The New Social Worker Vol. 20, No. 2, Spring 2013 | Page 5

Student Role Model

Brooke Schipporeit

by Barbara Trainin Blank

Brooke Elizabeth Schipporeit
never feared hard work.
Growing up in Merna,
Nebraska (population: 300), she started
farming and ranching
for her self-employed
father while in elementary school. Her mother
worked in a bank in a
nearby town.

The experience
instilled in her the
“foundation of a work
ethic.”

Family has always
been important. Schipporeit returns home
to watch her younger
brother’s sporting
events—“It’s only fair.
He was dragged to all of
mine,” she laughs—and
visits her large extended
family nearby.

Of course, she adds,
growing up in a town
like Merna means the
entire community “feels
like family.”

The Nebraska Wesleyan University BSW
student had no formal
exposure to social work
as a kid; she hadn’t even
heard of the profession. She loved helping
people from a young
age, but “didn’t think of
it as a career.”
Ending up in social

work was almost accidental. In high school,
Schipporeit took an
introductory course in
psychology. “I loved
studying people and
why they do what they
do,” she says. At Danner
College, she considered
occupational therapy
and optometry as well
as psychology.”

But in her second semester, Schipporeit took an introductory course in social
work and realized it was “exactly” what
she wanted to do.

When Danner closed down, she had
to transfer fast. She chose Wesleyan, and
loves it—although her exploratory visit
there during high school hadn’t been
enjoyable.

A love of academics and hard work
have panned out. Recently, Schipporeit
won first place in the Phi Alpha honor
society’s Patty Gibbs-Wahlberg Scholarship competition for BSW students from
throughout the country. Applicants must
be undergraduates in good standing; the
scholarship focuses on service and scholarship.

The prize was $2,500 to be used
toward her educational expenses, as well
as an all-expense-paid trip to the March
2013 BPD (Association of Baccalaureate
Social Work Program Directors) conference in Myrtle Beach. “My family is very
excited for me,” Schipporeit says.

So is Lisa Borchardt, chair of the
social work department and associate
professor of social work at Nebraska
Wesleyan, who has taught the student in
two courses. Borchardt is also supervising her field placement this semester—
working with Kate Bolz, MSW, newly
elected to the Nebraska Legislature
(District 29), on initiatives focusing on
low-income families and social policy.

“I took State Senator Bolz’s social
welfare and policy class a couple of
years ago and ended up loving it,” says
Schipporeit. “I had really never been
into politics before, but this class really
showed me how important social policy
is in the field of social work.”

The BSW student says she loves the
quick pace of the office and that the staff
is “not afraid to have fun while they’re
getting their work done.” She also enjoys
Evidence-Based Practice—finding the
existing research on a practice problem,
assessing the information, and applying
the research to the problem for best practice. “I feel like a sponge, just soaking up
everything going on around me.”

Borchardt also cites Brooke’s leadership qualities in the classroom. “What’s

Brooke Schipporeit
unique is that she’s able to assert herself
when needed but also has the knack of
stepping back when needed. She can
read a room and assess that other people
have something to say. She is articulate,
but knows when not to speak.”

Brooke, Borchardt continued, has a
“quiet leadership quality; her subtleness
and humility draw people to her. She
reaches out behind her comfort zone to
move forward and try new things,” such
as study abroad.

Schipporeit isn’t sure which area of
social work she’d like to pursue. But her
choice will probably reflect her current
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