Sixties youth culture possessed so much political awareness
that at the time it looked like everyone under eighteen was committed to a
populist cause. Once the sea changed there were some people who maintained
their idealism and continued their work in this area. Tracy Soska is one of
these people. He is currently an Assistant Professor and Director of Continuing
Education in the School of Social Work at the University of Pittsburgh.
As a teenager Tracy marched against hunger and was an
antiwar activist. He went to Pitt but dropped out to become a VISTA volunteer.
When his tenure there ended, he went back to Pitt for social work study and
realized then that he could make a career out of his passion—helping people and
communities achieve their best. Tracy
recalls, “I couldn’t believe I could actually get a degree in something I enjoyed
doing”.
Today, he is still doing it. He is involved in community
organizing, social administration, workforce development, collaboration and
coalition building, and university-community relations and partnerships. At the
University of Pittsburgh he heads a program on Living Learning Communities.
There students get hands on experience in community development. They can apply
what they learn in an academic setting to real world issues the neighboring
communities are facing, while employing respect and consideration for these
communities.
Tracy explains the mutual benefits for the students and the
community, “Too often a university can be criticized because we come in as
experts, we do our studies and then leave. That’s changing. The community has
knowledge. We can partner effectively with them and build long term
relationships.” He continues, “Students
are learning and developing skills, and communities are learning from us.
Simultaneously, students are getting that sense of partnership and
collaboration. They are respectful of the expertise that the community has. We
teach our students that and hopefully that’s the way my work is perceived in
the community.”
Tracy was nominated as a Dignity & Respect Champion by
Dr. Larry E. Davis who in his endorsement of Tracy states, “Tracy Soska is not content to
keep his work purely academic. He is more than just a scholar, he is an active
member and a driving force of many neighborhood organizations. Tracy’s hands-on approach not only
demonstrates his commitment to the ideals he teaches, it inspires the students
to look into community work themselves.”
When asked how he feels being recognized as a Dignity and
Respect Champion, Tracy says, “Trying to emulate dignity and respect is one of
the primary tenets of social work. I do that as a professor, but I also think I
try to live that as a person.”
