Changing Her Tune
Danica Dagg has always lent an ear to her students, whether inside her classroom as a music instructor or outside of class as a compassionate sounding board.
“As a teacher I felt so honored when students would share something highly personal with me, but often all I could do was refer them to another school staff member,” said Dagg, a school music instructor for 10 years before earning a master’s degree at the Jane Addams College of Social Work in 2023. “I wanted to be that staff member they were referred to, so I could actually do something to help them. That’s why I wanted to become a social worker.”
A feeling of apprehension came over Dagg prior to her enrollment in her master’s program, but the emotion quickly turned to elation as she began training for a new career.
“I enjoyed my time at JACSW and feel I learned a lot through the program,” Dagg said. “I think entering the program with prior work experience within a school setting was helpful. I told myself this is totally new and all I could do was get as much out of every moment possible. That mindset helped a lot. I loved the social justice approach and how most of the professors and curriculum were thoughtful, inclusive, and progressive.
“It was important for me to attend a school that would challenge my life as I had known it - - as a white person - - because that’s not the experience so many others receive. I wanted to expand myself as a human in both a professional and personal way.”
Dagg story continued
During her first, or “generalist,” year, Dagg performed her required twice-a-week internship at Kids Above All, a Chicago agency assisting children and families who are facing poverty, violence, and injustice, build better lives. Dagg selected the organization since it would align with her desire to enter school social work.
“It was really helpful and relevant,” Dagg said. “I’ve worked with many children in the system and/or kinship care, and I had a better idea of what it took for them to get there and what their journeys looked like.”
An internship at Nichols Middle School in Evanston, Ill., provided Dagg additional experience working with students, diverse programs, and situations. She also gained practical work experience within a school environment, providing her with learning opportunities she would not have received elsewhere.
Dagg’s second specialization year was focused not only on completing courses that would aid in her desire to work in a school system, but that also aligned with the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) requirements to receive a Professional Educator License (PEL). It included a three-day-per-week school internship, JACSW courses such as navigating a school’s environment and how to best assist students of all ages with varying needs, a research course, a policy class to learn about individualized education plans (IEPs) and special education laws, and a course specifically devoted to special education.
Students like Dagg who choose JACSW’s school social work specialization are required to complete one elective course. Dagg opted to complete two, having also been enrolled in the Integrated Behavioral Health Care Training Program. Her first – Mental Health and Children and Adolescents – focused on symptoms and treatment of various diagnoses. The second was dedicated to social work and the criminal justice system, where Dagg was introduced to abolitionist social work.
Prior to her May 2023 graduation, Dagg passed the PEL exam and was now prepared to enter her new career field. Working in the Chicago Public School system was Dagg’s first choice, and while she received interviews within the organization, she was hesitant to accept a position, as schools are assigned only about a week before the beginning of the academic year. While continuing to peruse job openings, one kept turning up. Feeling it was an omen, she applied.
“I didn’t know anything about the Chicago Lighthouse, nor did I know much about the populations they worked with,” Dagg said of the organization that serves people who are blind, have low vision, who are disabled, and veterans. “But I had a feeling there was a reason I kept seeing this posting.”
Dagg is in her second year as the sole social worker at the Chicago Lighthouse Children’s Development Center (CDC), a year-round therapeutic day school for children and young adults ranging in age from kindergarten to 22-years-old. Most students live with autism and possess an intellectual disability, and many have cortical visual impairment (CVI), one of the most common causes of children’s blindness. The school is small – each of the four classrooms house six to eight students – and Dagg partners with a clinical team of a speech language pathologist, occupational therapist, physical therapist, orientation and mobility specialist, teachers of the visually impaired, and nurse.
“This is not a population I saw myself working with initially,” said Dagg, who received her undergraduate degree in music education from Capital University in Columbus, Ohio. “When I toured the school and began learning more, I absolutely fell in love and I’m so incredibly happy. I love being a social worker.”