Professor Butterfield Serves as a Fulbright Specialist in India
In August of 2017 Professor Alice K. Butterfield served as a Fulbright Specialist for the new social work program being developed at Assam Don Bosco University (ADBU) in India. Professor Butterfield has expertise in the development of MSW programs from her similar experiences in Ethiopia, and she presented several lectures and workshops to ADBU students and faculty on topics surrounding Asset-Based Community Development.
Dr. Butterfield says that she saw a true spirit of service in Assam. “If the faculty and students see an existing need in the immediate community, they find a way to use their knowledge and expertise to address that need,” she says admiringly, adding, “They do whatever it takes to make something happen to help the community. I saw the spirit of Jane Addams alive.”
Dr. Butterfield pictured with social work faculty at ADBU.
Some of the projects being undertaken by ADBU faculty are the construction of community gardens, repairing and rehabilitating school buildings, or teaching English to community members. “They’ve also been bringing pre-school teachers form the surrounding area into the university for day-long workshops on identifying learning disabilities in young students,” Butterfield reports.
Upon returning to campus, Dr. Butterfield shared her experience as a Fulbright Specialist with fellow JACSW faculty, and she will pass on what she learned in India about grassroots community development. She has also continued to work with ADBU faculty, facilitating scholarly publications and assisting with community projects for impoverished children and homeless people with mental illness.
Dr. Butterfield visiting the Ashadeep Center, which works with people who have mental illness in Northeast India
JACSW will be seeking opportunities to develop further exchanges with ADBU, to develop and share knowledge and best practices. Butterfield says her hope is that the partnership might develop a summer travel program for social work students. “It would be an amazing experience for young social workers to experience something like I experienced in Assam,” Butterfield says enthusiastically. “It was overwhelming for me to see the passion for the poor that permeates ADBU and their faculty and students. It was unbelievable!”
Dr. Butterfield with Dr. Sharma, director of the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at ADBU.