Join us in celebrating this year’s Honorees.
These outstanding graduates have been selected and recognized for their exceptional academic achievements and service to the profession, department, and community.
Graduate Student Award for Distinguished Achievement Recipients
After completing her bachelor’s degree at UC Berkeley, Amy Huang joined the MSW program in Fall 2022. In Spring 2023, Amy participated in the NASW CA Legislative Lobby Days and advocated for policies decreasing the ratio of students to mental health counselors within the CSU and to work to create a pipeline for students to become mental health professionals. For her culminating experience, Amy is conducting a qualitative study exploring the under-utilization of mental health services among Asian-Americans in San Francisco. Amy will be graduating in May with an MSW and a Pupil Personnel Service Credential (PPSC). Amy hopes to obtain an LCSW and become a school social worker supporting the mental well-being of vulnerable students in public schools. In particular, she would like to bring culturally sensitive practices to support low-income and first-generation immigrant students who are often neglected or receive minimal attention. With her knowledge of Cantonese and Mandarin, Amy is eager to provide mental health support to first-generation Chinese immigrant students who experience challenges to access mental health services due to language barriers and stigma associated with mental health.
After graduating with a Psychology degree from UC Santa Cruz, Sabrina Mahoney gained experience in culturally-based interventions as a Peace Corps Education Volunteer in Rwanda. Witnessing how culturally-reflective reproductive health education creates better educational outcomes for Rwandan girls is what solidified Sabrina’s desire to pursue a career where she can advocate for interventions that are responsive to the wider sociocultural context.
Sabrina joined the Family Acceptance Project as part of her first year MSW internship. As a queer-identifying person, Sabrina found her work of supporting LGBTQ advocacy to be one of the incredibly gratifying and meaningful parts of her MSW experience. Sabrina currently interns at the UCSF Inpatient Birth Center as part of her second year internship. Sabrina provides emotional support to pregnant and postpartum patients, conducts psycho-social assessments, and implement trauma-informed care and crisis interventions. For her culminating experience, Sabrina is conducting a qualitative study exploring familial reconciliation for LGBTQIA+ children and their parents and caregivers.
Sabrina will be graduating in May with an MSW. She will be the first in her family to pursue a Master’s Degree. The lack of representation that gave Sabrina no examples of social work professionals in her life is the same factor that motivates her to use her social work career as a vehicle to demonstrate how other marginalized individuals can become agents of social change in their community. Sabrina hopes to pursue medical social work in either a perinatal or pediatric setting. As a woman of color with lived experience navigating structural inequality, Sabrina is dedicated to uplifting and amplifying people’s resilience across diverse communities.
Undergraduate Departmental Honoree and Hood Recipient
Eddison Jintalan Contreras was selected as the SF State College of Health and Social Sciences Undergraduate Hood Recipient. He is also the Undergraduate commencement speaker at the ceremony on Friday, May 24, at Oracle Park. He will be the first BASW student to be the commencement speaker for undergraduate students. Eddison's social work journey was shaped by his own experiences of adversities as well as his witnessing systemic inequities in different systems that he worked in. As an Air Force veteran from a Filipino immigrant household and a member of the LGBTQ+ community, Eddison was a young Airman under “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” during the Operation Iraqi Freedom and felt the tension between embracing his true self and serving the country. While working at a large healthcare provider, Eddison saw how all forms of oppression are embedded within our healthcare system. All these fueled Eddison’s passion for social justice and inspired him to pursue a BASW degree.
As a BASW student, Eddison has been actively involved both on-campus and in the community. He serves as one of the leaders of Social Work Advocates for Visions of Empowerment (SWAVE), as SF State representative to the 23Strong Council, and as founding member of the SF State chapter of the National Society of Leadership and Success. Eddison has been highly engaged in policy advocacy efforts. For two academic years, Eddison led legislative teams during the annual NASW Legislative Lobby Days in Sacramento. He also took part in policy efforts addressing police brutality in his community.
Eddison is currently developing a capstone project examining the relationship between recidivism rates and the mental health diversion program of the Contra Costa Public Defenders Office, where he currently interns. He will be graduating with a B.A. in Social Work, Magna Cum Laude. Eddison hopes to pursue an MSW soon after and become a licensed social worker employing holistic approaches to mental health care with marginalized communities and participating in macro and political social work.