College of Social Work. Dorthea Crouch Kemp Fellowship 2007. University of South Carolina.


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Dorthea Crouch Kemp Fellowship

2006-2007 Award Winners: Lashanda Gibson Palmer and Arjun Nicastro

Lashanda Gibson Palmer

Pictured above from left to right are Lashanda Gibson Palmer and Ms. Yancey Wise.

While watching Lashanda Gibson Palmer function as a charismatic, confident and colloquial woman, it is hard to believe that the part-time MSW student was witness to domestic violence throughout her childhood that left her temporarily withdrawn and mute.

That was the reaction from Yancey Wise, MSW ’81, who recently met Palmer to congratulate her on being awarded the Dorthea Crouch Kemp Fellowship. Wise established the award in 2005 to support MSW students who have overcome personal challenges yet remain determined to finish the degree.

Palmer’s application essay that chronicled the story of her father’s abuse against her mother was compelling and sent Wise traveling through a spectrum of emotion while reading it.

“One day, my parents had an argument and I heard them tussling. I screamed for my sister and we went to see what was happening. My father was chocking my mother,” she wrote. “My sister and I each grabbed one of his arms and began pulling. We screamed for help and eventually he stopped. I became a voluntary mute for several days. I refused to speak or eat and literally sat in a corner of my bedroom and stared into space.”

Although Palmer and her sisters and brother were not physically abused themselves, the psychological damage was tremendous.

“I was always well kept but the damage was inside,” she said. “We couldn’t smile genuinely, even on family portraits.”

Despite a tumultuous childhood – one that was littered with fear, poverty and emotional instability – Palmer was able to maintain her sanity with help from “angels along the way” like her first therapist and “the person who gives you (a fellowship) to help you get your graduate degree,” she told Wise over lunch.

Palmer believes she has to pay forward the same acts kindness from which she benefited. She began volunteering, and eventually working, at Sistercare Inc. in Columbia. She said working there helped heal her, educate her about domestic violence, and how advocating on behalf of other victims can save at least one.

“During my childhood I was mute for several days but I have a voice now,” Palmer wrote in the essay. “My passion is to spend my life speaking and working for those who are still muted by the fear and destruction caused by family violence.”

Currently the student works as a victim advocate and Fort Jackson where she assists victims of domestic violence and sexual assault. She wants to start full-time classes so she can graduate in 2008 and start a “self-esteem-based” program for battered women.

“I owe it to the people who helped me to help the next person,” she told Wise.

After lunch, Wise and Palmer exchanged warm embraces and promises to keep in touch during Palmer’s matriculation. The two walked away from their meeting as if they had been long-time friends.

“I am so impressed by Lashanda,” Wise said, “by what she has overcome and what she is doing.”

Arjun Nicastro

Pictured above from left to right are Ms. Yancey Wise; current MSW student Mr. Arjun Nicastro.

Pictured above from left to right are Ms. Yancey Wise; MSW student Mr. Arjun Nicastro.

Despite living with a past that includes “criminality and drug addition” and a future that could lead him to an agonizing and painful death, when MSW student Arjun Nicastro recently sat with Yancey Wise, MSW ’81 he told her, “I feel like I’m the luckiest man in the world!”

The two met for the first time over lunch at McCutchen House. There, Nicastro was able to personally thank the woman who made it financially possible for him to complete his degree requirements. It was a bittersweet encounter because Nicastro almost didn’t live to meet his donor.

Nicastro was informed last winter that he was a 2006-2007 recipient of the Dorthea Crouch Kemp Fellowship. Wise established the fund in memory of her mother to support students who continue to pursue an MSW despite facing personal, life-changing challenges..

At the time of his application, Nicastro had indeed overcome some personal challenges: he is a seventh-grade dropout who developed an addiction to heroin at age 14. By the time he was 17 Nicastro had been convicted of several drug-related crimes and was sentenced to life in prison as a habitual felon. After serving 23 years in prison, he was released in 1998 with $100 to his name and Hepatitis C.

Nicastro, now 48 and living near Chapel Hill, NC, was able to get his life on track after earning a GED. He developed an interest in social work while being counseled by a social worker in prison and eventually earned a BSW from North Carolina Central University. He is married with a four-year-old son, and works as outpatient services coordinator for Freedom House Recovery Center, a non-profit organization that provides services to alcohol and drug addicts.

Based on the story he shared in his application essay, Wise believed that Nicastro fulfilled the fellowship criteria.

“A lot of people don’t think people change but they do,” said Wise, a retired social worker. “Social workers believe people change.”

It seemed like things had changed for the best, but shortly after winning the award, Nicastro informed Dean Dennis Poole and others in the College of Social Work via e-mail that he had been diagnosed with acute leukemia.

“It was explained to me that means not only sudden onset but also very fast acting,” Nicastro wrote in his e-mail. “In other words, if I do not begin treatment immediately I might die in less than one month. Very sobering.”

The student did immediately begin treatment, but he didn’t have to do it alone. Along with care from his wife, Nicastro received support in the form of mail, e-mails and telephone calls from COSW faculty, staff and classmates, and Yancey Wise.

“I was so concerned about him,” Wise said, adding that she was uncertain whether he would be able to complete his classes and graduate in May. Thanks to his ambitious studying while receiving chemotherapy treatment, Nicastro will graduate in the spring, but will continue to undergo chemotherapy and, possibly, a physician-recommended bone marrow transplant that “boosts survival rate but does bring severe side effect,” he said.

“I will not develop invalid consciousness,” he told Wise during lunch. “I hesitate to use the words ‘tragic’ and ‘awful’ because it hasn’t been so far.”

Nicastro would like to continue his social work education by pursuing a Ph.D. “I can’t think of doing anything other than social work,” he said, “I love working with people and helping them rebuild their lives. I believe my experience has given me natural talent.”

Arjun lost his fight with Lukemia April 26, 2007.

Pictured above from left to right are Ms. Yancey Wise; MSW student Mr. Arjun Nicastro.

Fellowship Description:

Ms. Yancey Wise, College of Social Work MSW alumna, devoted her life as a clinical social worker to help others in need. That devotion burns stronger than ever in retirement. A 1981 graduate of the College, Ms. Wise has established a scholarship fund in memory of her mother, Dorthea Crouch Kemp, a 1941 USC alumna, who passed away. The fund supports a permanent clinical social work fellowship for deserving graduate students in the College’s MSW program. The funds are to be used to support students who would not otherwise be able to attend the MSW program

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