Nydia Olmos is an instructor of social work as well as the field director for the Bachelor Social Work program (BSW) at West Texas A&M University.
Olmos, being an alumni, knows WT. She also knows social work. And she uses that to help students looking to enter the social work field find their footing.
“In the fall of 2015, I earned my undergraduate social work degree [at WT] , and then I went on and got my master’s in 2017, so I’m familiar with the program; I was a student of the program,” Olmos said. “I was always passionate about education, and with my social work degree, always passionate about helping others and just doing whatever I could to help people reach their full potential. And so when this position opened, I thought, ‘I was a product of the program. I know both the undergraduate and graduate programs. What better way to combine my passion for education, my social work skills, knowledge, and then come back to the program and work with the students that are going to be social workers in the field?’”
Olmos teaches a variety of classes in the social work field.
“Since I’m the field director for the undergraduate social work program, I have the field practicum,” Olmos said. “Field practicum is the class where we help the interns prepare. It’s our final class before graduating. So we work with all the interns and helping them get placed with organizations where they can start practicing their social work skills. As well as mental practice and that’s just doing more of the community-level work. How do groups support individuals? How it helps them overcome some of those challenges, but more in a group setting. I also teach diverse populations. It’s learning more about how we deal with people coming from different backgrounds, environments, learning how to connect, make those connections, and just learning how to serve people through dignity and worth of the person in any level. As well as a few others.”
As the BSW field director, Olmos has responsibilities outside of teaching classes.
“So I’m responsible for nurturing relationships with the community so we can find adequate placements for the students,” Olmos said. “We work closely with the agencies, build relationships with them, but in order for the interns to be placed, we also conduct interviews with the students. We help them identify what populations they want to serve or where they would feel more comfortable being. We also have the big BSW conference we host every semester where we help students showcase their agencies, and then agencies come and showcase the work that they do for their organizations, and we just put together a big field fair for them.”
Olmos describes her teaching style as more firm but understanding.
“I’m a little more strict, but I believe that, especially in our field, we’re kind of the ones putting out the fires constantly, so we need to train our students to be that point of contact and know how to navigate challenges,” Olmos said. “But I also feel like I’m very understanding of the students, so we really try to accommodate and try to figure out, how can we support the students through knowing the student, getting to know the students, and molding some of our class assignments or class expectations to ensure that the student feels comfortable in that learning environment.”
Olmos had this to share with students who were thinking of joining the program.
“I think for students coming into the social work program or the social work field is to be open-minded,” Olmos said. “A lot of times, we have an idea of who we want to serve, as far as the populations. We either are passionate just about children, mental health, the elderly, but everything kind of intertwines together, and everything connects. So be open-minded and think about not just boxing yourself into who you want to serve, but understanding that we’re dealing with a bigger issue.”
