OU-Tulsa will receive a $550,000 grant, thanks to the partnership between OU-Tulsa’s Anne and Henry Zarrow School of Social Work and the Muscogee (Creek) Nation’s Children and Family Services Administration.
The grant, provided over four years, will allocate stipends to students to earn their bachelor’s or master’s degree in social work.
Five students were selected to receive WEI UP stipends: Brittani Candioto, Samantha Faulk, Trenton Rabbit and Jennifer Shelley of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation and Karie Mashunkashey of the Cherokee Nation.
Upon graduation, the recipients will work at CFSA or another tribal child welfare program.
“This is just one example of the growing relationship between OU and the Muscogee (Creek) Nation,” said Julie Miller-Cribbs, Ph.D., director of the Anne and Henry Zarrow School of Social Work. “We expect more great things to come from our collaboration.”
To honor the five inaugural recipients, OU-Tulsa hosted a Signing Day event, which included the students’ families, Muscogee (Creek) National Council members Joyce C. Deere, James Jennings and Speaker Lucian Tiger III, as well as OU-Tulsa President John Schumann, College of Muscogee Nation President Robert Bible, and Director of MCN Children and Family Services Kimee Wind-Hummingbird.