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DSW Showcase Student Presentation

Jonathan Silva

MSW, LSW, DSW Candidate

Straight A’s Aren’t Enough: Understanding Minority Stress and LGBTQ+ Student Attrition within the Collegiate Ecosystem

Concentration -

  • Monday, April 28, 2025 -
  • 10:30 am
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Abstract

This presentation explores the critical issue of LGBTQ+ student attrition in pre-program social work education. This work seeks to challenge and combat systemic issues contributing to poor mental health and student attrition. First, the presenter highlights challenges identified in recent literature regarding the condition and climate of LGBTQ+ issues on 4-year college campuses, as well as gaps or areas for improvement. Legislative issues impacting diversity, equity, and inclusion on campuses around the United States are reviewed. After reviewing the contemporary social work issue in higher education, a novel reconceptualized framework, inspired by Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, is presented to identify and amend traditional methods of student support amid social and political shifts. By integrating minority stress theory, this presentation establishes the foundational expectation of creating inclusive environments to mitigate the negative impacts of chronic systemic discrimination. This is of importance as universities seek to improve retention in social work programs and refine the student experience. This presentation promotes ways to foster students in becoming resilient future social workers in a psychologically safe ecosystem. Potential consequences of failing to foster a supportive collegiate environment for LGBTQ+ students are delineated. Implications for future research and recommendations for application are discussed.

Biography

Jonathan Silva is a Licensed Master Social Worker (LSW) in Illinois. Silva attended Western Kentucky University, obtaining a Bachelor of Social Work, a minor in Clinical and Community Behavioral Health, with certificates in Family Home Visiting and Public Child Welfare. Silva graduated from the University of Kentucky with his Master of Social Work with a clinical concentration and is currently a Doctor of Social Work (DSW) Candidate in the Social Work Education concentration, expected to graduate in May 2025. Silva has been in the field since 2018 in various contexts, including child welfare, substance use services, outpatient community mental health, the justice system, victim services, police social work, advocacy, and community education. Silva is currently a crisis therapist in the emergency department of Northwestern Medicine in Chicagoland. Silva’s research agenda focuses on LGBTQ+ issues in higher education, minority stress, baccalaureate attrition, and addressing the digital divide in social work education. Silva’s goals and DSW capstone topic strive to proactively implement diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives on-campus and online to promote holistic student wellness within the college ecosystem, with programs fit to survive changes in political and sociological landscapes. In his free time, Silva enjoys leveraging social media to educate audiences on mental health, the social work profession, and careers in the field. Silva can be found on Instagram (@socialworkersilva) where he has documented milestones of his DSW journey. Silva intends to continue his DSW research to tackle contemporary challenges in social work education and foster the next generation of resilient social workers.