![]() After seven years, she says, “we finally negotiated.” The state created three social work licenses based on education level, including a “case aide” license for professionals with associate degrees. “Many people,” she says, “only had a high school certificate.” As a member of the first social work licensing committee in Massachusetts in the early 1970s, Guen worked with the state legislature to better define the profession and to establish clinical practice requirements. Yet not all social workers entered the field with the same preparation. Guen completed her field placements at Catholic Charities of Boston and Massachusetts Memorial Hospital (now Boston Medical Center), where she handled cases across different medical specialties. “Knowing how to use information,” she says, “was very important in my BC days.” While the professor and a multidisciplinary team interviewed patients at the bedside or in the clinic, the students observed and took notes. A similarly structured course, Psychiatric Information, took place at Boston State Hospital, a psychiatric facility.Īs part of these courses, Guen reports, students were rigorously trained in interviewing methods. Students had to understand, she adds, “the social implications” of different diagnoses such as cancer, stroke, and heart disease-not only for patients but also for each family member involved in the patient’s care. Her weekly four-hour Medical Information course, for example, was held at the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital (now Brigham and Women’s) and taught by a professor who was a medical doctor. A medical social work major-one of four concentrations offered then-she explains how Boston’s many hospitals frequently doubled as BCSSW’s classrooms. Over baskets of dumplings and pots of tea, Guen opens the conversation by speaking about the very different education that social workers received in the 1950s at Boston College. Rounding out the group are Agatha Tong, MSW ’93, social worker and field placement supervisor at the Josiah Quincy Mary Chin, chief executive officer of the Asian American Civic Association and Perrie Mo, Asian program coordinator and hospice social worker for Good Shepherd Community Care in Newton. Yadama, who speaks often with Guen, tells the group their hope is that attendees will enjoy “good dim sum and good conversation.” Around the table are Jenny Chiang, MSW ’17, who specialized in macro social work and is now the executive director of the Massachusetts Asian American Commission, and three clinical students: Muling Cai, MSW ’19, and Xiyue (Leslie) Zhai, MSW ’20, recent interns at the Boston Chinatown Neighborhood Center, and Hannah Fitzsimons, MSW ’20, who interned at the Josiah Quincy Upper School, a Boston Public School in Chinatown. In 2016, Guen was honored with the Chinese Historical Society of New England’s Sojourner Award for her contributions to improving health care in Chinatown a year later, she received an honorary doctorate from Boston College in recognition of her community activism. Known as “Auntie Amy” in the community, she has fought for culturally and linguistically sensitive health care and advocated for the betterment of the neighborhood. Sixty-seven years later, Guen is a well-recognized and deeply respected figure in Chinatown, where her family has lived since 1885. “We had 46 students,” Guen tells them, “but only 39 graduated.” ![]() “I like to hear what the young people are doing,” says the 95-year-old Guen, taking a seat along a wall dominated by golden Chinese calligraphy characters, which translate to “blessing,” “longevity,” and “prosperity.” She pulls her BCSSW graduation class photo from her tote bag and shares it with the students as they arrive. ![]() The topic of the gathering: Guen’s pioneering career as a social worker and activist and the evolving needs of the city’s Chinese American community. ![]() Yadama, who has helped her to organize a lunch with current BCSSW students, a recent BCSSW alumna, and several other social workers working in Chinatown. Guen is there to meet Boston College School of Social Work (BCSSW) Dean and Professor Gautam N. She makes her way to a far table, weaving by waitstaff pushing steam carts of dumplings, chicken feet, dim sum, and buns. On a raw spring day, Amy Chin Guen, MSW ’52, H ’17, arrives, cane tapping, past a noisy construction site and into the lunchtime clatter of the Hei La Moon, a sprawling dim sum restaurant a block from Boston’s Chinatown Gate. ![]()
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