Curriculum for Social Work Degree

This foundational course introduces students to the social work profession through the lens of community-based practice and social justice. Students will explore the values, ethics, and theoretical frameworks that guide practice; tracing the profession's historical development. Through community engagement experiences, students will observe organizational practices and the diverse settings and populations served by social workers, connecting theoretical knowledge to real-world contexts. Students will utilize reflective practices and experiences to shape their emerging professional identity.

Explore the intersection of economic, racial, and social justice in this course by engaging with the systemic structures perpetuating inequality in America. Analyze historical and contemporary issues to gain a critical understanding of the interconnected roots and impacts of economic, racial, environment, and social injustices. Gain foundational knowledge to promote and advance justice in practice settings.

This skills-based course covers the dynamics of working with groups, organizations, and communities. Students will explore theories, models, and methods to develop effective engagement, evaluation, assessment, and intervention tools for larger client systems. Students will develop essential skills for facilitating group processes, managing group dynamics, and promoting positive change within organizations and communities.

This course provides students with knowledge and training in the concepts and methods used in conducting research about people and communities so they can identify and plan products/interventions/services that enhance the human condition. Students will obtain a foundation in empirically grounded practice, building skills that will enable them to be effective consumers and producers of social research. The course will cover problem formulation, inclusive design, sampling, quantitative, qualitative evaluation measures, data collection, ethical issues and applications to practice.

In this course students will develop social policy expertise relevant to their disciplines and activate learning through development of effective advocacy strategies and leadership skills. Students will engage directly with communities and policymakers, mapping policy matrices and communicating insights to effect change. The course will support students' activation of knowledge into action for lasting social impact.

Students examine historical and societal roots of oppression and discrimination and how power, privilege, and social policy may produce and can disrupt systemic inequalities across dimensions of diversity including race, ethnicity, class, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, and abilities. Through an intersectional lens, students gain critical reflection skills to assess the values, biases, and positionality that form an intentional foundation for anti-racist, anti-oppressive practice. The course equips students to advocate for human rights and work toward social, racial, economic, and environmental justice.

This course focuses on understanding human behavior from an ecological perspective and covers the physiological, cognitive, social and emotional development of individuals from infancy through old age. Concepts such as social systems theory, human development theory, and human ecology will be introduced. Key concepts covered will include self-perception, family dynamics, moral growth, peer interactions, emotional challenges, and cultural influences applied to varied life experiences and stages. Students will gain practical insights into human development for effective practice in diverse contexts.

This course covers fundamental principles and values of social work practice. Using constructs from ecological and systems theories, and the strengths, resiliency, and empowerment perspectives, students will learn the process of engagement, assessment, planning, intervention, evaluation, and relationship closure. Students will practice and role play active listening, building and strengthening rapport, ethical relationship building, assessing needs and strengths, exploring feelings, identifying and setting goals and expectations, and establishing boundaries applied in a diverse range of contexts.

Students will expand on their developing practice skills and analyze, integrate, and apply advanced knowledge in their utilization of comprehensive assessment and treatment approaches with individuals, groups, and communities. Through simulations and mock case scenarios, students learn frameworks for comparing, contrasting, and differentially applying these models to serve people ethically, using anti-bias, trauma informed skills and with cultural humility in a variety of practice settings including schools, healthcare settings, in case management, and in community-based interventions.

Students integrate knowledge, skills and theory from the classroom within a practicum experience at a local social service agency, under the supervision of approved professionally trained field instructors and a Social Work Faculty liaison. A weekly campus-based seminar component provides faculty-supervised collaboration and consultation for students to build upon the professional development and practice interactions while engaged within the community based placement. Students integrate ethics, assessment, planning and intervention, and generalist practice skills with vulnerable populations.

Students continue to integrate knowledge, skills and theory from the classroom with practical experience at local social service agencies, under the supervision of approved field instructors and a Social Work Faculty liaison. This advanced field placement helps students apply ethical assessment, planning and intervention, and case management skills with a variety of populations. They also incorporate the roles and values of professional social work practice in their daily interactions with clients, agency personnel, and community members.