Yamile Martí Receives Diversity Grant Award from Columbia’s Provost

January 5, 2021 @ 7:17 pm
By Communications Office

The award will be used to develop a new preparation for practicum practice course with an anti-racist component.

Associate Professor of Professional Practice Yamile Martí Haidar has received funding through the Columbia Provost’s Grants Program for Junior Faculty Who Contribute to the Diversity Goals of the University for her proposal to develop a new two-week course for first-year MSW students who are about to begin their practicum practicum, “Preparation for Field Practice in Social Work: Professionalism, Self Awareness, and Ethics and Power, Racism, Oppression, and Privilege (PROP).”

Dean Melissa Begg expressed her strong support for this work: “I’m excited that Yamile is using her expertise in curriculum development to fuse professional training and anti-racism into the coursework that helps prepare our first-year students for engaging in social work practicum experiences.”

“When MSW students enter their practicum internships, they are immediately challenged with the need to bridge professional and personal identities, manage crises, emergencies, and ethical dilemmas, and work with clients and colleagues experiencing structural racism and oppression,” Martí said, adding that she hopes her new course will provide some of the tools they will need for handling “the complex interplay between effectively advocating for clients and working in hierarchical organizations that often reject anti-racist approaches”

The course, which will be piloted in Fall 2021, will include modules on relationship-building with clients, decorum and ethical standards, systems of entitlements and benefits, the role of intersectional identities, and related topics. As she develops the materials, Martí plans to draw on the advice of a collaborative board comprising two students, two alumni, two agency-based practicum placement supervisors, and two faculty members.

The Provost’s Grants Program was initiated 15 years ago in support of the University’s core values of inclusion and excellence. Grantees for Junior and Mid-Career Awards are selected via a competitive process, with all applications reviewed by a committee of faculty from both the Morningside and Medical Center campuses.


Related links:

Yamile Martí Appointed Professor of Professional Practice