RIC Social Work Grads Help Trace the Pandemic’s Curve Page Content Social work students, from left, Colleen McKenna, Daniela Gonzalez and Daphne Coriolan worked as contact tracers during the pandemic. The internships that Daphney Coriolan, Daniela Gonzalez and Colleen McKenna completed this spring were anything but mundane; in fact, the experiences may shape the trajectory of their professional lives. As contact tracers, this trio of pending Rhode Island College graduates were part of an 18-person School of Social Work team that assisted thousands of vulnerable people caught in the wave of COVID-19. The internships, coordinated by the School of Social Work field education office and RIC Assistant Professor of Social Work Michele Paliotta, required contact tracers to work with either the college's COVID response on campus or with Pawtucket and Central Falls residents in their Beat COVID-19 effort.