| Meet Robert Baruch, a MSW student at Colorado State University. |  |
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Robert Baruch,
MSW Student |
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| Q: What brought you to CSU? |
| A: I’ve lived in Fort Collins since 1991 and over the years I’ve had a lot of interaction with the college through classes I’ve taken and folks I’ve met. It began to feel somewhat like home to me. When I decided to go for my MSW I examined programs from other colleges throughout the country as well as the program at CSU and found that CSU’s MSW program was one of the strongest. These were the deciding factors for me. Since then, I’ve found that the decision was a good one. |
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| Q: Why did you choose to get your Master’s in Social Work? |
A: It’s a pretty long story but, essentially, I decided to go for my MSW after spending the previous fifteen years or so working in human services and in several medical environments. I worked as a field archaeologist for a time and really enjoyed it but I found that I missed the human service environment.
Over time, I’ll try to incorporate anthropology into my social work through outdoor experiential programs. I’d also like to combine my medical experience into social work by becoming involved in Disaster Response through my MSW and a Wilderness EMT certification I’ll be pursuing after graduating from CSU.
Somehow, I’ll moosh (that’s a word, right?) all of that together and come out with something that looks like Bob (after looking at myself in the mirror this morning while shaving, maybe I should rephrase that).
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| Q: What has been your favorite experience thus far? |
| A: As a grad student my favorite experience has been interacting with my fellow grad students. It’s been great, considering I’m old enough to be a grandfather to several of them. For most of them, there isn’t much of a cultural gap with respect to age differences (Although I’ve heard that there is a recent widespread fascination for dinosaurs, so maybe that could be an explanation. I believe I am an outlying member of the Groovasaurus Anarchianus bunch). |
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| Q: How would you describe your classmates? |
A: My classmates have been great. It’s been interesting and a lot of fun hearing everyone’s viewpoints about an incredible array of subjects - which reflects the eclectic, intellectual strength of the MSW program at CSU.
I even contribute myself at times, when forced to do so by force of arms (I’m just a lliiittllle bit reticent. Kim is aware of my propensity for seeking the nearest window to dive out of, open or otherwise, when forced to speak publicly, even to groups of people I know and love. I spoke monosyllabically until the age of 37).
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| Q: What is the best piece of advice you have ever been given? |
A: The best advice I’ve ever been given probably came from my father, although I’ve been given wonderful advice over the years by friends (and by several ugly individuals in the streets of N.J. and nearby Philly).
Dad was the kind of guy who WORKED for a living. The kind of work that caused Dad to come home in the evening - not walking quite straight - exhausted and dirty, and looking as though he’d been in hand-to-hand combat with a D9 Caterpillar.
When I was a kid, Dad would crack open the chicken bones to get at the marrow and eat the gristle off the ends of the bones like it was candy. Dad was a young man of the Depression and knew hunger. He knew of ‘riding the rails’ and working in CCC camps.
Dad liked to eat German beer pretzels with his ice cream. The man had culinary imagination.
Anyway, the long and the short of it, Dad consistently advised me to “play it straight”. Honor was pretty much the operative concept for Dad; that and caring for the people you love. Like Henry D. used to say, “keep it simple” (ok he actually said, “simplicity, simplicity, simplicity”).
Dad was a man of few words. Every one of them counted.
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