It takes a dedicated person with a special calling to work in the child welfare field, and Virginia Olivas, MSW, assistant professor and practicum faculty in the Department of Social Work MSW program, and coordinator of the Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) Child Welfare Stipend Program, felt called to help not just children in the system, but parents as well.
Olivas attended UCLA as a communication studies major. During an internship at Paramount Studios in her senior year, she realized that mass media wasn’t the right fit for her, and that she wanted to serve others in her vocation. After graduation, Olivas had trouble finding a job because of the recession, so she took a job as a receptionist at a methadone clinic. “There were counselors at the clinic, but I realized that many clients would seek me out,” she said. “They would come to pay, but then they’d stay to engage with me. I felt like I could do more in that field to serve others.” After getting married and having a baby, Olivas decided to go back to school to earn her MSW at Cal State Long Beach. She then went into the social work field.
During her time as the program manager at an adoption and foster family agency, Olivas found an open position at APU as a part time DCFS coordinator. Although she didn’t know much about academia at the time, Olivas felt ready to take on the position because of her supervisor and practicum instructor background as well as having been a DCFS stipend recipient in graduate school. Olivas was hired for the position and has since become a full time faculty member, broadening her work within the department to the classroom and placing students in meaningful internships.
Having come full circle as a recipient of the stipend to now coordinating the program, Olivas is extremely passionate about her work with LA DCFS. “The work in public child welfare is unique because we are working with mandated clients, and it takes a special student to have the resilience and heart to serve this population,” she said. “It is essential that students engage in best practices and embrace the social work code of ethics. I do the best I can, along with Claudia Rivera, to prepare students for their careers.” Rivera and Olivas’ other coworkers are also part of what Olivas loves about her job. “We have an amazing faculty of Christian women who lift each other up, and I want to highlight my gratitude for our department because I don’t take for granted that every morning I love to get up and get to work.”
Olivas said that her journey to social work opened her heart to becoming an adoptive parent. In 2006, when her biological daughter was 11-years-old, Olivas and her husband adopted a sibling set of three children—a four-year-old boy, a three-year-old boy, and a 19-month-old girl.
Olivas’ experience as an adoptive parent positively impacted her career. She realized just how much parents sacrifice without a space to properly adjust or talk with a support system. “After my children were placed in our family, when I came back from taking time off, I wanted to share with other social workers the importance of giving parents space to discuss and explore how they’re doing,” she said. In a field that is child focused, Olivas also took the time during her home visits to ask parents how they were adjusting with the transition to acknowledge the difficulty of parenting, especially children with traumatic childhood experiences. To further encourage others to proceed with adoption, Olivas, her husband, and her children have sat on panels to answer questions about the process and give testimony of their story. “My kids love to share their journey and give back in that way.”
While Olivas does feel connected to the DCFS program because of her history with it and her time as an adoptive parent, part of what makes it so special to her is her love for APU. “As I walk on campus, I always reflect and feel so blessed that I ended up here,” she said. Being bilingual and having dedicated 16 years to working at Latino Family Institute, the first Spanish speaking and serving adoption agency in Southern California, APU’s classification as a Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) is also important to Olivas. “So many families that only speak Spanish feel like there are barriers at other agencies because they aren’t able to share their immigration journey and be honored for the resilience and courage it takes to move to a new country and expand their families by taking in children.” Olivas said it has been an honor to work at APU to prepare students to feel proud about serving the Latino community and encourages them to persist in utilizing and improving upon their clinical Spanish speaking skills.