School of Social Work establishes student archive


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USC’s School of Social Work will begin maintaining an archive of exemplary student papers and research through a new partnership between the City University of Hong Kong and USC Libraries. The partnership is CityU’s first with a North American university.

The schools hope the Outstanding Academic Papers by Students collection, will help preserve outstanding work by students, and give others permanent access to past work.

CityU first introduced the project in 2004 as a means to help students learn efficient research and writing skills and instill a sense of academic integrity.

“We’re proud to be a part of this wonderful project that raises the visibility of the quality work our students produce and provides long-term access to their research,” Cherry Short told USC News. Short is the assistant dean of global community initiatives for the School of Social Work.

A committee of USC faculty members reviewed and submitted 10 papers authored by students in the social work graduate program. The review committee based their selections on the quality of research, writing, presentation and creativity.

The collection of papers is published in a book and is also being preserved in USC’s digital library, where international researchers and students can access the selected works.

As a reward for having their work chosen by the review committee, students received a certificate and copy of the published book at the Dean’s Recognition Ceremony on May 7.

Erin Dowler, who wrote a paper evaluating a client support service within the Immigrants’ Rights Project at Public Counsel, was one of those recognized at the ceremony.

“This project has made a very positive impact on my education seeing how my research paper has translated into useful knowledge, which can help others in my field in the U.S. and internationally,” she told USC News.

Administrators for USC Libraries plan on branching out with the program and asking other schools on campus to create the same type of archive where exemplary work can serve as an additional resource for students.