{"id":22577,"date":"2014-11-20T16:14:06","date_gmt":"2014-11-20T21:14:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/?p=22577"},"modified":"2014-12-11T10:03:30","modified_gmt":"2014-12-11T15:03:30","slug":"professor-honored-for-forty-years-of-dedication-to-social-work-education","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2014\/professor-honored-for-forty-years-of-dedication-to-social-work-education\/","title":{"rendered":"Professor honored for forty years of dedication to social work education"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jane Wenger Clemens<\/a> looks back over a lifetime of dedication to social work and recognizes the early influence of her family in creating an awareness of the needs of others. In the 1950s, her uncle pastored an interracial church where blacks and whites worshipped together and respected each other, her mother reached out to neighbors experiencing difficulties, and her dad valued learning about different people and places.<\/p>\n

In the 1960s, Jane and the rest of the Wenger family joined a national grape boycott in support of farm workers\u2019 demands for fair pay and better working conditions. Early on, these experiences created a passion for social justice that instilled in her the desire \u201cto do what I could do for the betterment of all people,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Clemens’ desire has led to a 40-year career in social work<\/a>, including 17 years as an associate professor at Eastern Mennonite University (EMU). Her dedication was recently recognized by the Virginia Social Work Educators’ Consortium. At their annual \u201cRally in the Valley\u201d this fall, Clemens was awarded the Ann Meyers’ Lifetime Contribution to Social Work Education Award.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel surprised and humbled to be chosen to receive this award by my colleagues,\u201d Clemens said. \u201cIt is a tremendous honor and I am very grateful. I value the opportunity to teach emerging social work professionals about ways to work toward social and economic justice in our world, and to receive this honor for my contribution is very rewarding.\u201d<\/p>\n

Besides expertise and teaching skills, Clemens also brings personal investment to her students \u2013 a quality recognized by her colleagues in the applied social sciences department<\/a> at EMU.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe helps students understand that self-care is a cornerstone of the ability to care in a sustainable professional life over the long term,\u201d wrote professors Deanna Durham<\/a> and Carol Hurst<\/a> and professor emeritus Elroy Miller in their nomination of Clemens.<\/p>\n

Former students of Clemens shared their appreciation of her shaping influence upon hearing of the recognition.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe was one of those professors who considered the personal development of students to be just as important as the professional development,\u201d said Chaska Yoder\u2019 14, who is serving Habitat for Humanity with the service learning organization PULSE (Pittsburgh Urban Leadership Service Experience)<\/a>. \u201cJane often talked about the importance of seeing the gifts and skills that clients bring to the helping process. This strength-based approach goes hand in hand with the asset-based approach to community development that I’m currently working with in Pittsburgh.\u201d<\/p>\n

Clemens was also a social worker in Pennsylvania \u2013 notably, working in a prenatal clinic years ago as part of a team dedicated to reducing the infant mortality rate. In Philadelphia, certain areas had a disproportionate infant mortality rate, and Clemens’ team spread awareness about prenatal resources and worked to break down barriers between families and health care.<\/p>\n

Clemens has also worked in retirement communities and a school for children with disabilities in Pennsylvania, participated in Mennonite voluntary service on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation in Montana, and promoted continued education for adolescents in Ohio. During her 2012 sabbatical, Clemens lived and worked with low-income families in La Paz, Baja California Sur, Mexico.<\/p>\n

A lifetime of hands-on work and anecdotes has enriched Clemens’ teaching style for students such as Litza Laboriel ’14. \u201cHer experience and passion for helping others motivated me throughout my time at EMU,\u201d said Laboriel.<\/p>\n

Alicia Horst ’01, MDiv ’06, executive director of NewBridges Immigrant Resource Center<\/a>, also remembers Clemens fondly. \u201cJane taught a caring way of being that calmly listens and lowers potential anxiety in the room,\u201d says Horst. \u201cShe brings a gentle curiosity and laid-back conversation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Seeing her former students in leadership positions and advocacy roles in the field of social work is \u201cextremely rewarding,\u201d Clemens says. People go from being students to colleagues, and some, like Horst, now supervise current practicum students. Clemens sees this stage of her life’s work \u2013 contributing to students’ education \u2013 as the planting of seeds. Her students go on to sow and cultivate exponentially more social work ‘fruit’ than even Clemens did in her proliferous career.<\/p>\n

Clemens’ personal values of social justice and peace led her both to a profession and to teaching at EMU. \u201cWe work at social justice as a community,\u201d she said. \u201cTo empower students to go out and work for social change\u201d is the capstone of a vocation spanning decades.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jane Wenger Clemens looks back over a lifetime of dedication to social work and recognizes the early influence of her family in creating an awareness of the needs of others. ... read more about Professor honored for forty years of dedication to social work education<\/span><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22580,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4515,359,6287,5730],"tags":[8888,6778,15831,9139,7059,14886,15624,16184],"feature":[],"class_list":["post-22577","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-academics","category-applied-social-sciences","category-social-work","category-undergraduate-programs","tag-alicia-horst","tag-deanna-durham","tag-elroy-miller","tag-habitat-for-humanity","tag-jane-wenger-clemens","tag-litza-laboriel","tag-new-bridges-immigrant-resource-center","tag-pittsburgh-urban-leadership-service-experience"],"yoast_head":"\nProfessor honored for forty years of dedication to social work education - 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