University of Michigan Team Wins 2021 APA Outstanding Student Project Award
Professor Ana Paula Pimentel Walker and her students win the 2021 American Planning Association’s Outstanding Student Project Award for their work in Brazil: Self-Management Law, Now! Fostering Community-Owned, Permanently Affordable and Sustainable Housing in Brazil
Professor Odessa Gonzalez Benson is awarded a SUCCEED grant from the U-M Advance Program
Professor Odessa Gonzalez Benson receives the SUCCEED grant for her project in the Philippines on climate displacement and community-based response.
Professor Mieko Yoshihama is recognized with the 2021 UM-SSW Distinguished Faculty Award
“What does not come across in her CV is her extraordinary ability to exemplify social work values in the work she does, and her ability to bring together people with widely divergent backgrounds and life experiences to work on common goals.” – A Colleague of Professor Yoshihama
For new refugees, ‘higher education is a path to freedom’
“Levis Hakundawa, a college graduate and social worker, is a role model for the Congolese community in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Sharing the story of his educational journey, he tries to embolden new refugees to dream big, especially the teenagers.” –Fernanda Pires, Michigan News
Professor Odessa Gonzalez Benson is recognized with the 2021 UM-SSW Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Faculty Impact Award
“I am moved and humbled that conversations and co-learning with students and in classrooms are part of students’ individual journeys towards transformative social work practice — as we look deeply at historical, epistemic and systemic injustice/violence, we also pursue forward with imagination, innovation and resolution.” – Odessa Gonzalez Benson
Panel Discussion on Refugees focuses on expressing their narratives
“Dr. Odessa Gonzalez Benson, Assistant Professor in the School of Social Work, presents at the Strength of Refugees and Their Communities lecture in the Hatcher Library gallery Wednesday evening.” –Michael Bagazinski, Michigan DailyBTN LiveBIG: Michigan grad students apply know-how to improving a Brazilian community
“The small city near the southern tip of Brazil doesn’t really have much of an international profile. So why did 10 University of Michigan graduate students feel compelled to make the long trip there for two weeks in March?”
It all started when Ana Paula Pimentel Walker, professor of urban and regional planning at Michigan, connected with one of her colleagues at The Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul, one of the top research universities in Brazil.” –Ashley Lemaine, BTN
