SSW Alumni Join Faculty at Cambodian University

SSW MSW '08 grads, from left: Bora Chun, Kanika Ung, Nika Nguon and Lo Leang.

With faculty educated at the UW SSW, a new Department of Social Work at the Royal University of Phnom Phen (RUPP) welcomed its first cohort of students this fall. It is the only program of its kind in Cambodia. Associate Professor Tracy Harachi has coordinated University of Washington School of Social Work’s partnership with RUPP since it began in 2004.

UW Social Work alumni from Cambodia, Dalin Meng, MSW ’08, and Len Montiel, MSW ’08, along with assistant instructors Sineng Sil, M.A., and Phaneth Sok, M.Sc., are now teaching two foundation courses to the department’s first students.

The overwhelming need for social workers in Cambodia is well documented. Trauma from the country’s recent history of violence is only one of many needs that social workers can help to address. Preparing more people to enter the profession is critical.

This need prompted the Royal University of Phnom Penh to request assistance from the University of Washington School of Social Work to establish the partnership and create the first college-level social work program in Cambodia. The partnership provides a graduate-level education to students from Cambodia that prepares them for faculty positions at RUPP’s new social work department.