______________
Katie Richards-Schuster, AM, PhD is an Assistant Professor in the School of Social Work at the University of Michigan.
Mary C. Ruffolo, LMSW, PhD is a Professor in the School of Social Work at the University of Michigan. Kerri Leyda
Nicoll, MDiv, MSW, PhD, is an Assistant Professor of Social Work in the Department of Sociology, Anthropology &
Social Work at the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts in North Adams, MA. Catherine Distelrath, MSW, is a Research
Assistant in the School of Social Work at the University of Michigan. Joseph Galura, LMSW is a Lecturer and Advisor in
the School of Social Work at the University of Michigan, Alice Mishin, LLMSW, is a Lecturer and Program Manager in
the School of Social Work at the University of Michigan.

Exploring Challenges Faced by Students as they Transition to Social Justice
Work in the “Real World”: Implications for Social Work

Katie Richards-Schuster
Mary C. Ruffolo

Kerri Leyda Nicoll
Catherine Distelrath

Joseph Galura
Alice Mishkin

Abstract: For students who are actively engaged in social justice efforts on their
college/university campuses, the transition from a relatively easy platform for engagement
to the “real world” can pose significant challenges and create new realities for negotiation.
Little is known, however, about the nature of these transitions into post-graduate social
justice experiences. Drawing on an open-ended survey of recent graduates (92 respondents,
50% response rate) from a social justice minor in a school of social work, we explore the
ways in which respondents described their transitions into social justice work, focusing on
a set of key challenges that emerged from our analysis and reflecting on the implications
of these challenges for social work practice and future research. Understanding some of
the challenges in making this transition will help social work and non-profit administrators
to better support this population’s future volunteer, service, and employment needs.

Keywords: Social justice, higher education administration, social work, community
organization, social action

While social work has a particular and unique commitment to educating students with
a social justice orientation, the field is not alone in producing such students, as more and
more colleges and universities establish active social-justice- and community-oriented
majors and minors apart from BSW and MSW programs (Glass, 2013; Harkavy, 2006;
Hoy, Johnson, & Hackett, 2012). In keeping with this trend, many social work schools have
engaged in curricular innovations that promote engaged learning and active involvement
in communities (Burke, 2011; Glass, 2012; Rome & Hoechstetter, 2010). Some schools of
social work are developing social work minors or related social justice minors as an
alternative to the BSW program. Although only a few social work schools offer
undergraduate non-BSW programs, these innovations offer the potential for a social work
footprint on undergraduate campuses and create the possibility of pipelines from
undergraduate to master’s or doctoral level education in social work (Richards-Schuster,
Ruffolo, & Nicoll, 2015).

For highly motivated students who are actively engaged in these minors, majors, and
other social justice efforts, the transition from a relatively easy platform for engagement to
the “real world” can challenge individuals’ understanding of social justice and their own
identities as social change agents and can create new realities for negotiation. The reality

Richards-Schuster et al./EXPLORING CHALLENGES 373

of these transitions - and the challenges that emerge - have implications for the social work
and non-profit settings that become the first employers for many of these students. Yet
little is known about these transitions and the immediate issues - both positive and negative
- that students face as they enter this new realm of engagement.

In this article, we offer a first step toward such understanding by examining the
immediate issues and challenges that new graduates have faced in staying involved in
social justice work and service in the first three years after graduating from a social justice-
oriented minor. Drawing on an open-ended survey of new graduates who had recently
completed a social justice-focused minor within a school of social work, we explore the
ways in which respondents described their transitions into the “real world.” We examine
trends in their descriptions, focusing on a set of key challenges that emerged from our
analysis and reflecting on the implications of these challenges for non-profit settings, social
work education and practice, and future research.

Background Literature

Over the last several years, higher education in the United States has experienced an
increased sense of responsibility for educating young adults not just academically, but
civically as well (Bringle, Clayton, Steinberg, & Studer, 2011). As students have expressed
a desire to perform more community work and become more engaged in social justice
activities both on and off campus, institutes of higher education have begun working to
fulfill that desire, offering an increasing number of service learning courses, civic
engagement minors and majors, and co-curricular service and civic engagement activities
(Bringle et al., 2011; Colby, Ehrlich, Beaumont, & Stephens, 2003; Steinberg, Hatcher, &
Bringle, 2011). As these programs grow and expand, there is a strong desire by social work
and other allied fields to support students as they transition out of the college/university
environment and adapt to the various ways that social justice activism takes shape in their
lives (Flanagan & Levine, 2010; Wendlandt & Rochlen, 2008).

Little is known, however, about how these undergraduate initiatives impact students as
they transition from higher education to work in the “real world.” This is especially true
for the millennial generation, which is the primary cohort of students in many of today’s
undergraduate colleges and universities, including our own. Recent research demonstrates
an overall optimism among young adults about their lives and the world in general that is
somewhat unique to the millennial generation (Murphy, Blustein, Bohlig, & Platt, 2010).
Researchers have described this as a tendency to possess “world-conquering ambition” and
a much greater emphasis than previous generations on personal identity and civic
engagement in the workplace (Alsop, 2008; Arnett, 2004; Murphy et al., 2010). This
ambitious, civic-minded outlook often leads to disappointment, however, when these
young adults transition to their first jobs, finding themselves in mundane positions and
wondering whether they are actually contributing anything to their organizations or, more
importantly for them, to society (Alsop, 2008; Arnett, 2004; Murphy et al., 2010).

Many students entering college today have a richer background in civic engagement
and social justice than ever before, primarily in the area of volunteering. Among other
things, they bring to campus a variety of experiences with community-based work, along

ADVANCES IN SOCIAL WORK, Fall 2015, 16(2) 374

with a disposition of unfailing confidence in their abilities. It then becomes the role of
colleges and universities to foster the identities that have been formed through adolescence
and continue to challenge the depth of civic engagement within each student. This is being
done, more and more, through an intersection of education- and community-based
programs (Bringle et al., 2011; Colby et al., 2003; Steinberg et al., 2011).

Murphy et al. (2010) found that, regardless of their feelings about the ease of their
transition during the gap years, many young adults share a common sense of the value of
community and social support in their lives. After leaving the comfort of the college
community, many students elicit support and encouragement from their family and friends
that keeps them motivated through their transition. This sense of value placed on
community support likely develops most for students during their college years,
particularly if they have spent time learning through community-based programs and
instruction. There is limited research, however, that focuses specifically on the post-
graduate outcomes of those who participate in service- and community-based programs,
and very little attention is given to how these programs impact this growing population of
alums in different and presumably heightened ways compared to other graduates (Keen &
Hall, 2008).

While attention to alumni transitions and the particular challenges faced by this
generation of social justice-minded young adults is growing (Polach, 2004; Roksa & Arum,
2012), little research has focused on the nature of immediate (first, second, or third year
post-graduation) transitions from undergraduate to alumni status for social work and other
social justice-oriented students. Mitchell, Battistoni, Keene, and Reiff (2013), for example,
discuss the importance of building an “enhanced civic identity” that sustains the transition
from undergraduate to alumni, outlining fundamental skills such as collaboration, voice,
reflective practice, and engaged scholarship. These skills are developed during college and
become necessary for civic leadership over time, but the majority of studies have focused
on alumni five or more years after graduation. Other studies finding significant correlations
between collegiate engagement and post-college civic involvement have also used longer
time frames (Besser, 2012; Bringle et al., 2011; Goldsberry, 2007).

Knowledge about the specific challenges facing students in the initial post-graduation
years could prove to be particularly important given the fact that these years are often
indicative of long-term trajectories (Roksa & Arum, 2012). While it is true that many
college graduates face a transition shock, we are particularly interested in those students
embarking on social justice careers because of the potential impact on their long-term
engagement in social work-related fields. If schools of social work – whether they offer
BSW programs or social justice minors - are to continue to build a robust cohort of life-
long social justice practitioners, we must advance discussions about how best to support
our graduates in making successful post-graduate transitions. This paper contributes to
such discussions by examining the immediate issues and challenges that students encounter
as they leave social work and social justice-oriented programs and the implications of those
challenges for education, research, and practice in social work and allied fields.

Richards-Schuster et al./EXPLORING CHALLENGES 375

Methods
In fall 2013, our team of researchers conducted a pilot survey of alumni from an

interdisciplinary social justice-focused minor program offered by a school of social work.
Until 2010, this school of social work, housed in a large public university, provided
graduate education for more than 600 MSW and PhD students each year but had no
undergraduate programs. The minor discussed in this paper, which began in 2010, is the
first and only undergraduate program that the school of social work offers and was created
as a multidisciplinary program aimed to support students interested in social justice,
community action, and social change (see Richards-Schuster et al., 2015; Richards-
Schuster et al., 2014, for more details about the minor’s development and curriculum).
There is no BSW or social work major program offered at this university.

The goals of the minor, which is explicitly not intended to be a BSW program, are to
enable students to: (a) examine community action and social change concepts using a
multidisciplinary framework, (b) address community action and social change efforts in
multilingual and multicultural communities, (c) integrate social justice values into the
community action and social change processes, and (d) engage in service learning
opportunities to promote community change initiatives.

The courses included in the 16-credit minor are intended to provide students with
theoretical frameworks for understanding social change, skills for self-identity
development and facilitation in diverse settings, experiences in service-learning or
community-engagement courses, practical skills for community change work, and
opportunities for integrative reflection. In addition, the minor offers co-curricular activities
to complement course-based learning. These include social justice fairs, speakers and
panels, community-based experiences, community-building activities, and opportunities to
hear about and learn from the experiences of program alumni. Drawing on systems and
community action frameworks, the many components of the minor were designed to
prepare students to engage in social justice/change work throughout their lives, whether
they pursue traditional social work careers or enter fields as diverse as sports management,
biomechanics, or music.

Research Design

Our pilot survey of the alumni of the minor was initially designed to gather information
about the experiences of alums post-graduation, both in order to help in developing better
supports for future cohorts as they transitioned to the “real world” and to assess the
implications of these experiences for social work and social justice education more broadly.
Our specific questions were: (1) What are the challenges that highly motivated, social-
justice-focused students face as they graduate from college and enter the “real world”? (2)
What are the perceptions of these new graduates as they move into social work and related
non-profit settings?

To gather this information we created an online, open-ended survey. In the survey, we
asked alumni to share about their post-undergraduate work (paid, unpaid, continuing
education), discuss accomplishments they had achieved since graduating from the minor,
identify challenges they had faced, and reflect on what they had learned (and not learned)

ADVANCES IN SOCIAL WORK, Fall 2015, 16(2) 376

from the minor (e.g., what has been useful, what has mattered most to them in their post-
graduation work, what they wish they had learned, and what advice they would give to
current students). Because this was a pilot survey and we were looking to generate themes
rather than test particular hypotheses, we intentionally kept the survey open-ended
(Creswell, 2014).

Using Qualtrics, an online survey tool, we administered the survey to alumni from the
first three cohorts of the minor from 2011 to 2013 (n=187). We reached out to alumni using
email addresses that they had provided at graduation or updated contact information they
had sent of their own accord. After sending three follow-up emails as reminders to
encourage alumni to complete the survey, our final response rate was approximately 50%
(n=92). Alumni from each of the three classes provided answers.

The sample of survey respondents consisted of 71 women and 21 men. Of the 92
respondents, 75% identified as white, 6.5% identified as Black, 6.5% identified as Hispanic,
5.5% identified as Asian or Pacific Islander, and 6.5% chose not to respond. Although over
half (56.5%) of the respondents had been social science majors, respondents also reported
a variety of undergraduate majors, including art and design, science, business, and cultural
studies. The overwhelming majority of the students in this sample completed college within
four years and were in their early 20s at the time of graduation. At the time of response,
participants were in a range of post-college opportunities, most of which were in the non-
profit or public sectors, social work, or social justice fields (see Table 1).

Table 1. Post-Graduate Involvement of Study Participants (n= 92)
Post-Graduation Involvement # of Alums
Extended service program (AmeriCorps, Teach for America, Peace Corps, etc.) 23 (25%)
MSW or Joint Master's Program 22 (24%)
Non-profit or government employment 23 (25%)
Other post-bacc. degree at U of M or other school 14 (15%)
For-profit or freelance work 3 (3%)
Unemployed/ No response 7 (8%)

Analysis
As our survey questions were largely open-ended and we were interested in exploring

responses without particular predefined hypotheses, we approached our data using
thematic analysis (Boyatzis, 1998; Creswell, 2014; Denzin & Lincoln, 2011). Multiple
research team members reviewed the survey responses, resulting in the identification of
several potential thematic codes. Once these codes had been identified, the data was
reviewed again in an effort to locate all instances of the identified themes/codes in each
individual’s survey responses. The reviewers then compared their codes and sorted them
into three major categories: (a) current experiences, (b) challenges, and (c) the translation
of learning from the university to the “real world.” Using these categories, the data was
reviewed yet again to uncover related sub-themes and ensure conceptual saturation (Corbin
& Strauss, 2008; Glaser & Strauss, 1967).

The team also used QSR International’s NVIVO 10 software, a qualitative data
analysis program that assists with pattern-based coding and theme tracking, to explore

Richards-Schuster et al./EXPLORING CHALLENGES 377

word frequencies and response trends (QSR International, 2012). In this article, we focus
specifically on the themes that emerged related to challenges graduates faced as they
transitioned from undergraduate education to post-graduate experiences.

Emergent Themes: Critical Challenges in Transitions

While there were many successes that graduates faced during their transitions from
undergraduate education to post-graduate life and work, these successes were most often
accompanied by challenges. Approximately two-thirds of our respondents noted specific
challenges they had faced during their post-graduation transition. The remaining third did
not explicitly acknowledge challenges, which could mean that they transitioned without
challenges or that they failed to mention them in their survey responses. We acknowledge
that transitions are complex and involve both ups and downs, but we chose to pay particular
attention to challenges in this paper in order to highlight the ways in which schools of social
work might more fully support social justice-focused graduates.

Challenges with Adjustment to New Communities

More than a third of the students who responded to this survey described challenges
related to their adjustment to new community environments. This is not terribly surprising,
as one would expect that students who have spent years in one location might have
difficulty relocating and starting anew outside of their familiar surroundings. Building
relationships, learning new jobs, and negotiating the requirements of living in new cities
are challenges likely faced by many recent college graduates. For many, this was their first
experience in moving to a new community without the structures and supports of a
university environment, and for those beginning social-justice-focused positions, it often
entails adjustments not only to new locations but also to the economic and social realities
facing the communities they are entering and with whom they hope to work.

As one respondent in his first year post-graduation reported:

My biggest challenge by far has been adjusting to my community outside of work.
It is a low-income Black community centered around the church in a town ravaged
by the collapse of industry. I can relate in some ways, but I’m not religious at all
and it’s not a great place for 20-somethings. That being said, I feel it’s important
to be involved in the community as much as you can, so it has been tricky to
navigate being present with practicing self-care and not compromising myself.

For this respondent, moving to a new community was challenging, not only because he did
not know people and did not feel like he fit in with the culture around him but also because
he wanted to become a part of this community, sharing in its struggles and
accomplishments, while still maintaining his own identity. He was deeply committed to
living in this community, not just physically but also socially, wanting to build
relationships with his neighbors and other community members, but adjusting to life there
was still a challenge. “I’m not sure (the minor) really prepares you for the full experience,”
he said, “since it's gonna be different no matter who you are, but it does emphasize the
importance of knowing your community and I realize now how important that is to take
that to heart.”

ADVANCES IN SOCIAL WORK, Fall 2015, 16(2) 378

Other respondents made similar comments about the challenges to adjusting to new
communities and new environments:

There have been a lot of challenges, from moving away from everything I’ve known,
to adjusting to a new culture, language, and career…I am constantly reflecting on
my role and what I hope to accomplish here.

It has been overall a challenge to move to a new city and a new community to work
in the social work field…It is a challenge to network and start ‘fresh’ when you
are young and continuing to move to new environments.

Frustration with “Social Justice” Ideology

Another theme that emerged was the challenge of ideological frustration around what
social justice looked like in reality. Despite feeling that their experiences in college and in
the minor had given them the skills to engage with others and to work collaboratively,
many of our respondents still expressed a stark realization that, as one student put it, “no
one wants to talk about social identities and social justice as much as college students do.”

In some ways the respondents described the difference between the theoretical
frameworks around social justice and the practical implications of working for change on
the ground, especially as it related to awareness around social identity. Despite having
taken service learning courses or participated in internships, students expressed feeling
unprepared for moving into organizational environments that differed from their
experiences surrounded by other social-justice-minded students in college.

It has been very difficult working with (an) organization as a whole who, at times,
do not carry the same sort of communal and cultural values as (the minor)…I am
feeling a bit frustrated by all of this, to be honest.

Some of my biggest challenges are working with people who have been in the
criminal justice/juvenile justice field for years. They seem to be more skeptical and
pessimistic. They also doubt me because of my identity as a young white woman
who is passionate about challenging our prison system.

Working with people who do not share my interest/passion/knowledge around
social justice and community work has been a challenge.

Even among others who seemed to care about similar issues and share a commitment
to social justice, it was sometimes difficult to not speak a common language. Some
respondents noted that they often used jargon that identified them as educational elites,
which created additional challenges: “[School] helped me by giving me knowledge, but
educational privilege has been a tough thing for me to manage.” Another respondent added,
“Leaving [college], I sort of assumed that everyone would have this knowledge [of how
experiences and identities play into people’s lives].”

Interestingly, we found that this was particularly acute for students who transitioned
from college into graduate programs. Our sense is that graduates who entered the
workforce, although frustrated in many cases, were more positive about their experiences
and their ability to apply the values they learned through the minor to their work, whereas

Richards-Schuster et al./EXPLORING CHALLENGES 379

those in MSW programs expressed more frustration about their fellow students not
possessing the same level of insight into social issues.

I find that my colleagues [in the MSW program] don’t have the in-depth
understanding of social inequalities/issues that I… have, and this can be quite
frustrating.

I’ve been struggling with being frustrated with my peers because of their lack of
inclusivity or multicultural awareness….My classmates often come to me with
questions in these areas because of my experiences in [the minor].

Stress of Working in Non-Profit Organizations

A third emergent theme in the findings was the level of stress and frustration faced by
respondents as they transitioned from the university to work in non-profit and community-
based environments. Like many millennial students, the transition from college to the
workforce was the first time that these young adults had held full-time positions in the non-
profit sector, although some had worked in part-time or volunteer positions while in school.
Their exposure to non-profit and community-based organizations, through service learning
courses, internships, field experiences, and other volunteer activities, tended to be bounded,
time-limited, and in some cases engineered specifically for student learning and thus did
not accurately expose students to the realities of working full-time in the field.

Non-profits, particularly smaller, service-oriented organizations, face unique
challenges and limitations that are not often discussed in the college classroom, leading
some students to have unrealistic expectations of what work in this environment would
entail. Though they were committed to and excited about working in organizations devoted
to social change, our respondents did not always have a sense of what this work would be
like on a day-to-day basis.

As one respondent noted, “Working for a non-profit can be extremely frustrating due
to lack of funding and organization.” This was echoed by another who said,
“Understanding agency limitations has been the most challenging.” Several also expressed
feelings of disillusionment with their job duties, which were not always as explicitly related
to community change as they would have hoped. One respondent commented:

The biggest challenge for me is just the days when I go into work and I’m doing the
most seemingly unrelated, random task. And I should say it’s not the type of task like getting
coffee, but more like writing a random report for something that doesn’t really
change the way programs are going to run.

[Social justice work] is easier to be passionate about when you’re talking about
[it] in class, but much harder when it’s your 40+ hours a week job. It’s filled with
mundane tasks that seem totally unrelated to the mission…You have to have
something that ignites that spark.

While these respondents were not about to give up on community change work, they did
wish that they had been more prepared for the day-to-day work of non-profit employees,

ADVANCES IN SOCIAL WORK, Fall 2015, 16(2) 380

particularly in the first few years after graduation when their jobs are likely to be entry-
level positions that lack major decision-making responsibility.

These basic challenges of operating in a non-profit organizational culture were
compounded for some by the stress of trying to balance their passion for social-justice-
oriented work with a reasonable level of self-care. One recent graduate noted, “I think the
biggest challenge so far is money...I am making barely enough to live on.” Others focused
less on financial concerns than on fears of losing their passion for change work as a result
of financial, physical, or emotional stress. One respondent described her biggest challenge
as “being treated like just because I have a heart and care about the issues, I will do anything
and everything to get it done, including getting pushed to the point of physical and mental
exhaustion.” “One of my main challenges,” another respondent said, “is separating my
career from my personal life. I want so much for my clients to succeed in their goals but I
have to realize that at the end of the day, I can only do what I can do.”

Overwhelming Sense of “Real World” Injustices

A fourth emergent theme from the survey involved efforts to grapple with the
overwhelming nature of social injustices and oppression in the “real world.” While some
students come to college with a strong understanding of the realities of injustice, other
students-especially those from more privileged backgrounds–lack a realistic picture of the
challenges faced by many individuals and communities. While short-term projects, service
learning courses, and internship experiences in and with communities can open students’
eyes to issues they did not know existed, they cannot fully prepare them for what it is like
to live these experiences on a regular basis. This is especially true for students in non-
social-work degree-granting programs who do not have the same expectations for sustained
field placements as most BSW and MSW programs.

One respondent noted, for example, that her biggest challenge is “just dealing with
the personal stories from clients,” while another said that she has been surprised by how
challenging “working with clients from different backgrounds can be.” For both of these
respondents, as well as many others, learning about the very different – and often unjust –
life experiences of clients has been enlightening but also disheartening. While some
described finding ways to cope with issues of injustice, others mentioned the “immensity”
of social problems and of the work they saw before them:

I have faced burn-out and a type of exhaustion from the utter “brokenness” of the
world…But I also get to see the other side of it. I have been able to rally with a
team doing extraordinary work and focus on that rather than the things that we
aren’t/can’t be doing.

[I have been] overwhelmed by the immensity of social issues that still exist in the
world, let alone our society. It is difficult to grasp the fact that I cannot positively
impact every issue I come across.

Recognizing “real world” injustices has also challenged alumni to draw on the
relationship-building skills they developed in courses and service experiences while in
school. As they described it in response to our survey questions, this has involved not only

Richards-Schuster et al./EXPLORING CHALLENGES 381

becoming aware of the very real problems and injustices communities face but also of the
uniqueness of each community’s experiences and therefore of the steps it will take to bring
about change. Acknowledging diversity and building relationships across difference were
things the students learned about in the classroom but still struggled with as they entered
work in the field. As one respondent said, “I learned in [classes] that you must always come
into a community understanding that it is different but what I was not ready for was how
different.” Overall, while our respondents repeatedly described the ways that their social
justice courses and other activities had helped them to deal with the challenges they faced
as they moved into social-justice-oriented jobs post-graduation, they still encountered
some challenges for which they felt unprepared.

Implications for Social Work Practice and Research
The findings from our research suggest that there are many challenges that students

face as they transition into post-college civic engagement and social justice work
experiences. Given that many students first work in non-profit settings and that these first
post-college jobs often set the course for students’ desire to remain in social work or other
social justice-oriented careers, it is critical that social work as a field pays particular
attention to understanding transitions. Similarly, it is important that social work agencies
and community-based organizations be able to understand the mindset and transitional
issues facing the graduates that become their newest employees or serve as long-term
interns through programs like AmeriCorps or City Year. Understanding these challenges
could potentially lead to easier transitions and higher job satisfaction by recent graduates
and less turnover and workplace frustration by non-profit and social work agencies.

While it is no surprise that students face challenges when they leave the university
setting and enter the “real world,” there have been very few studies that attempt to capture
the perspectives of recent graduates and to name and understand the nuances of these
challenges. One of our respondents described this transition as moving beyond the “social
justice bubble” that exists in many campus-based settings. While we may recognize that
this bubble exists, as educators and researchers we often have not put much effort into
understanding or preparing students for what leaving it will entail. In this next section we
explore potential strategies for supporting transitions and discuss suggestions for future
research.

Strategies for Social Work Schools to Support Transitions

Because of the investment of social work schools in supporting social justice and social
work agencies, social work educators play a special role in helping to develop strategies
for successful transitions. While some social work schools already offer social justice
minors as a form of connection to undergraduates, others schools, especially those without
BSW programs, may look to opportunities to offer course work for undergraduates in order
to provide more realistic understanding of work in social justice organizations.

For example, social work schools might strengthen opportunities to connect
undergraduate students to the daily realities of work in the social justice realm while they
are still in school. While MSW and BSW programs are required to provide field

ADVANCES IN SOCIAL WORK, Fall 2015, 16(2) 382

experiences that enable longer exposure to community organizations, social justice minors
or programs are not; therefore, exposure to the actual day-to-day realities of work may not
occur. Such exposure might be accomplished, however, by developing a capstone or
seminar to explicitly discuss the transition from student to graduate and/or by providing
opportunities for students to learn about the day-to-day workload of non-profit employees,
graduate students, and social justice advocates, particularly those in their first one to three
years out of college.

Another strategy would be to include more opportunities for students to engage in
conversations with recent graduates about their daily work life. Courses could be developed
that focus on the reality of social change work to expose students to an understanding of
what is expected of them (i.e., to provide a realistic picture of what such work is like), what
the tensions and issues are in the daily tasks of social justice work, the logistics of working
in a non-profit, such as sample schedules, work pacing, and need for flexibility-and the
impact of the work on the employees, including accomplishments and growth.

In addition to providing more concrete examples of what social justice work is like in
the “real world,” courses and co-curricular programs in social work and other related fields
also need to help students to develop the specific skills they are likely to need for their
post-graduation lives and work. Based on the challenges described by our survey
respondents, we argue that the following types of skills should be prioritized: relationship
building, critical reflection and perspective-taking, cultural and educational humility, and
self-care.

The types of relationship building we have in mind include not only establishing
relationships with people in one’s new community in order to learn from their perspective
but also intentionally seeking out relationships with those who can inspire and support one
in the face of challenges. Both require similar skills in networking and communication with
diverse community members, but the former involves using these skills to meet and interact
with like-minded and non-like-minded people with an eye toward building coalitions
across difference, while the latter entails maintaining contacts with people outside of one’s
new community as well as developing relationships within that community with people
who share one’s commitment to social justice.

Our respondents’ comments about “educational privilege” and the isolation they
experienced as a result of this tie directly to the recent call in social work education for the
development of “cultural humility” (Ortega & Faller, 2011). This is a practice that de-
emphasizes the role of the practitioner as an expert in cultural and diversity frameworks
and focuses on being open to learning about people through their own perspectives and
lived experiences as a core component of practice (Ortega & Faller, 2011), as well as on
the need for frank discussions about the role of privilege and social identity within social
change work. Critically important to student transitions is the ability for students to be
aware of and cognizant about their own privilege. In this minor, for example, with a
population that is largely white, possesses an upper socioeconomic status (SES), and comes
from an elite public university, privilege emerges from student’s educational perspectives,
racial and ethnic identity, and SES, among other social identities. Open and honest
discussions about how to recognize one’s own privilege and the implications for practice

Richards-Schuster et al./EXPLORING CHALLENGES 383

are very important. These discussions occur in the classroom on a regular basis, covering
topics such as “privilege,” “entering communities,” “fighting white savior complexes,” and
“critiquing the concept of ‘help’” among others. They also happen outside of the classroom
in minor-sponsored workshops, retreats, and network discussion activities. Most recently,
the minor developed a social justice retreat aimed at grappling with critical questions
around privilege and social change. As students are able to be more open and humble in
their engagement, they may be able to engage more deeply with others, even those of
differing perspectives and persuasions and find a common humanity to listen and learn,
even if they disagree.

Strategies for Administrators of Social Justice and Civic Engagement Organizations

While social work schools have the potential for the biggest influence on students
before they graduate and take entry-level social justice positions, the non-profits and social
work agencies that hire the students as employees or volunteers can also incorporate
strategies to support this transition. Based on our respondents’ descriptions of the struggles
they experienced during their transition out of college, non-profits - especially those that
recruit new employees from a wide geographic region - may need to do more to equip new
employees to build relationships in new and different settings. Non-profit agencies like
those that participate in multi-year service programs such as AmeriCorps and City Year
should consider orientations as opportunities for relationship and network building among
students and for connecting students to the broader community. While orientations often
occur, organizations should reflect on the ways their orientations can be more intentional
in helping new graduates enter the community and build the connections that may ease
some of the initial tensions.

Additionally, administrators of social justice organizations may want to seek
opportunities to help new social-justice-focused graduates get involved in their work.
While many of our respondents were involved in a social-justice-focused experience after
graduation, we know that some are seeking additional opportunities to get involved or are
seeking meaningful volunteer experiences to enhance their day-to-day work. One
suggestion is for non-profit organizations to create more partnerships with local companies
and agencies to encourage service days. In this way, organizations can make connections
to those graduates who are social-justice-focused but engaged in other occupations or are
seeking additional opportunities to be involved in social justice work. Given the challenges
our respondents expressed of finding others who are social-justice-oriented in their new
communities, administrators may also seek alternative forms of service days or voluntary
service groups that promote engagement and help build networks of social-justice-minded
young professionals.

Although critical reflection is often a regular part of student experiences during college,
it is less often practiced in busy non-profits. Our alumni survey reminded us that students
need to not only participate in facilitated reflection during their time in school but also to
develop their own tools for continuing this type of reflection as they move into the world
of social justice work. Some of this may be individual work, such as encouraging new
graduates to create interactive blogs to support self-reflection and shared learning or to
participate in online forums to enable graduates to reflect on and share their experiences

ADVANCES IN SOCIAL WORK, Fall 2015, 16(2) 384

related to common issues. Some might also be organizational work, such as encouraging
new employees to create portfolios to capture their experiences, providing weekly learning
and reflection opportunities, and creating settings in which to share reflections and learning
in broader organizational contexts like newsletters, websites, and conferences.

One place for critical reflection to occur is within supervision sessions. Rethinking
what supervision looks like and how supervision is provided may be necessary. Depending
on an organization’s structure, supervision may need to happen more often or may need to
focus on reflection of skills and experiences gained in the process. Supervision may occur
one-on-one, in small groups, or even through ongoing communication using social media.
Regardless of process, it is important to remember that supervision and points of
connection between new employees and senior leadership help shape expectations, process
experiences, and also help new employees see the long-term horizon of working in social
justice organizations. In other words, supervision can be not only a space to deal with
immediate issues but also an opportunity for learning context and history and for putting
the immediate issues into perspective.

Self-care also emerged as an important theme in our survey. Understanding what self-
care is and why it is valuable on an intellectual level, however, does not mean that one
knows how to practice it, particularly during a time of transition as one adjusts to the
demands of a new job or living situation. Social justice non-profits and agencies are
perfectly positioned for helping students learn about and begin to practice such strategies.
For example, non-profits might partner with social work schools to offer mini-courses,
workshops, and co-curricular activities focused on realistic stressors and self-care
strategies practiced in the field. The college years represent a significant time for students
to prepare themselves for the stresses they may face after graduation; if they have begun
these habits in a more secure and comfortable setting, it will be easier to carry them over
to a new setting rather than attempting to develop new strategies in the midst of the
transition.

Strategies for Supporting Alumni

While all of the strategies mentioned here have the potential to significantly impact
students’ transitions, it is also critically important, based on our respondents’ comments,
that social work and other social-justice-oriented programs consider strategies for longer-
term, continuous support of their alums, and, in particular, a focus on keeping alumni
connected after graduation. While many schools of social work and academic programs try
to maintain connections with alumni, we would push efforts to move beyond calling on
alumni as donors and rather re-think alumni efforts to provide ongoing support for
graduates in their work worlds and in furthering their commitments to social justice. This
concept of moving from alumni as donors to a more active recognition of alumni
engagement is being modeled nationally through programs like Citizen Alum, a national
initiative of multiple colleges and universities aimed at moving from “donors to do-ers”
and to “building multigenerational communities of active citizenship and active learning”
(Citizen Alum as cited in Ellison, 2013, p. 3).

Richards-Schuster et al./EXPLORING CHALLENGES 385

Other practical ideas for alumni engagement include creating alumni networks focused
on social justice, linking alumni by geographic location or issue of interest to support
collaborations and reduce isolation, providing resources and training to support ongoing
reflection and strategies for self-care, and linking recent alumni to others with longer-term
positions and engagement in social justice work through a post-graduate mentorship
program.

In our own program, we are experimenting with a variety of ways to engage alumni in
additional training through on-site sessions and web-based seminars on topics and
strategies related to social justice work in the “real world.” We are also working to develop
hubs of graduates across geographic areas (e.g., major metropolitan hubs and regional
areas) as well as linking students across shared experiences (e.g., graduate students, Teach
for America, AmeriCorps, City Year, community organizers, program developers, etc.) for
reflection, connection, and support. Lastly, we are actively working on opportunities to
link alumni to graduating seniors to share and reflect on their experiences as an additional
way of preparing those seniors for their transition into the world of social justice work.

An additional recommendation would be to explore the potential for addressing the
economic realities of social justice work and the barriers that these create for recent
graduates. Schools of social work should work with alumni and agencies to develop
innovative solutions such as loan forgiveness, education scholarships, professional
development/continuing education credits, high quality benefits, and work-life balance
programs to explore additional venues for supporting and sustaining new employees in
their efforts to engage in social justice work over the long haul.

Limitations and Future Research
As with any research, our study faced limitations that need to be acknowledged and

accounted for in future efforts. While only a pilot, we recognize that our sample does not
include the experiences of students that have returned to school as non-traditional students
and therefore have had work or family experiences that will shape their transitions to post-
college life. Similarly, this research did not look at the link between prior work experience
and transitions, which also would potentially impact how students experience challenges.
Last, using emails as a tool for outreach was a limitation because of the number of former
students who did not respond in a timely manner. We learned that our outreach emails were
sometimes sent to old university emails that frequently went unchecked. Although we had
a decent response rate, many other alums emailed us after the survey closed realizing that
they had wanted to participate but had missed the deadline. In the future we will plan to
use additional measures to ensure we have the most accurate email lists for outreach while
also using other platforms such as social media to contact potential respondents.

Despite these limitations, we see this pilot as a base from which to develop future
research on pathways and trajectories of students in social justice programs. In particular,
longer-term follow-up of graduates is needed to learn about ways to facilitate civic
engagement and social justice activities post-graduation. For example, what is the
trajectory for most of these graduates at various intervals (e.g., one, three, or five years)
post-graduation related to civic engagement and social justice work? What are challenges

ADVANCES IN SOCIAL WORK, Fall 2015, 16(2) 386

that continue to emerge at various intervals? How do experiences, both during school and
post-graduation, shape perspectives over time?

In our research it was difficult to tease apart the experiences between those in graduate
school and those in employment, but future research should look specifically at differences
between transitions to graduate programs (social work or otherwise), short-term volunteer
employment experiences, and longer-term employment opportunities. More research is
also needed to explore the “valued added” impact of participation in social-justice-
intensive programs as compared to more traditional academic programs. Is there a
difference, for example, between the civic engagement and social justice trajectories of
graduates from these programs and those of other graduates from their university?
Additionally, it will be important for future research to explore the impact of work settings
and context on alumni experiences. What are the various experiences of graduates in
different types of workplace settings? In what ways do those settings differentially impact
civic engagement and social justice values and trajectories, and what remains common
across all settings?

Finally, further research and discussion needs to focus more closely on the
infrastructure needed to truly connect schools of social work and employers around issues
in the field. Too often there is a disconnect between a school’s curricular preparation and
the needs of employers (Polach, 2004). With rare exceptions (such as the IV-E child
welfare programs), there is almost no infrastructure or research to support ongoing
engagement between schools of social work, administrators of agencies and non-profits,
and supporting alumni. Lacking these discussions, and research to document their findings,
the social work field risks creating a mismatch for the field moving forward.

Conclusion
As a field committed to preparing future generations of social justice advocates

and change agents, social work – together with allied fields – must continue to seek out
practices that support the transition from undergraduate education to next steps in social
justice engagement, helping graduates to cope, develop, and thrive rather than to burn out
in the face of initial challenges. It is therefore critical that leaders in social work and other
social-justice-oriented academic programs understand the challenges and issues students
face as they graduate and move into the “real world.” Only by hearing from recent
graduates themselves can we gain a sense of not only the knowledge and skills our students
need to develop while in school but also the support they need from their academic
institutions and programs once they graduate.

This study offers a first look at what very recent graduates of a social-justice-oriented
program in a school of social work have encountered upon leaving undergraduate
education and moving into the world of work, service, and graduate school and, by doing
so, points educators, practitioners, and researchers in social work and social-justice-
oriented fields toward new strategies that will enable us to produce graduates who become
life-long change agents.

Richards-Schuster et al./EXPLORING CHALLENGES 387

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Author note
Address correspondence: Katie Richards-Schuster, PhD, Assistant Professor, School of
Social Work, University of Michigan, 3850 SSWB, 1080 S. University, Ann Arbor, MI
48109. Email: kers@umich.edu

http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0894845308325646
mailto:kers@umich.edu

Abstract: For students who are actively engaged in social justice efforts on their college/university campuses, the transition from a relatively easy platform for engagement to the “real world” can pose significant challenges and create new realities ...
Background Literature
Methods
Research Design
Analysis
Emergent Themes: Critical Challenges in Transitions
Challenges with Adjustment to New Communities
Frustration with “Social Justice” Ideology
Stress of Working in Non-Profit Organizations
Overwhelming Sense of “Real World” Injustices
Implications for Social Work Practice and Research
Strategies for Social Work Schools to Support Transitions
Strategies for Administrators of Social Justice and Civic Engagement Organizations
Self-care also emerged as an important theme in our survey. Understanding what self-care is and why it is valuable on an intellectual level, however, does not mean that one knows how to practice it, particularly during a time of transition as one adju...
Strategies for Supporting Alumni
Limitations and Future Research
References