Skip to main content

Students create video to promote macro program

When a faculty committee led by Professor Mark Testa wanted to come up with new ways to inform prospective students about the School’s Community, Management and Policy Practice (CMPP) concentration, they decided to go straight to the source — current students.

“The basic idea was that prospective students can relate best to current students in terms of their career interests, so why not make current students a part of our marketing and outreach strategy?” said committee member Mat Despard. “I also think it’s important to give students a voice as this can help us as faculty understand how students are making sense of the CMPP concentration and how they feel it is preparing them for their careers; a way to test our own assumptions about the concentration’s value proposition for students.”

First-year students Sarah Guidi and Lauren Knott were up to the challenge. They started a Macro Student Caucus to get their fellow students involved. And the group came up with a great idea — create a video by students, for students. The caucus also started a Facebook page for their group, set up by student Melea Rose Waters.

Though movie-making novices, Guidi and Knott took on the ambitious task of organizing, shooting and editing the video. It features several current students discussing what it means to be a social work macro practitioner, and the benefits of the MSW program’s CMPP option.

The video is featured on the School’s YouTube and social media channels, and posted on the School’s website.

“I think giving the students creative license made it a great video because they know how to communicate to and with their peers. I’m hugely impressed by what they produced,” said Despard.

In this video made by UNC School of Social Work students, they discuss what it means to be a social work macro practitioner, and the benefits of the MSW program’s Community, Management and Policy Practice concentration option.