Like many school social workers, Cassandra Klein has an office stocked with snacks, clothing, socks, coats, gloves and other essentials students might reach for throughout the day. She even has weekend bags of food and produce to send home with students in need.
As a family support specialist at Cleveland鈥檚 Memorial School, Klein鈥檚 job is to provide wraparound services to students and their families so they have everything they need to succeed at school.
鈥淚 try to make sure families have resources so that education becomes their top priority,鈥 Klein said.
Despite her ability to provide families with so many of the basics that help ensure their success, there was one thing she never felt comfortable offering.
鈥淚f I鈥檓 grieving, I feel like I have a pretty healthy way of dealing with it. But when other people grieve鈥攅specially like little kids鈥擨鈥檓 just like, 鈥楢re you OK?鈥欌 Klein explained. 鈥淚鈥檓 just not that great at comforting others.鈥
So when she saw an email last winter from a colleague about the 鈥淪ocial Work with Death, Grief and Loss鈥 course offered through a new program at 星空传媒鈥檚 Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences, she saw an opportunity to learn.
鈥淚鈥檇 like to learn about grief and loss,鈥 she recalled thinking. 鈥淢aybe this will help give me a little more insight.鈥
The experience also gave her the chance to entertain another idea she had: earning her master鈥檚 degree.
As it turned out, this new program鈥Classroom Without Walls鈥攚as designed to spur social workers like Klein to pursue both.
The Mandel School launched the program for two purposes: to create transformative learning experiences for both students and community learners鈥攕ocial work professionals with bachelor鈥檚 degrees who have worked in human services鈥攁nd to encourage social work professionals to further their careers by enrolling in the Master of Social Work (MSW) program. Community learners, who hail from various Cleveland organizations, learn alongside traditional MSW graduate students, bringing real-life experiences to the class.