Be Like Caswell Smith M’19 and Make a Difference

A desire to help others brought him to Keuka College’s Master of Social Work program. 


Tuesday, September 8, 2020
1 min. read

Growing up in Brooklyn in a family of nine, it was his mother's joy in helping others that first inspired Caswell Smith M’19 toward social work. A college basketball scholarship brought him to Rochester's Nazareth College, where he graduated in 2006 with a bachelor’s degree in the field. By 2008, he began exploring his options to go back for his master’s.

Meanwhile, a job at a jail “paid well, with great benefits,” he says. “I also went through the Greater Rochester Collaborative Master of Social Work program and looked into a few universities. But the money made me stay.”

But in 2011, he decided to leave the jail and go through Keuka College’s AOE Masters in Social Work program.

Portrait of Smith in his graduation gown posing in the chapel

I found Keuka College very friendly and open. I felt valued because of my work experience.

Today, Caswell is a social worker with the Rochester City School District and plans to pursue his Ph.D. 

“Throughout school, there were a number of adults who took the time to encourage and look out for me,” he says. “Now it’s my turn. I want to be that one person in someone’s life who makes a difference.”