Field Placement Explained

A prime component of undergraduate social work education is the field placement. A total of 600 hours of field placements are included in our program, distributed during the student’s junior and senior years.

The three courses which comprise the field education area of our curriculum combine professionally supervised experience in community health and human service agencies and classroom seminars. Through these field placements you are exposed to and involved in the actual practice of social work. The program’s approach to field placement is personal and practical and is designed to allow for your interaction with clients early and often.

Through field placements in schools, hospitals and health care settings, child welfare agencies, domestic violence programs, family services agencies, community mental health settings, courts, youth programs, and community action and community planning settings, you gain first-hand experience in service to clients and develop skills in information gathering, interviewing, assessment, goal setting, and interventions that involve counseling, outreach, service coordination, resource development, empowerment through capacity building, community organizing, and individual and political advocacy.

Students in their professional capacity as social workers

• counsel children and parents in school and preschool settings
• facilitate the placement of children in adoptive families
• assist youth in their transition from incarceration at a detention center back into the community
• organize against human trafficking
• coordinate services for children with developmental disabilities and their families
• advocate for changes in the health care system
• represent the best interests of children in Family Court
• provide supportive counseling to high-risk youth in youth diversionary programs
• outreach to homeless individuals and families to provide information to them about permanent housing resources and strategies for securing housing
• provide support to those living with long term illnesses such as cancer and HIV/AIDS
• engage in research to measure the effectiveness of agency or program operations
• lobby state legislators to provide adequate resources for children in state care