Sr. Angela Kim, IHM, master of social work program director, recently earned a Fulbright award.

Next month, Kim will travel to Romania for five weeks and divide her time between the University of Bucharest in Bucharest and Ovidius University in Constanta.

Kim’s research centers around refugee and immigrant populations, which she plans to share with students and faculty in Romania through lectures and workshops.

The timing felt right, Kim said, because Europe currently faces issues with refugees.

Through this work, she will introduce the concept of interdisciplinary collaboration to Romanians, which is still a new concept for them, she said. Besides students and faculty in social work, she will work with those in business and economics programs.

“My idea is that the social development in people’s resettlement will never happen without economic independence, so business and economic programs are crucial,” Kim said.

Additionally, Kim will focus on teaching others how to create service plans for refugees and immigrants, which do not only include monetary resources.

“We the people are the resource,” she said.

Kim has worked with Bhutanese and Latino populations since coming to Marywood in 2010 and currently works with the newly arrived Congolese. She believes this work is in line with the university’s core values.

“I don’t do just the research and publication because to me that’s unethical,” she said. “When I do the research, I have to think about a service plan because the people coming out and sharing their life journey is not necessarily always pleasant, and then even settling here in the U.S., it’s not been so easy.”

According to Kim, it’s important that in a country built on immigrants, people in the United States work together with refugees and immigrants to help them fit in economically and socially instead of penalizing them.

Kim said she looks forward to speaking with students and faculty in Romania and understanding their higher education structure. She said she hopes this will be the beginning of a new relationship between Marywood and the universities in Romania.

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Twitter: @BWilliamsTWW