Virgil Gregory tops off IUPUI career with a PhD in Social Work

April 24, 2009  - As a boy growing up on Indianapolis’ eastside, Virgil Gregory realized that education would be a key to his future.

Dr. Virgil Gregory

 

Little did he know how far his enthusiasm would take him.

Gregory, a PhD student in the School of Social Work at IUPUI successfully defended his doctoral dissertation, entitled, “Gregory Research Beliefs Scale (GRBS) – Factor Structure and Psychometric Properties,” earning him the right to add the title “Dr.” in front of his name.

“I can say I really saw the value of education early on,” Gregory said of his interest in going to college. “I knew it would be impossible to live a good life if you didn’t have some college education.”

  Both his parents attended college and his father has two associate degrees. One of his sister’s has a law degree, while another sister has a BSN degree.

After graduating from Decatur Central High School in 1997, he turned to IUPUI to start his college career.

His initial plan was to become a physician, but realized he wasn’t going to be happy doing that. He focused on psychology instead. After receiving his Bachelor of Arts degree in psychology, he then turned his attention to the Master of Social Work degree for his next goal.

Why social work? “I think the fact that social work places emphasis not only on the individual but the social environment in which they live,” Gregory said. “I think it’s more realistic that people’s problems aren’t necessarily a product of who they are but their environment also.”

While he understood the need for education in terms of how it could lead to a better life, he also had an intellectual curiosity that made him want to learn more.  “There were things I wanted to learn, statistics, research design, so I could understand how to investigate things and then have credible answers,” Gregory explained of why he chose graduate school.

One of the faculty members in the MSW program, Dr. Cathy Pike, taught both of my master level research courses. She made it seem really practical and she was not your typical research professor. That was encouraging.”

Dr. Gregory with Dr. Cathy Pike, who served as chair of his dissertation committee

As for his dissertation, Gregory said he was interested in creating a scale that would gauge the interest of social work students toward research. “The purpose of the scale is to reliably measure social work student’s perceptions of the role that research plays in social work practice,” he said.

Such an understanding is important as the Council on Social Work Education and the National Association of Social Worker Code of Ethics, mandates that students have some knowledge and skills pertaining to evidence-based practice, Gregory added.

“This scale would help measure their perception of the role research plays in social work. More specifically, it measures their general values of research for social work practice and if they think research is important for social work practice.”

The scale would be of value to schools of social work to track student’s attitudes and beliefs over time, Gregory explained.

Gregory expects to receive a copy right for the scale and intends to publish articles about the scale as well as go to conferences discuss it so schools around the country will know about it.

His next step is to look for a job in academia where he can make a contribution to research on social work practice.

Do people refer to him as doctor now? “Absolutely,” Gregory said with a smile. How does it sound to be called Dr. Gregory?

 “It feels great.”