Pandemic-forced shift to online education can be boon for future social workers

Pandemic-forced shift to online education can be boon for future social workers
online learning
Credit score: Pixabay/CC0 Community Domain

The COVID-19 pandemic pressured schooling, products and services, well being treatment and a lot of other features of every day everyday living online. For social perform, that transition started out as a problem, but it can in fact be an possibility for educators, social personnel and the men and women they provide. A College of Kansas professor has published a paper arguing that social function educators can adapt their teaching tactics in a way that best prepares their college students to interact with those people they serve, regardless of whether on the web, in individual or both of those.

Social welfare schooling, like most disciplines, was transitioning to on the web coursework in the many years prior to the pandemic. The discipline capabilities apply programs, in which pupils study how to place the theories they discover into action. While it can be tricky to educate anyone how to set up rapport with a client, evaluate progress of anyone undergoing remedy, intervene with people in crisis or other expertise online, it is important.

“In excess of about the very last 10 decades, we’ve gone from just teaching social welfare in individual to instructing a mix of in-human being and self-guided on-line content to teaching online hybrid courses that leverage teaching around a online video convention platform for synchronous components that supply live interaction and making use of applications like Canvas for asynchronous components that make it possible for for self-guided on line pursuits,” explained Nancy Kepple, affiliate professor of social welfare.

“We’ve observed men and women test to translate just what they did in the classroom and say it didn’t do the job, or men and women improve greatly what they did to make it fit within these digital spaces. This paper fundamentally says it really is not an either/or.”

Whilst supplying a framework for how to instruct exercise courses throughout modalities, Kepple and co-writer D. Crystal Coles of Morgan Condition University argue that empowering upcoming social employees to be cozy performing both equally in-human being and on the web with clientele is essential. Social work was already shifting to include extra telehealth strategies, but the pandemic compelled quite a few services into an on-line house and revealed a lot of persons like to obtain products and services online. The research was released in the Journal of Teaching in Social Get the job done.

“In modern-day social operate, we will not only interact persons in person any more. I have colleagues in follow for whom operating with men and women virtually is their preference, and this is the only way they have interaction with the men and women they serve.”

The write-up is titled “Maintaining the Magic,” as Kepple and Coles argue the strengths of one’s follow instruction can be preserved as it gets translated across modalities. Universities of social welfare/social do the job have returned to much more in-man or woman classes, but the most important 4 modalities even now exist: Conventional in-man or woman hybrid of in-individual and self-guided on line routines on the web hybrid of synchronous digital conferences and self-guided on the web routines and absolutely asynchronous on the internet. The short article presents a framework in four pieces for drawing on the strengths of every single (even though navigating their constraints) to be certain they are as efficient as doable across modalities by contemplating structural elements of house, time and people today as effectively as a system ingredient of interactivity.

In terms of studying locale, educators creating practice classes have to have to consider space, whether a bodily classroom, on the internet space or self-guided study course and how college students will interact with each other and instructors. The authors give illustrations of how follow instructors can inspire people today to function collectively centered on the opportunities of actual physical or virtual spaces, maximizing what is readily available and unique to each. In regard to time, Kepple and Coles talk about how to ensure educators and pupils make the most of it.

For case in point, in any online class, some volume of time is used troubleshooting engineering. Although that may perhaps choose time from instruction, educators can strategize strategies to obtain supplemental time to give back again to students and experiential techniques. Even though thinking of men and women, educators should think about their have strengths as well as the ordeals of those people in the course and how these can be introduced to the fore, irrespective of whether in particular person or in on the web instruction. Ultimately, interactivity is important.

Exercise classes emphasize that students need to have conversation with their teacher, the ideas staying conveyed and with fellow pupils to learn techniques, such as producing eye call, empathizing with many others, encountering human heat and other necessary competencies for social personnel. The posting presents approaches for role-enjoying and other ways to create interactions specific to every modality.

“Just reading through about these ideas would not teach you how to practical experience or express these important capabilities. You have to recognize what empathy is as a notion and as an practical experience to effectively express it when interacting with an individual,” Kepple said. “Social staff have to be well prepared to perform and aid people today in any room. Our discipline is not just confined to performing with men and women in a 45- or 50-minute session in one space. We want to be on the primary edge of how we get ready our learners for their career.”

While technological know-how has evolved to produce education and social get the job done products and services, the pandemic forced a speedy adaptation. And even though both of those everyday living and schooling have considerably shifted back again to earlier norms, the change showed an knowledge of both equally technology and humanity is essential, in accordance to the authors.

Some consumers will require to receive expert services nearly due to the fact of length or desire. Some educators may prefer in-human being classes, but the scholar preferences are also diversifying. In addition, the college students who will be the future technology of social employees will require to be organized for new technologies. Educators imagining about how they can innovate in their techniques will enable guarantee new social staff are adaptable, the authors argue.

“It is crucial to assume by how all of these pieces get the job done and how that has an effect on how we educate,” Kepple mentioned. “It is really not brand new it’s figuring out an intentional way of delivering what we know and what we do effectively in a new way. I want social employees and educators to consider they know what tends to make a fantastic educational space and that they can make practice spaces get the job done throughout a selection of procedures.”

Far more facts:
Nancy Kepple et al, Keeping the Magic: Adapting Follow Pedagogies Throughout Program Modalities, Journal of Training in Social Get the job done (2023). DOI: 10.1080/08841233.2022.2120166

Furnished by
University of Kansas


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Council Bluffs Community School District Used CASEL’s Social Emotional Learning Framework and Panorama Student Surveys

Council Bluffs Community School District Used CASEL’s Social Emotional Learning Framework and Panorama Student Surveys

Council Bluffs Community University District in Council Bluffs, Iowa, utilized Panorama Scholar Surveys in 2017 as portion of their CASEL Social Emotional Studying initiative. Social Psychological Discovering continues nowadays in Council Bluffs Neighborhood College District. 

In Oct. 2018, Dr. Corey Vorthman, who was then the Chief Tutorial Officer of Council Bluffs Neighborhood Faculty District, shared that the district would use Panorama Scholar Surveys and the CASEL SEL framework

Panorama and CASEL, or the Collaborative of Academic, Social, and Psychological Mastering are two big and influential training consultants.

In 2013 Panorama Education emerged nationally as a company that conducts “surveys of college students, mother and father, instructors, and staff” and “analyzes this details and offers academics and administrators with obvious and constructive feedback that they can use to boost their training and their educational facilities.”

According to TechCrunch.com, “Partners also participated in the financing, which delivers the Boston-based company’s full raised considering that its 2012 inception to $105 million.

Panorama declined to expose at what valuation the Collection C was raised, nor did it offer any precise financial advancement metrics. CEO and co-founder Aaron Feuer did say the firm now serves 13 million pupils in 23,000 educational facilities throughout the United States, which signifies that 25{e4f787673fbda589a16c4acddca5ba6fa1cbf0bc0eb53f36e5f8309f6ee846cf} of American college students are enrolled in a district served by Panorama these days. “

The Collaborative for Educational, Social, and Psychological Learning, or CASEL, describes alone as a “trusted resource for information about higher-good quality, proof-dependent social and psychological understanding,” recognized as “SEL.” CASEL states it “supports educators and coverage leaders and improves the encounters and outcomes for all PreK-12 college students.”

Social Emotional Finding out is nevertheless taught in Council Bluffs Local community University District. 

According to an Aug. 2022 report from Omaha’s KMTV3, the Iowa Office of Education, which oversees general public instruction in Iowa, provides income to universities to have interaction in Social Emotional Learning.

The College or university See Elementary School handbook, published in Aug. 2022, states that Social Psychological Studying is however taught.

“Through essential notion issues and our Strategies to Mastering, our pupils grow to be inquirers in and outside the house of faculty. Focused time to Social Emotional Understanding (SEL) enables lecturers to instruct on self-management techniques and social abilities. At the end result of our Key Decades Programme, 5th graders carry out little group study tasks with a need to acquire action. It is a demonstration of the understanding acquired whilst in attendance at our school. It is our target to inspire our learners so they obtain the abilities to be internationally-minded and impactful world citizens.”

Community colleges in Council Bluffs Neighborhood University District have an regular math proficiency rating of 62{e4f787673fbda589a16c4acddca5ba6fa1cbf0bc0eb53f36e5f8309f6ee846cf} (versus the Iowa general public faculty common of 70{e4f787673fbda589a16c4acddca5ba6fa1cbf0bc0eb53f36e5f8309f6ee846cf}) and examining proficiency rating of 55{e4f787673fbda589a16c4acddca5ba6fa1cbf0bc0eb53f36e5f8309f6ee846cf} (versus the 68{e4f787673fbda589a16c4acddca5ba6fa1cbf0bc0eb53f36e5f8309f6ee846cf} statewide regular).

Free summer leadership academy teaches kids social skills, respect

Free summer leadership academy teaches kids social skills, respect
Free summer leadership academy teaches kids social skills, respect

Extra than 250 kids are getting energetic, assembly mentors and understanding critical social abilities by means of a summer time management academy that kicked off Monday. 

The day camp operates via mid-July and is absolutely free to households many thanks to a partnership between Lafayette Consolidated Federal government Parks and Recreation Department and SMILE Local community Action Agency.

It truly is getting position about a few areas in the town: Domingue Recreation Middle, Heymann Recreation Centre and Comeaux Recreation Centre. And a lot more continue to indication up.

About 30 kids sit on the gymnasium flooring of the Heymann Recreation Center on Wednesday, asking Lafayette Police Sr. Cpl. Dana Broussard thoughts about her position and the equipment she carries on her belt.

“Kids always arrive up with terrific thoughts and standpoint,” explained Broussard, the city’s neighborhood policing officer.

Lafayette Police Sr. Cpl. Dana Broussard Neighborhood Policing Officer talks with kids at Heymann Recreation Center about safety, stranger danger, respect, and manners. Wednesday, June 8, 2022.

She’s one of many invited visitors coming to discuss at the camp. Future week firefighters will occur and display kids the truck, claimed Walter Guillory, athletic supervisor for the city’s Parks and Rec Department.

“During the working day they do social recreation, physical schooling, mentoring,” Guillory reported. “It’s not a university setting, not as formal, but even now an arranged curriculum. The target is that when we hand them back to their moms and dads in July they’re a lot more respectful.”

Kirk Cameron slammed for backing homeschooling, Internet says ‘kids need social interaction’

Kirk Cameron slammed for backing homeschooling, Internet says ‘kids need social interaction’

Kirk Cameron, star of ‘Growing Pains,’ has manufactured a documentary titled ‘Homeschool Awakening,’ in which he critiques American schooling, calling it inaccurate and immoral. Cameron has a strong view on how little ones are educated in colleges, and he believes that young children must be better educated at residence. In the teaser, a person mom points out, “The independence we had was so truly worth the small sacrifice it was to instruct the youngsters. Now 12 decades later on, I realize it wasn’t a sacrifice – it was a complete reward.” “”No one’s gonna really like our young children much more than we do,” 1 father included while a homeschooled teen remarked, “And the best reward that I was given was my individual identification. My dad and mom gave me that.”

According to Cameron, just one of the to start with ambitions of the film is to dispel the myth that homeschooling is terrible and that those who do it are scarce and underdeveloped in comparison to individuals who go to a common school. The synopsis of the documentary reads, “Families throughout the country are experiencing the homeschool awakening, getting benefit of the freedom and options for self-discovery — with the globe as their classroom. Be a part of award-winning actor, Kirk Cameron, as he dives into the adventures of dynamic American families on a mission to set fun and faith back into understanding. The Homeschool Awakening explores the ins, outs, and genuine answers to homeschooling’s most often requested thoughts.” 

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Homeschooling gains level of popularity in US amid safety issues after Parkland and Santa Fe faculty shootings

Social media was brief to react as a single person wrote on Twitter, “Homeschooling has reworked my young children into wonderful young older people.  They amaze me.  School lecturers just send out perform residence in any case and we always ended up doing it.  We use an on-line method and our young children have uncovered not only about education and learning but managing time and individual responsibility.” “Yeah, homeschooling them then. That’ll preserve them quarantined at dwelling and that is all we’ve been inquiring for,” an additional man or woman additional. Still a different particular person remarked, “The most effective route to preserving our small children.” 

However, anyone was not content with Kirk’s concept just like one person pointed out, “All Kirk Cameron is doing is producing revenue off the fears of the widespread male and girl. We attempted homeschooling for the duration of the 20-21 university year, all it did was set our eldest daughter further more guiding her peers. You do your children no favors by sheltering them.” Another reported, “Kids need to have that social interaction just like y’all do on listed here”.

In the meantime, in accordance to ABC Information, 18 states submitted data from the existing college yr in early April the quantity of children attending lessons at property climbed by 63 {e4f787673fbda589a16c4acddca5ba6fa1cbf0bc0eb53f36e5f8309f6ee846cf} in 2020-2021, then declined by just 17 {e4f787673fbda589a16c4acddca5ba6fa1cbf0bc0eb53f36e5f8309f6ee846cf} in 2021-2022. This suggests that dad and mom have made the decision not to send their young children to school for the sake of safety and greater education.



 



 



 



 



 

Cameron has said that the public school method does not operate with the people, but relatively versus them, and that the general public school procedure is America’s amount just one enemy in his viewpoint. The actor advises seizing manage of education and learning mainly because whoever controls the textbooks has influence about the potential. The documentary will only be proven in theaters on June 13 and 14.

If you have a information scoop or an exciting tale for us, you should get to out at (323) 421-7514

Howard University’s Graduate Social Work, Education, Business Programs Rise in Rankings on U.S. News and World Report’s List of 2023 Best Graduate Schools

Howard University’s Graduate Social Work, Education, Business Programs Rise in Rankings on U.S. News and World Report’s List of 2023 Best Graduate Schools

Howard College School of Medicine maintains the No. 1 ranking for Most Varied Clinical Schools

WASHINGTON – Howard University’s graduate packages in social do the job, schooling, and business each obtained major raises in the yearly national rankings generated by U.S. News and Earth Report’s 2023 “Best Graduate Schools” listing. Howard University College of Social Work is ranked No. 16, the College of Schooling (HUSOE) is rated No. 71, and the School of Business is ranked No. 57 for its total-time MBA program. In the healthcare university rankings, the Howard College Higher education of Medicine rated No. 1 for Most Diverse Clinical School and No. 49 ranking for Most Graduates in Primary Treatment Specialties.

“The increase in our graduate program’s rankings affirm the initiatives of Howard College school, employees, and learners who perform tirelessly to sustain the optimum standard of academic excellence,” mentioned President Wayne A. I. Frederick, MD, MBA. “We credit score the collective energy of our campus community who try to fulfill our mission of truth and company and persistently supply Howard pupils with one of a kind and ground breaking programing. It is mainly because of their provider that our graduate college students depart Howard’s campus geared up with a wide assortment of competencies and a deep perception of objective, well prepared to have an affect on their communities.”

The Howard College University of Social Perform jumped nine spots on the list this yr with a position of No. 16. Rooted in a social justice framework, the faculty delivers interprofessional programming that improves students’ preparedness to enter the subject soon after graduation. In January, the College of Social Perform introduced an on-line MSW application that boosts accessibility, making it attainable for students to get the program’s earth-course, instructional experience from nearly any where.

“Our founding dean, Dr. Inabel Burns Lindsay, set out to have a social do the job application at Howard that was revered and suitable to the needs of African Individuals and other marginalized and underserved populations,” reported Sandra Crewe, Ph.D., dean of the University of Social Perform. “Being highly ranked by our peer institutions reflects our optimistic associations and ongoing dedication to excellence and currently being daring in addressing inequities in our society. I am grateful to our college, team, alumni, learners, colleagues, and buddies for recognizing and investing in our excellence.”

Howard University’s University of Schooling soared 20 places to No. 71. Ranking among the major 30 per cent of graduate schooling universities in the nation, the University of Instruction has highly developed its placement in the planet by means of continuous innovation in studying and self-analysis of its different systems.

“The earlier two tutorial yrs have been crammed with challenge, resiliency and triumph,” reported Dawn Williams, Ph.D., dean of the University of Schooling. “The Faculty of Education school have been of support not only to our students, but also to the greater instructional local community as we managed learning transitions and threats to providing a culturally affirming education and learning. All the while, we have held a steadfast commitment to our mission to empower men and women, educational facilities and communities by means of the advertising of racial and social justice. It provides me wonderful joy to know that our tricky work has not gone unrecognized.”

The Howard University College of Small business ranked No. 57 for its complete-time MBA plan, a seven-place boost in its ranking from prior yr. The Faculty of Business and its award-winning programs have been the to start with organization school in Washington, D.C to obtain accreditation from the Association to Advance Collegiate Colleges of Enterprise. In addition to its total-time MBA plan, the university has labored to expand its on line offerings with an online portion-time MBA and two new specialised courses: an on the web Learn of Accountancy and on the internet Learn of Finance.

“Howard Faculty of Business is very pleased to see our rankings continue to increase between the best company programs in the state,” mentioned Anthony D. Wilbon, Ph.D., dean of Howard College University of Small business. “Our students and school have worked hard about the previous 12 months to uphold a typical of excellence and I am glad that our efforts are getting acknowledged and revered. We are continuously innovating the way we method schooling, as evidenced by our at any time-expanding on the net offerings and we are psyched for what the future retains.”

The School of Medicine rated No. 1 for Most Varied Clinical Educational facilities for the X calendar year in a row and jumped to No. 49 in the rating for Most Graduates in Key Treatment Specialties.

“For more than a century, Howard College College of Medicine has been giving learners of large academic opportunity with a medical schooling of fantastic top quality and thereby making ready long run doctors and experts to provide the underserved,” mentioned Hugh E. Mighty, MD, Howard University College or university of Medicine dean and senior vice president of medical affairs. “We are delighted that numerous of our systems saw notable gains in this year’s U.S. Information & Environment Report rankings.”

Considering the fact that 1983, the U.S. News and Planet Report has been the foremost authority in rating academic institutions. Their rankings are often used in the selection-earning system for people pursuing increased schooling. Howard’s bounce in the rankings demonstrates the good results of the school’s mission to be a best-rating institution that generates impactful investigate. Howard continues to go after excellence and forward development in educating transformational leaders and educators.

About Howard College

Established in 1867, Howard University is a non-public, analysis college that is comprised of 14 colleges and colleges. Students pursue more than 140 applications of examine primary to undergraduate, graduate and specialist levels. The College operates with a motivation to Excellence in Truth of the matter and Provider and has produced 1 Schwarzman Scholar, a few Marshall Students, four Rhodes Students, 12 Truman Scholars, 25 Pickering Fellows and extra than 165 Fulbright recipients. Howard also generates more on-campus African American Ph.D. recipients than any other college in the United States. For far more details on Howard College, visit www.howard.edu.

Media Get hold of: Misha Cornelius, [email protected]

‘A story of social justice’: a history of racial segregation and swimming | Art

‘A story of social justice’: a history of racial segregation and swimming | Art

Aquatic-safety advocate Angela Beale-Tawfeeq grew up swimming at the public pool in her predominantly Black neighborhood. “We always say, ‘In North Philadelphia, born and raised, in the swimming pool is where we spent most of our days,’ she recites, referencing the familiar lyrics of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air theme song.

Now the education and research director of Diversity in Aquatics (one of the nation’s only organizations of Black and brown aquatics professionals), Beale-Tawfeeq is one of the many compelling voices contributing to Pool: A Social History of Segregation, a new wide-ranging exhibition about the United States’s history of segregated swimming and its connection to today’s alarming drowning rates in Black communities. Encompassing history, artworks and storytelling across a broad array of media, the immersive presentation uses public swimming pools as a lens through which to ponder social justice and public health.

The ​​4,700-sq-ft exhibition is now on view at Philadelphia’s historic Fairmount Water Works, a neo-classical landmark abutting the Schuylkill River that pumped water into the city until the turn of the 20th century and later became an aquarium and then one of the city’s first integrated pools, backed by the father of the actor Grace Kelly. After decades of preservation efforts, most of the building reopened in 2003 as an environmental education center, but the three-lane cement pool area was never restored due to lack of funding, according to Victoria Prizzia, the exhibition organizer.

“It felt very important to have that sacred space – a historic site and former public pool that had been neglected and captured in a state of arrested decay,” says Prizzia, a former lifeguard and competitive swimmer who since 2009 has directed many projects about water issues and the environment. “When you step inside, you really are transported. This is a reclaiming of that space, to tell the story in a different way.”

In the summer of 1962, demonstrators in Cairo, Illinois, protested the tactic of skirting anti-discrimination laws by putting public pools into the hands of private management, transforming them into ‘clubs’ for white people only.
In the summer of 1962, demonstrators in Cairo, Illinois, protested the tactic of skirting anti-discrimination laws by putting public pools into the hands of private management, transforming them into ‘clubs’ for white people only. Photograph: Danny Lyon/Magnum Photos

The exhibition’s projections bring the walls of the space to life. Near the entrance lies a digital pool of water that visitors are encouraged to sit around and virtually dip their feet into while listening to interview excerpts from athletes, activists and academics. “I love when you have the architectural elements speak for themselves, and in this case they really become another character,” Prizzia notes. (And this character has seen its share of floods due to its riverbank location: the exhibition was all set to open in September, but Hurricane Ida swept through mere hours after the opening reception; the space flooded, but miraculously nothing was damaged.)

Public pools have long been contested sites that reflect America’s racial and economic divisions, since the 1920s when pools began to be segregated by race instead of, as previously, by sex or class. A deep anxiety emerged around that time about people of different races and sexes sharing such intimate spaces. In the south, segregation was mandated through city ordinances and other official exclusionary rules; in northern states, de facto segregation occurred as a result of building public pools in white neighborhoods or, more frequently, through intimidation, harassment and violence.

A digital animation commission by the noted Philadelphia playwright James Ijames titled Moving Portraits interweaves the history of segregated swimming with the achievements of Black swimming heroes. Cast on to the Water Works’ historic facade opposite custom stadium seating evoking the golden era of public pools, it’s a highlight of the exhibition, according to Prizzia: “We’re not only showing tragedy but also revealing this other current – the accomplishments that have been forgotten, happening in parallel, by Black swimmers.”

A Black swim club meets at the Kelly Natatorium, the indoor pool once located at the Fairmount Water Works, in 1962.
A Black swim club meets at the Kelly Natatorium, the indoor pool once located at the Fairmount Water Works, in 1962. Photograph: Photo courtesy of the Fairmount Water Works and Philadelphia Water Department Collection

Also largely overlooked is the fact that many non-European peoples were proficient swimmers until the late 1800s, at which point a nascent white beach and pool culture drove people of color away from those spaces. In Pool, this essential and little-known historical context comes via archival images and narratives from Kevin Dawson, author of the 2018 book Undercurrents of Power: Aquatic Culture in the African Diaspora. “The exhibit is really important in that it’s helping to encourage Black people to get back into the water,” Dawson tells the Guardian. “Many are seeing swimming as kind of their historical heritage that Jim Crow racism denied them.”

The legacy of that shameful history, compounded by the slashing of funds for public pools, is evident in today’s grim drowning disparities: in Pennsylvania, Black children have a 50{e4f787673fbda589a16c4acddca5ba6fa1cbf0bc0eb53f36e5f8309f6ee846cf} higher rate of accidental drowning than white children. Nationwide, Black youth are almost six times more likely than white children to drown in a swimming pool, and 69{e4f787673fbda589a16c4acddca5ba6fa1cbf0bc0eb53f36e5f8309f6ee846cf} of Black children have little to no swimming ability, compared with 42{e4f787673fbda589a16c4acddca5ba6fa1cbf0bc0eb53f36e5f8309f6ee846cf} of white children. “The story of water is really a story of social justice,” says Prizzia, pointing to inequities in land use, infrastructure and pollution in addition to access to swimming spaces.

Philadelphia has a uniquely rich public pool culture, opening the first outdoor municipal pool in the US in 1883 (which functioned as a public bath for poor and immigrant communities who didn’t have indoor plumbing) and, with more than 70 pools, still boasting the largest number of public pools per resident of any large American city. In response to an outcry over drownings in nearby rivers and creeks, seven swim clubs cropped up around the middle of the century to serve both urban and suburban Black swimmers. (Several are still going strong today, including the nation’s first Black-owned swim club.) “Philadelphians love their pools,” Prizzia says. “They’re really important to the fabric of local neighborhoods. They’re like your extended family.”

Cullen Jones, the first Black American to hold a world record in swimming, is now an ambassador for the USA Swimming Foundation’s Make a Splash initiative, which has provided free or low-cost swimming lessons to more than 4 million children.
Cullen Jones, the first Black American to hold a world record in swimming, is now an ambassador for the USA Swimming Foundation’s Make a Splash initiative, which has provided free or low-cost swimming lessons to more than 4 million children. Photograph: Mark J Terrill/AP

Beale-Tawfeeq knows that well: “I grew up understanding that learning to swim can actually save lives in more ways than one.” She joined the Philadelphia Parks and Recreation diving team at age 10, later was coached by the visionary Jim Ellis (who formed the country’s first Black swim team and was the subject of the 2007 film Pride), and eventually attended Howard University on an athletic scholarship. Now a physical-education educator, she touts swimming’s health benefits: “It’s a physical activity you can do from six months old until you’re 100.”

Beale-Tawfeeq notes there’s trauma in the exhibition’s narratives, but an exuberant mural at the exhibition entrance hopes to balance that. Created by El Salvador– born, Philadelphia-based artist Calo Rosa and representing an offering to a Yoruba water goddess, the piece exhorts visitors to “dive in”. “We wanted to create an invitation to come in and enjoy too,” Prizzia says. “By excluding people from swimming, you’re also excluding them from a very natural joy. People gravitate toward water; everyone wants to play in it. Hopefully the exhibition is a pathway for people to learn to swim and have access to something that would bring them joy.”