well-being of individuals, families, and communities
through the advancement of social work practice.
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