Changing the world, one student at a time

Note: Assoc. Prof. Janice Laakso was selected to receive the 2008-09 Distinguished Teaching Award. She was chosen by a committee of faculty from a field of accomplished colleagues nominated for the award. Laakso will receive a $5,000 honorarium.

For five consecutive years, UW Tacoma students have claimed distinction as winners of a national social work contest that tests their skills at influencing state policy. Guided by Janice Laakso, associate professor of social work, UW Tacoma students are armed with the fiery passion for social justice that she instills in them. They are taught to stand up for what matters.

In support of her nomination for the 2009 Distinguished Teaching Award, senior Rob Jones wrote, "Dr. Laakso is one of the most effective teachers because of the passion she has for her profession," not only as a teacher and mentor, but "as a world-class social worker."

She brings 25 years of social work experience to the classroom, which she draws on for lesson examples. "It's better if you have real-life experience," she said.

"Teaching is important to me and I take it seriously," Laakso says. "I really care that students learn."

Laakso engages in active and continuous learning with her students. "One part of this is Dr. Laakso's enthusiastic call to all of her students to get excited about social work and to practice social justice for all," Jones said. "She does not stop at merely teaching the material, but continues to impact as many lives as she can."

Another student wrote, "I have never voted in my life, but after this experience, I will not miss out on this privilege. I am a firm believer in change through advocacy."

Laakso respects the different worldviews that her students bring to class. "I strive to create an environment where students feel safe to share ideas, even when they may be unpopular or incongruent with my own," she said. "But my purpose is to broaden their viewpoint." She encourages them to use critical thinking about issues of social and criminal justice and ethics, and then decide where they stand on the issues.

Her students complain that she works them too hard, she notes, but after they graduate and look back, they realize how much they learned in her class, and they put that knowledge to good use.

Recently she met a former student from the University of Texas (a native Texan, Laakso speaks with a charming drawl) at a national conference. She did not remember him, but he remembered her. He related a story that she told in one of her classes a decade or more ago that had a huge impact on him. That was when he decided to become a social worker.

Another student, this time from UW Tacoma, emailed Laakso to tell her how much she had learned about advocacy in her class — although, at the time, she didn't think she needed it. That student now incorporates legislative advocacy into her work.

"I try to make what I teach as pertinent as possible to the jobs they'll have when they graduate," Laakso said.

She's passionate about all of the courses she teaches, Laakso said, but history is her favorite. She loves it when students begin the class feeling skeptical that there is anything important to know about the history of social work, but by the end of the quarter they're hooked.

"She has changed how I perceive many social justice issues, and I know I will be a much better social worker for it one day," Jones says.