“As a student representative, I bring the perspectives of social work students,” he said. “I am a liaison between the board and social work students. I am responsible for assisting the chapter’s leadership and executive director in the recruitment of student members; identifying students’ interest in NASW involvement; promoting NASW activities among the social work students and as an active board member participating in the chapter’s decision-making process.

Silva represents all social work master's students in the state of Connecticut. Silva encourages students in this program to join and noted that they receive a discount to join.

“My role is to facilitate and foster a community environment within our MSW students and to collaborate with our counterparts in the other programs that Quinnipiac houses in the School of Health Sciences,” he said. Our vision is to reach the communities and be engaged with outreach on policy at the state and federal level while bringing awareness to causes that speak to our students and their interests.”

With the support of the Quinnipiac community, Silva said he feels that he was able to accomplish a lot during his time at the university. Last holiday season, he hosted a toy drive and worked with Project Santa to bring joy to others.

He is a former volunteer and current intern at the Women’s and Families Crisis Center in the Meriden/New Haven area.

“I was able to start and facilitate a male sexual assault support group through my agency in both Spanish and English,” he said. “We have provided many donations in partnership with the two of the state schools and the Integrated Refugee and Immigrant Services to provide needed supplies for incoming and recently evacuated Afghan refugees.”

Silva said he hopes to help support and build this community.

“My hope is to have a community that can rely on one other,” he said. “The truth is that we have a great faculty and staff that support us, but the real help is at 2 a.m. when you are working on those last-minute tweaks or the last two pages of something that should have been completed and having that cell phone number of your classmate that you can call upon for some clarity. In my professional life, I would like to bring families closer and be a voice for those who have none or have had the unfortunate traumatic event that has taken that voice away.”