Professor pushes students to reach out to immigrants

This professor is developing a program to help social work students prepare for the Latino population they will be helping in years to come. I love to see people thinking ahead. DP

By: Aaron Snyder
The Kentucky Kernel: As the Latino population in the United States continues to grow, a UK social work associate professor said yesterday that he hopes to see more students pursue Spanish in order to help immigrants in social programs.

Richard Sutphen said he is working on specialized programs at UK and hopes the university will offer these programs across the state.

The lecture and panel discussion, which included five immigrants, was part of a week-long series hosted by the College of Social Work.

The lecture, "The U. S. Border and Immigration," featured Daisy L. Machado, dean of Lexington Theological Immigration Experiences, along with a panel of discussants, who shared their stories about crossing the border into the United States.

Sutphen has worked with the College of Social Work to develop a certificate program where social work students who participate would take a two-course sequence during the summer in Mexico and complete two semester-long practices with Latino populations somewhere in the United States.

Machado expressed concern about acceptance of immigrants coming into the United States.

Be sure to read the rest of this article and the stories the immigrants told! This is only a small part of it.