BRYN MAWR

Graduate School of Social Work and Social Research

Message from the President

Bryn Mawr College is a place and a community with a strong sense of its history. The Bryn Mawr stories and traditions I have learned since becoming president reveal abiding institutional values, and from those stories it is clear that social work has been woven into the fabric of Bryn Mawr since it first opened its doors in 1885. Founded by Joseph Wright Taylor, a Quaker physician who wanted to establish a college for the advanced education of women, the College soon became nondenominational but continued to be guided by Quaker values, including the freedom of conscience and a commitment to social activism.

The 1912 bequest that led to the founding of a school of social work at Bryn Mawr clearly built on this tradition. It was the gift of Emma Carola Woerishoffer, an undergraduate alumna from the Class of 1907, who was known as a brave and independent young woman. After graduating, she involved herself in social causes, especially on behalf of women laborers and the Women’s Trade Union League in New York. She played a key role in the “shirtwaist strike” of 1909, providing bail for hundreds of garment workers who had been arrested for protesting their working conditions. When the Bureau of Industries and Immigration was established in 1910, Carola went to work on their behalf inspecting conditions in the camps of foreign workers and recommending improvements. In September 1911, while returning home after a long work day, her car skidded off the road and went over an embankment; she died from her injuries the next day.

In her will, Carola Woerishoffer left to the College $750,000, the largest gift in Bryn Mawr history at that time, and asked that it be used by the trustees “so that others may be prepared for social work as I have been.” The Board used her gift to establish the graduate Department of Social Work and Social Economy and the then college president, M. Carey Thomas, noted that almost one-fourth of the College’s undergraduates went on to practice social work. The Department formally opened in 1915, the first such program in the country housed in an academic setting, and in 1920, awarded the first American PhD in social work. In 1970, after decades of growth, the department was reestablished as a professional school, The Graduate School of Social Work and Social Research.

For me, Carola Woerishoffer’s story is an extraordinary example of how one woman’s deep commitment and generosity provided the seed from which so much has grown. Out of Carola’s concern for the world around her came a program and eventually a professional school that has focused and acted on her concerns long after she was gone. In a sense, this is the very essence of socially responsible work—an engagement in and dedication to actions that may have limited effect in isolation but which in concert with others produce a movement toward understanding and improvement of the conditions in which people live.

Bryn Mawr’s Graduate School of Social Work and Social Research has always been a leader in educating both Master’s and doctoral students, many of whom have gone on to achieve significant recognition in policy and service organizations, educational institutions, foundations, and even in the field of business. They are widely respected as strong clinicians, managers, researchers, educators, policy analysts, and advocates. In everything they do, these women and men display the courage, determination, and independent thinking that represent the legacy of Carola Woerishoffer.

Nancy J. Vickers
President of Bryn Mawr College

Last modified December 2005 — Bryn Mawr College GSSWSR