Welcome: Jenny Lau

Lau has an acute perception of the physical space and environment that people occupy and how that impacts their well-being. “The aspects of your home space that make you comfortable extend into your local community, such as what your road looks like, the shared park spaces, and the grocery stores. Witnessing this first-hand—learning about these different continuums and factors, being part of community engagement and enrichment programs, and being more attuned to your surroundings—led me into social work.”

Lau attended an early college program in high school, fulfilling two years of college coursework through Bard College. She earned her Bachelor of Arts in sociology with minors in social work and environmental sustainability and development at St. John's University, where she also worked for the Financial Aid and Bursar offices. “I like to think my social work career unexpectedly started at Bard. Every experience has been incredibly rewarding and shown me just how far I can go with my social work education, skills, and intuition.”

After graduating, she worked in a geriatric nursing and rehabilitation center. Most fulfilling in this role was helping people, especially those from disadvantaged backgrounds, navigate complex systems. She also worked at Pratt Institute, assisting with well-being case management and administrative support for accommodations and academic tutoring.

“I absolutely loved working with students and being able to implement what I learned about in school— social work, counseling, trends in accessibility, mental health, and universal design—and having that inform how I interacted with and supported students,” says Lau.

While earning her Master of Social Work (MSW) at New York University’s Silver School of Social Work, Lau continued at Pratt Institute while taking on a variety of internships and projects that entrenched her in the school and local communities, making her mark in both. During her first year in the MSW program, she interned at a nearby early college charter school, helping middle through high school students with crisis counseling and navigating school transitions.

Lau next served the students of Silver School. She took on a practicum placement in Silver School’s Office of Inclusive Engagement and Student Life, identifying new ways for the office to support students.

“I looked into the student population and what they were struggling with,” says Lau. “Many were skipping meals. Others had a difficult time affording transportation to their practicums. Some experienced a disconnect or gap between their professional and academic lives.”  

So Lau co-founded Silver Shelf, a resource hub and food pantry for students. She also worked to inform students about options available in the larger community that could make a positive impact on their daily lives. The Silver Shelf has since become a staple at NYU, organized in collaboration with students and the Office of Inclusive Engagement and Student Life.

To highlight students’ research and internship work, Lau took part in reviving the Silver School’s Community Showcase, a symposium-style week of virtual presentations, panel discussions, and gallery exhibitions dedicated to highlighting students’ achievements.

Recognizing her contributions to the community, the Council on Social Work Education (CSWE) awarded Lau a master’s fellowship. Funded by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, the fellowships are offered to MSW students who strive to improve the mental health of minority communities. Lau received funding for licensing, participated in professional development training, and connected with a mentor in the field. She appreciated all the opportunities afforded to her by the fellowship, particularly the ability to fill in gaps in her education by learning more about substance use and behavioral health.

“Substance use, mental health, and behavioral health can come up at any time, whether it’s the individual themselves, someone they know, or in a community,” says Lau. “The fellowship gave me the skills to identify resources available in a community and different ways to respond.”

While she knew she wanted to work with a student population after graduate school, the position at Cummings School tied in another passion for Lau.

“I always had an interest in conservation and animals,” she says. “This role was a chance to combine what I thought of as two drastically different parts of my world.”

Throughout high school and college, Lau volunteered and interned at the Bronx Zoo and Staten Island Zoo in their educational programming departments. To her, the zoos are vital parts of those communities and developing that connection with community members is essential to sustaining the zoos and their conservation mission. Additionally, she’s interested in human-animal interactions and how animals can benefit students in different ways. She hopes to eventually have her own therapy dog on campus.

In her role as student engagement coordinator, Lau focuses on student programming, career readiness, and wellness. She’s noted that student clubs run many programs fairly independently, and hopes to offer guidance and logistics support when needed. From a career readiness perspective, Lau plans career fairs and events, and will explore supplementing the curriculum and engaging more with local communities and alumni to bring in additional resources for students.

Coming in with a social work background, student well-being is an especially high priority for Lau. “In learning about human-animal interactions and our roles as social workers, I’ve also learned a lot about the veterinary profession and how tough it can be in terms of overall wellness, burnout, and stress. It’s a population I’ve connected with and want to support in any way I can.”

She understands that veterinary students’ schedules are tight, so programming and support needs to come in a form that effectively reaches students.

“I’m learning what the student population looks like, who they are, what resources I can provide for them, and how I can let them know that this is what I’m here for,” she says. “I want to get a sense of why students come here, what makes their needs unique, and how to adapt our programming to those needs. What does wellness look like for students, and how can we plan it in a way that they thrive here at Cummings [School], when they graduate, and long after? If they are overwhelmed, stressed, or tired, how can we help alleviate that?”

Lau is currently reviewing feedback from a recent student survey she organized, getting up to speed on programs and resources, and evaluating ways to grow and improve these services. She is connecting with her counterparts at similar graduate schools to see what works well on their campuses that might benefit Cummings School students.

And Lau herself is adapting to her new community in Grafton and new home state. “There’s a lot of exploring I can do here, it’s not crowded! I’d like to roam around the city and state parks and find New Yorker friendly trails that are paved,” she laughs. She’s also taken up rock climbing.

As she did in her New York communities, Lau is taking in the culture and spaces of Cummings School’s campus. While Student Affairs encompasses programming, awards, career planning, and big events like orientation and commencement, for Lau, her role also delves into how the office engages with students and aspects of students’ lives that may get overlooked. Based on feedback from her survey and in conversations with students, Lau has taken on two projects that impact more subtle student experiences at Cummings School: improving student spaces for events, individual and group studying, and downtime, and evaluating how the office can communicate more intentionally and effectively with students.

“In both good and bad ways, little things can add up and shape how students experience their time at Cummings School” says Lau. “I recently came across the term ‘work life harmony’ instead of ‘work life balance,’ and that harmony is something I really want to get across to the students, that life is going to be challenging, and we want to prepare them for all aspects of their veterinary careers, not just the clinical pieces.”