Taylor Buss, ’13, had an early exposure to Muskingum when she attended a musical theatre camp on campus during her freshman year of high school. She adds, “Muskingum…felt like home from the first time I visited.”
After graduating with a communication degree, Buss attended Cleveland State University, where she earned her Master of Social Work degree (MSW). She is now a licensed Pediatric Oncology Social Worker at the Cleveland Clinic Children’s Hospital. She works with patients that are diagnosed with solid tumors and brain tumors, as well as with participants in the High Five Survivor’s Clinic. As a social worker, Buss works with the whole medical team to provide the patient and family with the best care possible through emotional support, counseling and other practical support such as financial resource assistance, transportation assistance, and community resources. She works to support each patient and family according to their individual needs.”
Like most students at Muskingum, Buss researched, wrote and presented a senior seminar. Hers was entitled Effects on the Surviving Self: Pediatric Cancer Survivorship and Self Identity. During graduate school, she was able to continue her research, and she presented it at a poster session of the National Association of Social Work-Ohio conference in 2015, where she went on to receive the “Best Student Research Poster” award.
Buss says that Muskingum’s “The liberal arts education permitted me to explore different interests that I didn’t even know I had until I took a class.”