Social Work Month is a time to shine a light on the students who are making a positive impact here in our community — students like Chantal Shippy.
Chantal is a graduate student at the FIU School of Social Work. When she’s not studying, Chantal is juggling work, an internship at Lutheran Services Florida, and a vibrant social life at FIU. Inspired by the care from social services that her grandfather received after enduring a stroke, Chantal decided to pursue a degree in social work to help make a difference in the lives of people across South Florida.
Learn more about Chantal’s current internship experience at Lutheran Services Florida, a nonprofit organization that provides community counseling and therapy services for children.
How has your internship experience been so far?
It's been a positive experience. I feel like I've been exposed to a lot of different elements of case management and community counseling.
As a case manager, I'm helping link families and individuals to resources in the community that can help with their education and financial assistance. I’m also connecting them to food pantries or clothing, housing, and mental health services. There are so many different components of what the job entails, but it's definitely a rewarding field. You can make a difference, and you learn so much from those you're working with.
What motivated you to pursue an internship with Lutheran Services Florida?
I started working in outpatient mental health in December 2019, and I wanted to learn more about the nonprofit field. I had heard of Lutheran Services Florida before — I believe I had sent referrals to one of their sister agencies.
What have you enjoyed most about your internship with the organization?
Learning different styles from the counselors that are on-staff, as well as the check-ins with our field instructor. Our field instructor reminds us about self-care, making sure that we're taking time to do things for ourselves so that we're not pouring from an empty cup. Working with each of the counselors, they have different specialties where they're able to connect the people they serve with resources. For example, they have a pantry on Saturdays that provides food for families that are part of the program. Other counselors are responsible for helping families get housing. One counselor provides both community counseling and therapy services as their degree focuses on this specialty.
How does your internship connect back to your course work?
It covers the competencies that we're learning in school: having those ethical practices to make sure you're providing services, not being judgmental, and understanding that there are multiple perspectives to consider when working with a client or their family. It's not just, okay, the client is coming here, and they have this issue. There's a whole network, whether it's their family, their school, or their job; there are so many different factors that affect how people can be successful in this world and how they'll need support.
What advice would you give students who are beginning the internship process?
Look over the full list of internship opportunities provided by your clinical coordinators at the School of Social Work’s Field Office. Don't select the place just because it's near your home or you've done similar work before. Go through the entire list and review the information that's provided. They provide a summary of what services they offer, the age range or the overall demographics of the people that you’ll be working with.
How has this internship expanded your professional network?
One thing that I tell my clients is that there are so many resources out there that we might not know of. I have learned about many resources and community partners that I am able to refer to my clients through work. I'm very appreciative of the staff at Lutheran Services Florida and their impact. We sometimes get to do monthly follow-ups for clients that have been discharged. We ask them how they're doing and if any services were provided by any others while they were away. The families will tell you, “thank this person for me” or “tell this person hi.” Hearing it from the families themselves, they're telling you the difference you're making in their lives.
What has been a memorable experience from your graduate program?
I’m the president of the Black Social Work Student Voices group. Our first meeting only had two of us in attendance, including the faculty advisor [Dr. Courtney Wilson, clinical associate professor at the FIU School of Social Work]. We went from 2 to the next meeting having over 11 people in attendance, which may not seem significant, but the impact is picking up momentum. We are making efforts to increase the number of members each semester .
With the help of Dr. Wilson and Professor Victoria Gray [licensed clinical social worker at the FIU School of Social Work), we learned how to increase engagement through reaching out to social work students directly.
We hold bi-weekly meetings for students to connect and lean on each other for support. Students of all backgrounds are welcome to join. If anyone is interested in joining, I encourage them to reach out to me at cship001@fiu.edu.