BSW Internship
Internship provides BSW students with practical experience in social work settings and the opportunity to integrate and apply knowledge and skills developed through coursework to social work practice. The unique abilities, style, and goals of each student and learning opportunities available in each agency result in highly individualized internship experiences.
SWK 395 Junior Year Internship Experience
BSW students complete a two-semester internship during their junior year while enrolled in SWK 395, Junior Internship Experience, Parts One and Two. SWK 395 is a 3 credit, two and one half hour weekly class that meets in both Fall and Spring semesters. SWK 395, Part One, introduces students to social work practice knowledge, values, and skills, and to support socialization into the profession. A central emphasis in SWK 395 is on breadth of exposure to underserved client populations and different areas of practice. Weekly learning modules and guest speakers focus on skill development, professional behavior, interviewing skills, and ethical behavior and practice. Students may meet in groups to complete service learning opportunities in local social service agencies. In the Spring semester, students in SWK 395, Part Two, continue weekly course meetings and engage in additional service learning opportunities.
SWK 495 BSW Generalist Internship
BSW students complete a 400 hour, two-semester internship during the senior year and take the course SWK 495 BSW Generalist Internship concurrently. SWK 495 is a 3 credit class that meets for one hour and fifty minutes each week in both Fall and Spring semesters. The internship experience links coursework with social work practice, allowing students to develop and apply knowledge, values, skills, and affective and cognitive processes associated with generalist practice. In SWK 495, students complete weekly logs to document their learning in their internship experience, foster critical self-reflection, and facilitate integration of practice experience with classroom knowledge and skills. Both the internship seminar and experience are sequenced to ensure students have opportunities to meet the generalist year competencies and demonstrate the practice behaviors described in the course syllabus and their learning plan agreement and student process evaluation.