The Advocate
“I can relate to when you don't know who to turn to.”
Sometimes, it helps to understand where a person comes from in order to help them persevere. Graduate School of Social Work Class of ’12 grad Cheryl Bogdan’s father was a factory worker, and money was scarce in their rent-stabilized Queens residence. The warmth and togetherness of a loving home and connected community was essential to her nurturing. Those values as Cheryl remembers, “Got me interested in housing issues and advocacy work.” After becoming the first person in her family to graduate high school, she was determined to “give back to the communities that gave so much to me.”
Through fellowships and fieldwork at Touro, she soon got her chance - assisting geriatrics battling Alzheimer’s as well as helping rehabilitate ex-convicts. In the years ahead, she plans to direct her energies toward broader advocacy for those in need. The universal message in her experiences and those of her clients is that it’s only possible to affect the world outside you by maintaining inner resolve. “Social work is about change, in a person or a community,” she reflects. “You can effect change in a community. You have to believe that’s possible.”
This is Cheryl Bogdan’s story.
