BSW Field Internship: Here’s what to expect

BSW Field Internship: Here’s what to expect

What Is BSW Field Internship? Social Work majors complete ALL of your required course work (for major, PE, GEP, everything) before you have your formal 12-credit hour Field Practicum or “internship” during your final BSW semester. The internship has two course components: SW 490: course) Field Seminar (3-hour

Fall, Spring, Summer Your internship requires 420 hours at a field site over a semester: Fall, Spring, or Summer. This averages to about 32 hours week. You do this over 15 weeks in Spring and Fall, and over 10 weeks in Summer. Your field seminar class will be either on Wednesday evening or Friday morning.

What Internship Is NOT! Your formal BSW field internship is NOT Your 40-hour volunteer / professional development requirement for three Social Work courses. Any other community volunteering you do, even if the agency calls it an “internship.” These are not what we call internship,

What to do during your Sophomore and Junior years in the major MONEY. Plan ahead so you work as few hours as possible during the internship semester, hopefully not at all. The internship and seminar comprise the equivalent of a big new full-time job. CAR. With very few exceptions, you will need your own transportation for

Think about What populations you enjoy: children, elders, those with addictions, homeless, etc. Plan your required and other volunteering to expose you to agencies that help you explore your interests. Be aware that when you volunteer, you may impress people so much they ASK

How You Find Your Internship Agency

Making the Match In your last regular semester, you take: Practice 2 (SW 405) Practice 3 (SW 408), and PREP FOR FIELD, SW 480, a 1-credit online course. For SW 480, you meet with me to tell your hopes, preferences, needs, and we determine THREE top choices for your consideration. We decide on ONE

Making the Match When you are in SW 480, we cover all the bases so you are not on your own for the decision, the interview, and beginning Field Internship the next semester.

Field Orientation Before you start your internship, you will have a Field Orientation with your entire cohort. This covers the basics: Keeping track of hours MSW weekly supervision and daily task supervision. Stages of internship—what to expect as normal. Q and A, so you feel as prepped as possible.

Finally!!!

Culmination of Your Studies Students are thrilled to get to the stage of internship, to apply what you have learned, focus on ONE thing and not five courses, and GROW FAST as a professional. Students enjoy meeting each week to share stories in seminar and learn from one another’s real-life experiences. Seminar has a few assignments but not as much as regular classes.

Don’t Worry During your SW 480 Prep for Field Semester, other details will become clear, so just relax and get the most out of your courses. If you have questions before then Go to our department website’s Field Education section and scour it! See the BSW Field Manual. Look over the Field Agency Search.

And ask me. I am in the 1911 Building room 202-C. My email is [email protected]. Tag me for your specific concerns, but again, our Field Team of Faculty has GOT YOU! Prof. Zelter