... Put your values into action with your field internship
Field internship learning experiences are a key part of our students’ social work education, providing invaluable support for what our students are learning in the classroom. Direct engagement in service activities in a wide range of agencies enables B.A. and Foundation Year M.S.W. students to experience the discipline of professional relationships; to apply human behavior, research, and social policy curriculum content to the theory and practice of social work; to develop the self-awareness required for a professional level of performance; and to learn to integrate social work knowledge, values, skills, and ethics within the context of a professional social work practice setting. In the advanced year, M.S.W. students practice in agency settings with assignments and activities focused in their chosen area of concentration. Clinical students intern in agencies where they can gain practice skills at an advanced level, learning to differentially apply explanatory theories to the assessment of client systems, to distinguish the appropriate treatment modality for particular client problems, and to differentially apply practice models to treatment planning and intervention. Those clinical students with special interest in medical social work may choose to specialize in Health Care; their field agencies fit their particular interests. Social Justice and Social Change (formerly Macro) students learn to differentially apply macro theories to their practice, and they gain expertise and skills in social management/administration, social planning, and/or policy analysis as macro methods of practice interning in agencies/organizations matching their particular macro interests. Combined concentrators have micro-, mezzo-, and macro- practice learning opportunities in their field settings, acquiring depth in the methodology of both clinical- and macro-social work practice.
Goals of Field Education:
Educate social work students to provide social services across fields of practice;
Provide knowledge, values and skills for intervention with individuals, groups, families, communities and other systems;
Help the student develop a professional identity consistent with social work values;
Facilitate the development of skills in the evaluation of one’s social work practice;
Provide an experience with various client populations including diverse racial and ethnic groups, and at risk populations;
Develop a professional commitment to social work practice;
Evolve a practice style consistent with the student’s personal strengths and capacities;
Develop the ability to work within a social welfare agency or organization.
Undergraduate Senior-level and Foundation-level M.S.W. Field Education and Social Work Practice courses are designed to develop a constellation of knowledge, values, principles, and skills that comprise the professional base of social work practice. Advanced level M.S.W. Field Education and other courses build on, expand, and deepen the basic generalist skills. The focus throughout is to help the student integrate and apply, in an actual practice setting, the knowledge and principles of social work practice within the context of the values and ethics of the profession.
