Social Work Academics

Social Work Academics

The sequence of courses that make up the social work curriculum fosters your progressive development as a professional social worker. It is a program of studies in which successive courses build on the learning in previous courses to increase your readiness for professional practice.

Small class size results in genuine mentoring relationships between you and your teachers and customized attention based on your learning styles and learning needs.

Coursework in the Social Work program focuses on human behavior across the life span and in social systems; social problems and the significance of the forces that affect important social policies and policy development; the appreciation of diversity and work with diverse populations; populations at risk; the nature of the professional helping relationship; theories, methods, and skills for problem-solving with individuals, families, groups, and communities; professional values and ethics; and research theory and methodology for use in evaluating practice, policies, and programs.

All social work students are expected to use the American Psychological Association’s style for citations in their written work. Information about using this style can be found online at the Excelsior Online Writing Lab.

Declaring the Social Work Major

The decision to declare Social Work as a major is a significant one and needs to be based on accurate information about the profession, knowledge of the goals and objectives of the program, and a thoughtful consideration of your interests, your congruence with the values of social work, and your compatibility with the expectations and demands of the program. Because you must take four required courses prior to the junior year—SWK 101, SWK 253, SWK 254, and BIO 122, if you are thinking about declaring Social Work as a major you should arrange an appointment to talk with the Chairperson of the Department of Social Work preferably by the end of your freshman year and no later than the middle of the first semester of your sophomore year.