Recent graduate Selene Wadhawan received the Lisa Putman Award for Excellence in Child Welfare Services at the annual National Association of Social Workers Conference in Ann Arbor.
Social work faculty member David Gabrielse said Wadhawan, who now works for the Department of Human Services as a foster care and adoption specialist, drove 140 miles round-trip from her Midland home to Big Rapids to finish her master's of social work with the GVSU cohort there. "While Selene has been interested in public social welfare policy, her real love has been working directly with youth who are in the system and need an advocate to negotiate the various systems of social services, juvenile courts, mental health and education," Gabrielse said.
Selene Wadhawan, second from right, is pictured with Grand Valley social work faculty members (left to right) Connie Shands-Baab, Jane Hayes, Dave Gabrielse and Jean McFadden / Photo courtesy of David Gabrielse
