Leandra Barcenas, an SSU alumna who graduated with a BA in Human Development from SSU in 2019, recently graduated from CSU-San Bernardino with her Master's in Social Work.
During her time in the masters program, she interned as a school social worker in the middle of COVId which made it a little difficult due to engagement being very low. Her role was to mentor kids and support them with coping mechanisms for anxiety or through basic socio-emotional support they needed.
For her second internship, she worked for Resource Family Approval (RFA) where she was a case manager who supported children in foster care and their resource parents. In this role she would follow the children until the child exists the foster care system whether by reunification with their bio parents, the child moves placements to another resource family outside of my agency or when the resource family adopts or obtains guardianship of the child.
Lastly, while she was at CSU-SB, Leandra developed a research project that won third place in CSU-SB's research competition. The study, entitled "The Effects of Burnout on Public Child Welfare Workers," examines how welfare workers experience burnout, and it offers suggestions about how to mitigate burnout among these workers.
Congrats Leandra!