Gene Svebakken @ School of Social Work | University of Missouri

A. As a young person, I was instilled with the importance of making a difference in the world. When I graduated from college in 1961, President Kennedy's New Frontier had just begun. The question for my generation was, "What can you do for your country?" Social Work provided me the opportunity to do both.

A. Understand that social work is one of the few professions in which we have an ethical commitment to promote the common good.

A: I worked a year for the Iowa Department of Social Welfare as a public assistance worker where I was taught that my job as a caseworker was to help people become eligible for the benefits which society had made available to them as a means of strengthening individuals and families as well as improving society. The State Commissioner encouraged me to pursue a master's degree in social work and told me that the MU School of Social Work was greatly influenced by the University of Chicago and had a strong emphasis on public policy, which was my area of interest.

A. I began my career with the Iowa Department of Social Welfare. There was a high demand for professionally trained social workers to serve in Administrative positions. I have served as a social worker in administration since I was 25 years old.

A: My first job after receiving my graduate degree was as a caseworker at the Clayton County Department of Social Welfare in Elkader, Iowa. It was there that I came to truly understand how poverty impacts and diminishes the lives of people. It was there that I had an opportunity to create one of the first Head Start Programs in Iowa. (In those days I just called Sargent Shriver's Office of Antipoverty in Washington and he sent out two Harvard students to meet with a small group of community residents and explain this new program.) I also had an opportunity to create an ADC Mother's Group, which became the first welfare rights group in Iowa and was written up in one of President Johnson's War on Poverty publications called "Quality of Life in America.”

A: In response to the 1962 Social Security Amendments, I accepted a position of supervising social services in 10 northeast Iowa counties. After a year, I was asked to become the Director of the Story County Department of Social Welfare, which I accepted. I was the youngest person to ever serve in that capacity in Iowa's history. The surprising thing for me now is that it never entered my mind that I was young and inexperienced when I took on the responsibility of running the 12th largest public welfare office in Iowa, at the age of 26, in a college community in the late mid sixties.

A: I have had the opportunity to serve as Executive Director/President/CEO of Lutheran Child and Family Services of Illinois for the past 35 years, where I have been afforded many opportunities to serve on many state and national boards, where hopefully I still make a difference. I have long ago reconciled the fact that my opinion will often be the minority one, but hopefully, always consistent with those values refined and affirmed at the University of Missouri.

Gene was recognized with a Wheat Ridge Ministries’ 2004 "Seeds of Hope" Award. The Seeds of Hope Award recognizes individuals for their exemplary dedication and commitment to serving in ministries of health, hope and healing. Article