Beverly Daley MSW ’77, PhD ’90 loves to travel. (Well, who doesn’t?) But Daley’s trips aren’t like other people’s. She usually brings along a passel of chronically ill teens, a couple of doctor-chaperones and a trunk full of medical equipment.

Daley is a clinical social worker based at Childrens Hospital Los Angeles. Since 1992, she has led sick kids on trips to Lisbon, Madrid and, most recently, Paris and Reykjavík.

In summer 2007, she and fellow social worker Aura Kuperberg MSW ’79, PhD ’95 took 10 youths, ages 15 to 19, with medical conditions ranging from cancer to lupus to recent kidney transplants, on a dream vacation through the City of Lights.

“These are kids who have basically lived in hospitals for much of their lives,” says Daley. For them, the Paris trip “was absolutely transformative.” From her own perspective, Daley admits, the trip “was only really, really great looking back.” She adds: “During the time, it’s a lot of responsibility. We were lucky that the kids did so well medically [not a single serious incident occurred]. Still, there are inordinate details.”

Details that started months before the plane got off the ground. Daley rounded up free airfare courtesy of Icelandair and free hotel rooms compliments of Marriott. She lined up a pair of doctor-chaperones, one of whom doubled as chef, and a resident art historian from the USC Fisher Museum of Art, which funded the staffer’s trip and supplied arts education to the teens.

Daley arranged a crash course in French language for the group, and lined up a tour of the California Culinary School for the Arts in Pasadena, as a warm-up for the visit to Paris’ famed Cordon Bleu, where the kids would try their hands at preparing quiche and chocolate mousse.

“It really was the experience of a lifetime,” says participant Jonathan Nelson, a 17-year-old from Hawthorne, Calif., who suffers from chronic ulcerative colitis.

The trip to Paris, which Daley hopes to repeat if her ongoing fundraising efforts pan out, was the culmination of a philosophy that has long guided her approach to social work. The seeds were sown in 1992, when Daley took a group of teenage girls with Turner syndrome to see the World’s Fair in Seville, Spain.

“It was an extension of the support groups I’ve had over the years for adolescents with diabetes and with Turner syndrome,” she says. These support groups were not therapeutic – they were recreational. “We would meet for activities – museums trips, beach days, trips to Catalina.”

One of the most common endocrine disorders, Turner affects only girls and women. It is marked by short stature, infertility and dysmorphic facial features. “We know from our clinical experience and extensive literature, that to be included and accepted by teenage friends is probably the most important factor – after actual physical appearance – that contributes to self-esteem,” Daley explains. “Given the outright rejection [she faces from peers], it is not unusual for a girl with Turner syndrome to proceed through her teenage years without ever experiencing a close and trusting friendship.”

In 1998, Daley led another group of Turner girls on a trip to the World’s Fair in Lisbon. By then she had founded the Turner Syndrome Summer Camp, a national program for teenagers now in its 16th year. Held at Pepperdine University, the camp is the only one of its kind addressing the unique abilities and needs of girls with Turner. Daley, who is an adjunct faculty member in USC’s School of Social Work, serves as the camp’s director. Recently, she arranged for two Israeli girls to attend the camp.

“We’re hoping to do that again,” she says. The social worker who accompanied the two Israeli girls has since started a parents’ support group back home. “They’re a long way from starting their own camp,” Daley notes, “but I hope to continue to collaborate with them.”

– Lauren Walser and Diane Krieger