Student Spotlight: A Commitment to Youth and Urban Practice Brought Mirna Barba (’16) to BU

Most days it’s hard to catch Mirna Barba (’16). On Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Fridays she is completing her field placement with the Veteran Affairs Healthcare System in Boston. Other days, the second-year clinical practice major is on the third floor at 264 Bay State Road, working with the Center for Addiction Research and Services. Of course, there are always classes to juggle, and Barba, planning to graduate in May, is taking four this semester.

How does she balance it all? “I love Google Calendar,” Barba said. She admits it takes a detail-oriented person to juggle a second-year student’s schedule.

Before relocating to Boston from California in 2014, she served in the Air Force for eight years and later earned her degree at California State University-Fullerton, where she graduated summa cum laude with a major in psychology.

“I’ve always been interested in working with youth and unaccompanied minors,” Barba told Currents. She has worked with youth in a variety of settings, from working directly with adolescent girls as a counselor in Rosemary Children’s Services residential group home in Pasadena to serving as a wraparound facilitator in greater Los Angeles with OTTP (Occupational Therapy Training Program) and Crittenton Services for Children and Families.

Why Social Work? “I didn’t really know much about social work until I started working. What social workers do and how they approach issues of social and racial justice is really why I chose social work,” she said.

Barba told Currents she was drawn to Boston University by its emphasis on urban practice and first visited after she was accepted. During that summer 2014 visit, she met Professor Luz Lopez (now her advisor). “I also met some students who are actually now some of my really close friends,” Barba said.

Having spent time working alongside social workers in various nonprofits, Barba said she knew social work was the right field for her. She came into the program planning to focus on clinical practice.

Barba said Professor Lopez “has been a great influence.” Barba completed her first-year internship at Casa Esperanza, a bilingual behavioral health facility in Roxbury. There, among other things, Barba co-facilitated a bilingual Seeking Safety group, a trauma-focused group for women.

“The first class that I took [at BUSSW], I really felt like, yes, this is for me. It was human behavior with Ernest Gonzales,” Barba said. “Professor Gonzales gave me a platform to talk about my experience in the field and working in the [Los Angeles] community with youth.”

Fostering Inclusivity at BUSSW

Barba told Currents that her peers may not be aware she’s a veteran. “I think at least initially, I don’t fit their idea of what a veteran looks like,” she said. But Barba has big plans for the growing veteran population studying social work at Boston University—both on campus in Massachusetts and online.

“I’m trying to get something going now, a veterans’ subcommittee for Student Org, so that we can better look at how veterans’ needs are being met. Not only veterans’ needs,” Barba said, “but also military spouses’ needs.”

Before beginning her second-year field placement with the VA Boston, Barba had never worked with veterans. “I was excited that I was chosen to be a part of the VA,” she said.

In the Field

At the VA Boston Healthcare System, Barba interns with both the HIV and the oncology clinics. The experience is challenging but rewarding. “I’ve never worked with end-of-life issues before,” Barba said. “It’s very intimidating.” On her first day at the oncology clinic, Barba’s supervisor brought her to the infusion room and left her with a patient.

“I didn’t know what to say; I didn’t know what to talk about or how to talk about the issues that were relevant and important to him,” Barba said. But with her supervisor’s support, Barba has been able to jump right in. Barba’s work with the oncology clinic includes a mixture of therapy and case management.

With the HIV clinic, Barba works with veterans who have been diagnosed with HIV and AIDS. “Some of them come to talk about the stigma of HIV and AIDS,” Barba said. “Some are not ‘out’ to their families about their HIV status, or they’re working and they need their health benefits, so we talk about the ramifications of telling others.”

Understanding Trauma

The Trauma Certificate Program was a big reason Barba chose BUSSW. Whether she ended up working with the veteran population or with youths, she knew the program would be important.

“I knew that I would need a background in trauma working with these communities,” Barba said. She told Currents she previously wrote home studies for unaccompanied minors in Los Angeles and realized the depth of their trauma. “I can’t even imagine going through what some of these youths have gone through just to get here,” she said. “There’s just so much trauma.”

As part of the Trauma Certificate Program, Barba attends monthly seminars, and her second-year placement is focused on trauma. Students pursuing the certificate learn to analyze conceptualizations of trauma, apply current principles of intervention and program planning, and consider the larger social, cultural, and political forces at work that shape both exposure to and recovery from traumatic experiences.

Building on a BUSSW Education

Barba said the skills she has learned through the master’s program at BUSSW have been important to her successful field experiences.

In her work with the VA Boston HIV clinic, Barba teaches mindfulness to her patients. It’s a technique she’s learning in a course with Professor Kathleen Flinton. “Everything that I learn here, I take back to my field placement,” Barba said.

Despite a passion for the Los Angeles area, Barba hopes to stay in Boston after graduating. She plans to apply for a full-time position at the Boston VA this spring.