First lecture in series to feature community organizer Melanie Zuercher Special to the Kansan Bethel College’s Department of Social Work kicks off Social Work Month with the first lecture in a new series. Je T’aime Taylor, a Bethel social work graduate and the new executive director of the Front Porch Alliance in Kansas City, Mo., will be the speaker for Bethel’s March 1 convocation, which also serves as the first-ever Ada Schmidt-Tieszen Social Work Lecture. Schmidt-Tieszen, also a Bethel social work graduate, taught in the department for 35 years, until her retirement at the end of the last school year.