Wartburg’s social work alumni celebrate the milestone by creating endowment for current and future students

By Emily Christensen | Photos Wartburg College Archives

Wartburg’s social work program has long held the distinction of being the oldest accredited undergraduate program in Iowa, and this year the college and its alumni celebrated another huge milestone — 75 years of offering students a degree in the major.

In honor of this diamond anniversary, the Tomson Family Foundation made a $25,000 gift to establish the Tomson Family Foundation-Social Work Faculty Endowment Fund, which will provide financial support to students in the major who wish to accept an experiential learning opportunity that requires additional expenses, like an unpaid practicum in a different state. Over the course of just six weeks, dozens of social work alumni stepped up to match that gift, and to show their appreciation, the Tomson Family Foundation added another $25,000 to the fund, bringing the total to $75,000.

“My initial interest was to make a gift in honor of D.D. Starr, an extraordinary faculty member who had a significant impact on my experience at Wartburg and my career in social work,” said Sara Tomson-Hooper ’89. “I hope the fund will help support hands-on learning, as well as the faculty in providing quality education and learning experiences to future social work students.”

The new endowment will complement an existing fund that provides modest support to every social work major during their first-year field experience and fourth-year practicum.

Though there will be an application and approval process for the stipends, Victoria Rose Dietz ’23 is hopeful she will be one of the first to be able to access these dollars should she be accepted into an internship program focused on social justice and human rights in Washington, D.C., this summer.

“After graduation, I want to pursue my master’s in social work and combine that with a master’s in political science so I can go into a social policy program,” Dietz said. “I eventually want to work in women’s health and reproductive rights and the policy surrounding that.”

Dr. Tammy Faux, Tomson Family Distinguished Chair in Social Work, said students have had the opportunity to participate in a range of service-learning and practicums on campus, in the community, and in their hometowns, but having access to this additional funding will give some students the opportunity to work with populations they don’t have as much access to in Waverly, the Cedar Valley, or Iowa.

“I’m so excited for our students to be able to expand their classroom learning into bigger communities so that they can see the kind of impact their work can have in places like a comprehensive homeless shelter in New York City or Washington, D.C., through policy advocacy or even at the United Nations,” Faux said. “This fund is taking away barriers these students have to these experiences, getting them outside their comfort zone, and working hands-on with diverse populations, which will only prepare them even better for their next step.”

While studying at Wartburg, Tomson-Hooper completed an internship in the Twin Cities that proved very meaningful to her future career, which has included 25 years in human service administration, consulting, and academia. She has been with Habitat for Humanity since 2013 and serves as the associate director of strategy planning and support.

“I am pleased our family foundation is able to assist with establishing this fund. The quality of education provided at Wartburg, coupled with the various experiential learning opportunities, had a profound impact on my life,” she said. “The Wartburg experience was the foundation for an amazing career in humanitarian work. It prepared me to serve in leadership roles during which time I was blessed to walk alongside others across the globe working toward solutions to a variety of social problems. As we continue the battle against these injustices in today’s world, I believe strongly that it is imperative to have well-equipped social work professionals.”