Irang Kim Chosen as CSWE Minority Fellowship Program Fellow

Irang Kim, an MSW candidate at the NC State School of Social Work, is among those chosen to join the Council on Social Work Education’s Minority Fellowship Program (MFP) for 2020-2021.

Irang describes herself as, “an ethnic minority therapist with immigrant experiences.” She was born and raised in South Korea until she immigrated to the United States in 2018. Since then she has studied at universities in Los Angeles, New York City, and Raleigh. Her research interests and areas of practice include anxiety, depression, addictive behavior concerns, multicultural conflicts, and immigrant trauma.

As part of the MFP program, Irang will receive a one-year fellowship that includes specialized training in mental health and/or substance use disorder issues of racial/ethnic minority populations, a monetary stipend, and other professional development support. According to Irang, “The most valuable part of the Minority Fellowship Program for me is to network among other racially and ethnically diverse social work students in the nation. By learning each other’s background and career goals, we are empowered to believe in ourselves to bring about change in minority communities.”

This distinguished fellowship program is funded by SAMHSA, and is designed to “enhance the training of full-time, masters-level, direct practice-focused social work students in their final year of study.” The fellowship primarily targets students whose studies focus on mental health and/or substance use disorder service to racial/ethnic minority populations, with emphasis on children, adolescents, and/or transition-aged youths.