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is to promote academic success by reducing social, emotional, economic and environmental barriers to learning.

SAVE THE DATE
June 18-20, 2012

Save the Date for our Summer Institute.  The institute will be held June 18-20, 2012 at Cragun's Resort on Gull Lake in Brainerd, MN.  

Click to download the Summer Institute Brochure.

This years' Don Rinkenberger Scholarship Award winners are: Maggie Sponsel (Undergraduate Scholarship) is attending Augsburg College and Gabriel Maeck (Graduate Scholarship) is attending University of Minnesota. Congratulations!

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Welcome to the Minnesota School Social Workers Association

Tammie Knick, MSW, LGSW
MSSWA President
School Social Worker
GFW Middle School
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The Minnesota School Social Workers Association (MSSWA) is a politically responsive, state wide organization committed to the improvement of the school social work profession and to the well being of children and their families. This is accomplished by networking with other professional organizations, providing leadership, gathering and disseminating information and advocating for children.

Join or Renew your Membership!

Click here to download your 2011-2012 Membership Form.

MSSWA has renamed our Scholarship

One of MSSWA's founders, Donald S. Rinkenberger age 79, of Plymouth, passed away on January 5, 2012. A dedicated and hard worker, he was the Minnesota School Social Workers Association's first president, secretary and the inaugural award winner of the School Social Worker of the Year Award given by MSSWA back in 1982. Don was a social worker at Patrick Henry High School for many years. On January 21, 2012 the MSSWA Board voted to rename the MSSWA Scholarships to the Don Rinkenberger Scholarship in honor of MSSWA's first President, Don Rinkenberger. When approached about the Board's proposal, Ann Rinkenberger, one of Don's daughters accepted the honor stating:

"My dad would have been surprised...humbled...and truly honored to know that the MSSWA wants to rename the scholarship program after him. His work in helping to start MSSWA, as well as receiving awards from the association, was very meaningful to him. In his home office/den right above his desk, he had two awards from MSSWA as well as his degree from Loyola for his Masters in Social Work. As he worked at home in the evenings, every time he would look up, the awards and degree were in front of him. Truly, these were important reminders of his purpose in life and his ability to make an impact on young lives at Fowell Junior High School and Patrick Henry High School."

The MSSWA Board recognized the move to rename the scholarship program to honor the leadership of Don Rinkenberger in creating MSSWA as both a tribute to the past and future of MSSWA. Each year that we award the Don Rinkenberger Scholarship to students of social work who seek to practice School Social Work, we will be sharing a piece of Don's role in our history. We will be linking our strong heritage of advocacy for our profession to the promise of new practitioners and potential leaders who will work to support students in their homes, schools and communities.

Thank you, Don, for your years of service.

MSSWA Fall Newsletter

MSSWA publishes a quarterly newsletter each year and sends the fall newsletter to all school social workers licensed in the state of Minnesota.  All other newsletters for this year are posted on our members only site as a benefit to our members.