The New Social Worker Vol. 20, No. 1, Winter 2013 | Page 10

From Generation to Generation— Three Generations of Social Workers by Barbara Trainin Blank Left to right: Kristen Marie (Kryss) Shane, Selma Mankita, and Susan Mankita. I s social work hereditary? Maybe not, but one family boasts three generations of practitioners. There’s no known social work gene, but there is anecdotal evidence that some practitioners have parents and/or children in the profession. Selma Mankita, Susan Mankita, and Kristen Marie (Kryss) Shane represent three generations (though not completely linearly) of social workers in one family. They also reflect the changes that have taken place in the field, which evolved from the ancient concept of charity and has been influenced, in the United States at least, by mass immigration, modern health practices, and the social sciences. Selma Mankita Selma Mankita is a dynamic 85. Born in Europe, she arrived in Brooklyn, NY, when she was eight, during the Depression. Her mother, a trained milliner, pushed her daughter to attend college. “My mother kept saying that I was so lucky I was in college, so I told her I was tired of hearing it,” Selma recalls. “She took her GED and graduated from Brooklyn College cum laude. Then she taught school for 20-25 years.” Legally blind from birth, Selma understood the plight of underserved 8 The New Social Worker populations. While an English major at Adelphi University, she took a sociology course taught by a former social worker. “All she talked about was the community and social services,” says Selma. “I found it really interesting.” Switching majors to sociology/social work, Selma did her field placement in a community center. She then applied for a job with New York’s Hospital of Special Surgery but “failed” the medical exam; at the time, no laws protected people with disabilities. A staff member was impressed, however, and sent her to the Commission for the Blind to receive rehabilitation counseling. Her Commission counselor was able to find Selma a job with the Associated Blind as an assistant social worker. He also told her that Adelphi was opening a school of social work and would offer her a scholarship. With her husband-to-be’s encouragement, she entered the program and received a field placement at Hillside Hospital. Later, Brooklyn Jewish Hospital’s social work department hired her. Selma worked there until her seventh month of pregnancy with Susan. “The stay on the medical floor really helped me understand the role of social workers in a medical institution,” she says. After giving birth to her son, she was “antsy to get back to work” and jumped Winter 2013 at the chance to work part time at Beth Abraham Hospital in the Bronx. “At that point, a social worker saw patients and families prior to admission,” she explains. Working with patients 16 and up— victims of gunshot wounds, chronic diseases, and car accidents—Selma found the experience “very varied and very interesting. When my kids were old enough, I started working full time and became a senior intake social worker.” She held that position until age 65, but Selma’s career wasn’t over. A friend who directs the Queens Borough Council for Social Welfare offered her a position providing information and referral services two days a week. “You never know what the next call is going to be,” Selma says. In social work as a whole, one can expect the unexpected. Selma has observed that the field is accorded more respect today than formerly, saying that a doctorate in psychology was once required for work that MSWs do now. Other changes are a growth in private practice—although that does necessitate private supervision—and the fact that social workers assist clients in less “concrete” ways than previously. Recently, Selma was given the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Queens Borough President, an event her daughter, Susan, attended. Susan Mankita Susan Mankita, 54, felt “pushed away” by the idea of following in her mother’s professional footsteps and says it “wouldn’t have done much good” if Selma had tried to steer her into it. They do share a love of theater, and Susan wanted to be an actor. She admits that, as a child, she didn’t understand her mother’s job well, although she sometimes tagged along. It was also uncommon for people growing up in the ’60s to have a working mom. Looking back, Susan realizes she picked up certain skills at home—like listening and communications, being able to see the whole person, and nonjudgmentalism—that she applied later on. But at first, she pursued her passion for the stage by receiving a B.A. in theater from Stony Brook University.