Recent grad Lavorn Hunt has long been a fixture of Renison’s community since beginning her Social Development (SDS) degree online in 2014, long before the COVID-19 pandemic necessitated online learning. She had always wanted to pursue a career in Social Work, and came to Renison as a mature student with a full-time job and life commitments. The flexibility of the online program allowed her to manage her existing commitments while working toward a Social Work career.
Since starting her university journey at Renison, Lavorn has gone on to complete three degrees: earning her Social Development Studies degree in 2021, a Bachelor of Social Work degree in 2022, and a Master of Social Work in 2023. She is most interested in creating change at a community level, rather than at an individual one. It’s a shift in vision, due to a change in perspective on what Social Work is. Lavorn says that her studies opened her eyes to the impact of larger societal structures, particularly “how communities and policies/practices contribute to health and well-being (or lack thereof) in the world.”
Lavorn knows the impact she can have as a Social Worker, and stresses the importance of being self-aware and able to critically evaluate her own blindspots and biases. “Our blindspots and biases permeate how we show up in the world. Social work focuses on helping, and doing good, but if we don’t know ourselves we can end up doing tremendous harm.”
Lavorn is looking forward to the next stage of her career, where she hopes to make a positive impact on children and youth in educational spaces. She’s recently been engaged as a speaker for restorative justice in the classroom, which ties in with her focus on community-level change.