Our School Makes Waves in Special Issue of Spectrum

Featuring a series of nine infographics

The Columbia School of Social Work has issued a special issue of its Spectrum Magazine, both in print and online, using data visualization to show how its faculty, students and alumni are making waves on behalf of individuals, communities and various countries.

The contents consist of nine infographics on poverty-related studies, international research, global firsts, clinical faculty, tenured faculty, Ph.D. employment, curriculum choices, student life, and alumni leadership.

Dean Jeanette C. Takamura had the following to say in her introduction to the issue:

In the era of Big Data and data visualization, we have been mining information on our School to determine the impact of our faculty, students, and graduates on the wider world over the past five to ten years. The results include the nine infographics shared in this special issue of Spectrum, dedicated to how we are “making waves” in so many ways.

We have known that members of our faculty are doing groundbreaking intervention research on multiple dimensions of poverty-related issues that bear significant implications for the nation and the world. But now we appreciate more than ever how many of them are deeply engaged in far-reaching investigations, scholarship, education, and service. And our strength and breadth in clinical social work and the three other methods (policy, social enterprise administration, and advanced generalist practice and programming) are a noteworthy source of pride.

The data indicate how our School is building its capacity to help transform the future. We have tenured 11 next-generation scholars and are preparing students who have incomparable opportunities to customize their studies—in a wide range of specializations from social enterprise administration, which the School first introduced some 40 years ago, to clinical practice in newly emergent areas like complicated grief. In all, students have more than 28 different specializations available, with the intellectual capital of Columbia writ-large to tempt them because they are part of its vibrant community.

Many of our Ph.D. graduates hold positions in top-ranked universities. A large number of our alumni have started their own NGOs/NPOs. Many have risen to leadership positions in recognized institutions.

We are making waves . . . and we have our faculty, alumni, students, and staff to acknowledge for their passion, creativity, intelligence, productivity, and resolve.

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To read the new issue online, Click here.