Reflections on Recruiting PhD Students: Change Happens from Within

Abstract

The lack of diversity within the academic social work environment has enormous ramifications for the profession as this affects students, the curriculum, academic policies, research inquiry, and knowledge building for the field. The question is—how can this be addressed? One way to do this is for PhD directors/program chairs to recruit and form cohesive cohorts that represent diverse ethnic and racial backgrounds. This reflection includes a retrospective of the behind-the-scenes work and the lessons learned regarding the important process of recruiting a diverse group of students. This reflection speaks to the important issue of cohort cohesion: how this helps to support all students and their academic success. Finally, this narrative focuses on three social work PhD students from the University of South Florida as they started their precarious journey into academia in a year many would like to forget ever existed.