Melanie Pina ’25MSW is a school social worker at a Boston Public School serving students in grades K0-6 in Dorchester, Massachusetts. From the minute she greets students off the bus in the morning, she says, “my day is about building rapport.”
A large part of her role, she reports, is providing one-on-one counseling to a caseload of eight to 10 students. She also collaborates closely with teachers, helping to implement students’ specialized learning plans, developing classroom lessons on social-emotional skills, and responding to crises.
In addition, Pina coordinates with the school’s family liaison to support students’ goals and connect parents and guardians to resources.
“I’m working across systems to ensure students have what they need to succeed at school,” she says.
Simmons MSW Offers Experiential Approach
A graduate of UMass Dartmouth with a degree in psychology, Pina worked for a year as a paraprofessional in Brockton Public Schools before deciding to pursue social work.
“I always had a passion for working with kids,” she says, “and a career in social work offered a way to build relationships on a different level.”
Describing herself as a “visual, hands-on learner,” Pina chose Simmons, she says, for its experiential approach. Of particular interest, she notes, were the in-class practice simulations with actors.
“The program seemed very thorough and supportive,” she says.
Pina quickly found the faculty to be dedicated, knowledgeable, and accessible.
“Professors were caring,” she reports. “They helped us in every way possible.”
Enrolled in the Master of Social Work + Trauma Practice Certificate program, she completed coursework directly related to her current role. Her first placement was at Big Brothers Big Sisters of Eastern Massachusetts, where she interviewed and matched mentors with kids who had faced adversity. For her second placement, she interned at the West Zone Early Learning Center, a small community school in Jamaica Plain serving children from K0 to first grade.
Pina provided one-on-one counseling, social-emotional learning lessons, and social skills groups. By graduation, she says, the program’s practice-intensive approach “developed us into social workers who listen with empathy and help others without judgment and biases.”
Why Social Work is Fulfilling
“We’re planting the seeds for the students’ future,” says Pina. “We’re building the skills that they’ll need in tough times. The kids know that they can come to me, no matter what’s going on in their lives, and I will be there.”