Giving story: Reflecting on a career in social work
Meg Scott, then a sociology major, was walking to class on the University of Kansas campus one day when she had a thought: What was she going to do as a sociology major?
“That spring semester of my junior year, I took one or two social work courses, and went, ‘Oh, this makes sense — this is practical, this is valuable,” said Scott, who went by Meg Davis during her undergraduate years at KU.
Scott earned a bachelor’s degree in social work from the University of Kansas in 1967, shortly before the social work department transitioned into the School of Social Welfare.
In the first year of her MSW program at KU, Scott received a practicum placement stipend to work with Veterans Affairs, driving to Topeka two days a week for her field placement.
“Stipends helped me, and I think those of us who benefited from the education need to help those who are coming up in the profession,” Scott said.
She completed her MSW degree at the University of Maryland Baltimore, where she transferred after her husband joined the submarine service of the U.S. Navy.
During a five-decade career in social work, Scott worked in community counseling centers, state psychiatric hospitals, marriage and family therapy settings, and a small private practice as an LCSW. She was heavily involved in the Houston Association for Marriage and Family Therapy and the International Critical Incident Stress Foundation. Scott retired from private practice a few years ago, at the age of 75.
The generalist social work education at KU helped prepare her for those roles, she said.
“It was a comprehensive approach to social work education, which I truly came to appreciate and respect in later years,” Scott said.
Giving back to KU
Scott started giving back to the School of Social Welfare in the 1990s, starting with smaller gifts. Since 2020, she has contributed larger gifts to the Toni Johnson Scholars for Racial & Social Justice Program during One Day One KU. In recent years, Scott has also documented a planned gift with KU Endowment.
Ensuring that current and future students have access to scholarship funds is important to Scott personally, and to the profession, she said.
“It fits my values to help the students coming in,” Scott said. “It’s just what we need to do.”