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ORU Student Named Undergraduate Social Work Student of the Year
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Oelze was chosen for this award from a group of nominees from schools with accredited social work programs including the University of Oklahoma, Northeastern State University, East Central State University, Northwestern State University, Southwestern State University, and ORU.
Oelze was nominated for the award by Dr. Lanny Endicott, ORU professor and president-elect of the Oklahoma Chapter of NASW. Oelze has also been named ORU's Social Work Student of the Year and her senior paper was awarded Outstanding Senior Paper among the university's senior social work students.
"Brittany has done excellent work and has been involved in the community and exemplifies what ORU stands for: excellence in academics and being involved," said Dr. Endicott.
Taken into consideration for this award was Oelze's work in the community including interning with Volunteers of America, the South Peoria Neighborhood House, and the Margaret Hudson Program, an alternative school in Tulsa for pregnant and parenting teen girls. While with the Margaret Hudson Program, Oelze helped develop a small-group curriculum on self-esteem as a tool to help foster the growth of self-esteem in pregnant and parenting teen girls. In light of all of these accomplishments, Oelze says she just focuses on "being responsible with the gifts God's given me to work within social work."
Oelze will graduate in May and has been accepted to the master of social work program at Wichita State University. She will also spend two months this summer working at a missions school in Mozambique, Africa. "My heart's really in social work in the mission field," said Oelze when asked about her plans for the future.
