CUSSW Masters Student Honored by GSA

CUSSW Student Nassly Sales has been chosen by the Association for Gerontology in Higher Education (AGHE) and the Gerentological Society of America (GSA) to receive the National Institute on Aging Master's Level Emerging Scholars Program award for the 2003 - 2005 academic years. The award recognizes minority students who have demonstrated their commitment to minority aging concerns. Ms. Sales, along with students from Howard University, Purdue University, the University of Houston/Texas and Valparaiso, will receive $2,500 annually to carry out her individual learning plan. Each of the recipients will be guided in their endeavors by a faculty mentor.

Before coming to Columbia while still an undergraduate at Rutgers University, Nassly worked as a social work intern at The Hospice of New Jersey. While there, Nassly, who is fluent in Spanish, worked with the hospice's many non-English-speaking patients. She followed up her experiences at the hospice by matriculating at CUSSW where she intends to continue to concentrate on minority and aging issues. As part of the GAS Award, Nassly will attend four prestigious national social work conferences over the course of the next two years. The first of the four conferences was held over five days in November in San Diego. Nassly, who is a first-year student at CUSSW, said the experience was "eye-opening".

"I never really considered research (as a career path) before," said Nassly, "but there were so many presenters and so many compelling issues." Congratulations Nassly!