Crissy Sena '98 has been director of social services and admissions at Sentara Nursing Center in Portsmouth for five-and-a half years. Her college internship with Sentara led directly to this position.
Callie Ream '01, Child Protective Services social worker, and
Patricia Rightmier '77, Child Protective Services supervisor, discuss
cases at the Virginia Beach Deaprtment of Social Services.
"Even in college, I was an RA (resident assistant) from my sophomore year on. When I took my first class in health and human services - the epidemiology of chronic diseases - I fell in love and knew this was what I wanted to do."
Sena says she really likes working with the elderly. "I took an aging class and knew this was the population I wanted to work with."
Sena said she had wonderful professors and attributes much of her success to being able to do two internships. "Those internships were the best things to prepare me."
Since she graduated with a degree in psychology, Patricia Rightmeyer '77 has been with the Virginia Beach Department of Social Services, except for a brief stint at another agency. As one of four supervisors in the department's Child Protective Services Division, Rightmeyer credits Wesleyan with preparing her well and launching her career.
"Virginia Wesleyan really set my career off," she said, explaining that she had seen a job posting at the college for a position in a new program with the City of Virginia Beach. She was hired and decided that's where she wanted to stay.
"The work is very challenging. With Child Protective Services investigations, every day is different," she said. "When things are difficult, we learn to lean on the people we work with, and we support each other."
Although not one of the largest majors at Virginia Wesleyan, health and human services is a strong career area for graduates. College records list 59 alums as social workers, but many others have careers in related fields. Wesleyan alumni can be found in careers such as social work, healthcare and crisis counseling.
"Our program is incredibly rigorous and competitive," said Sharon Payne, LCSW, CSAC, assistant professor of health and human services. "Our students are up to the challenge, and upon graduation, are very employable or ready for graduate school."
One of the real strengths of the program is the internship requirement and the college's connections to community agencies where students perform internships.
Small class size also contributes to the success of graduates, says Tom Lopez, Ph.D., professor of sociology. "We can provide one-on-one attention that makes it a lot easier to almost individualize majors for students and map out for them what they need to be taking."