By Chelsea Zhao
Staff Writer
Dominican University’s School of Social Work mourns the passing of a master’s student to domestic violence.
Andris B. Wofford, 29, a DU master’s student, passed away on Wednesday, Dec. 8 in Galewood on the Northwest Side of Chicago.
Wofford, a mother of two daughters, a six-year-old and a nine-month-old, was shot in a domestic dispute with her boyfriend. She was set to graduate with her Master’s in social work in May 2022.
“She is someone who had a lot of barriers and just continually overcame them to pursue her education,” Leticia Villarreal Sosa, professor at the School of Social Work, said.
Sosa remembers Wofford as a courageous and empathetic participant in the three-week work-immersion Guatemala trip in the summer of 2019.
“There was that part of her that was willing to push herself out of her comfort zone to really experience and learn new things,” Sosa said.
Sosa said when the group stayed in the Ixil area with a Guatemalan family, the children gravitated towards Wofford’s aura of tenderness and care.
“And that’s just one image I have in my head so much, is just her, with this very kind smile and reaching out to this one particular child,” Sosa said.
In a reflection during the trip, Wofford wrote: “I can be the voice for the voiceless. This action begins now. It begins when we all return to our lives back at home. The risk is not using my power for change. I have to become the change I want to see.”
Sosa said the School of Social Work plans to grant Wofford’s degree posthumously. There are also discussions on building a living memorial by supporting other students and organizing domestic violence trainings.
According to Monica Halloran, assistant dean of College of Applied Social Sciences, Mujeres Ixil, the first domestic violence shelter for Guatemalan Indigenous women, also plan to commemorate Wofford.
“[The goal is] what did we do to make a change, so it doesn’t happen to other individuals” Halloran said. She notes the strength of the community resources and DU staff’s commitment to support the students.
A Go-Fund-Me page was setup to cover up the expenses of legal affairs, diapers, funeral expenses, etc.
In a reflection after reaching the apex of a volcano in the Guatemalan trip, Wofford wrote, “when we made it to the top, I was relieved. I could not believe that this little black girl from the Westside of Chicago was climbing a volcano in Guatemala. A lot of people I know/knew would never experience something so amazing, but it was such a great experience I could never forget.”
