Stephen Bell (Lumbee), MSW Candidate ’18, will give the student address at the Brown School Recognition and Hooding Ceremony on May 17, 2018.
Stephen Bell is a citizen of the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina. He will graduate with his Master of Social Work with an American Indian and Alaska Native concentration and a focus on working with children, youth and families.
Before coming to the Brown School, Bell was a middle school science teacher in Oklahoma. The experience taught him the thrill of working with passionate, resilient students, and it also ignited his anger at the lack of support, the overcrowding, and the number of Native, Hispanic and Black students taken out in handcuffs.
Since being at the Brown School, Bell has been Co-Chair of the American Indian Student Association (AISA), served on the Washington University Pow Wow planning committee, and been involved with the Urban Education Initiative. He has completed his practicums at Confluence Academy–South City and the Buder Center for American Indian Studies. After completing his final practicum this summer with the Warm Springs Reservation in Oregon, he hopes to return to the school system to work with Native youth.
View Commencement Speech