Master of Social Work
Student Learning Outcomes
Students graduating from this program will:
- Make ethical decisions by applying the standards of the National Association of Social Workers Code of Ethics, relevant laws and regulations, models for ethical decision making, ethical conduct of research, and additional codes of ethics within the profession as appropriate to the context.
- Demonstrate professional behavior; appearance; and oral, written, and electronic communication.
- Use technology ethically and appropriately to facilitate practice outcomes.
- Use supervision and consultation to guide professional judgement and behavior.
- Advocate for human rights at the individual, family, group, organizational, and community system levels.
- Engage in practices that advance human rights to promote social, racial, economic, and environmental justice.
- Demonstrate anti-racist and anti-oppressive social work practice at the individual, family, group, organizational, community, research, and policy levels.
- Demonstrate cultural humility by applying critical reflection, self-awareness, and self-regulation to manage the influence of bias, power, privilege, and values in working with clients and constituencies, acknowledging them as experts of their own lived experiences.
- Apply research findings to inform and improve practice, policy, and programs.
- Identify ethical, culturally informed, anti-racist, and anti-oppressive strategies that address inherent biases for use in quantitative and qualitative research methods to advance the purposes of social work.
- Use social justice, anti-racist, and anti-oppressive lenses to assess how social welfare policies affect the delivery of and access to social services.
- Apply critical thinking to analyze, formulate, and advocate for policies that advance human rights and social, racial, economic, and environmental justice.
- Apply knowledge of human behavior and person-in-environment, as well as inter-professional conceptual frameworks, to engage with clients and constituencies.
- Use empathy, reflection, and interpersonal skills to engage in culturally responsive practice with clients and constituencies.
- Apply theories of human behavior and person-in-environment, as well as other culturally responsive and interprofessional conceptual frameworks, when assessing clients and constituencies.
- Demonstrate respect for client self-determination during the assessment process by collaborating with clients and constituencies in developing a mutually agreed-upon plan.
- Engage with clients and constituencies to critically choose and implement culturally responsive, evidence-informed interventions to achieve client and constituency goals.
- Incorporate culturally responsive methods to negotiate, mediate, and advocate with and on behalf of clients and constituencies.
- Select and use culturally responsive methods for evaluation of outcomes.
- Critically analyze outcomes and apply evaluation findings to improve practice effectiveness with individuals, families, groups, organizations, and communities.
- Integrate ethical standards into critical decision making.
- Engage in professional growth and learning through diverse forums and milieus for development beyond training.
- Utilize opportunities for leadership development.
- Use supervision and self-reflection to process thoughts and emotions and implement strategies to manage biases that may adversely affect outcomes.
- Formulate policy and practice to enhance the dignity and worth of clients.
- Analyze the function of power to inform human rights practice through the critical application of equity, inclusion, and liberation.
- Employ culturally informed principles in the application of scientific inquiry through the incorporation of life shaping experiences of diversity and difference to inform practice at the individual, family, group, organizational, and community system levels.
- Apply anti-racism and decolonization, including the impact of saviorism, privilege, and white supremacy to all levels of practice.
- Utilize multi-dimensional assessment (practitioner and client/lived experience) to inform research, practice, and policy.
- Generate ethical, culturally informed research evidence through anti-racist, and anti-oppressive strategies to inform and/or improve programs, practice, and policy.
- Devise policies through a social justice, anti-racist, and anti-oppressive lens, that are rooted in equity, inclusion, and liberation.
- Appraise the impact of policies in fully meeting human need, including, but not limited to social, racial, economic, and environmental justice.
- Effectively build rapport and engage clients and stakeholders through thoughtful integration and critique of theoretical frameworks (across disciplines) which honor clients’ lived experience and stakeholder perspectives.
- Appraise the impact of leadership, and the use of power, on effective engagement.
- Honor clients’ lived experience and stakeholder perspectives through thoughtful integration and critique of theoretical frameworks (across disciplines) in an ongoing tailored assessment process.
- Appraise the impact of leadership, and the use of power, while utilizing holistic (micro to macro) data and information collection to inform effective assessment process.
- Honor clients’ lived experience and stakeholder perspectives through thoughtful integration and critique of theoretical frameworks (across disciplines) in the development of flexible, mutually agreed-on goals to guide evidence informed intervention selection.
- Appraise the impact of leadership, and the use of power, on inter-professional collaboration and client intervention to implement interventions in a planful manner that are rooted in equity, inclusion, and liberation.
- Honor clients’ lived experience and stakeholder perspectives through thoughtful integration and critique of theoretical frameworks (across disciplines) in the selection and application of methods utilized to conduct evaluation of interventions, processes, and outcomes.
- Appraise the impact of leadership, and the use of power, in process and outcome evaluation to utilize evaluation findings in a planful manner that are rooted in equity, inclusion, and liberation.
Plan of Study
The following course of study is a typical schedule for a full-time student. Enrollment in some elective courses require completion of all foundation study. The plan of study is subject to change.
Regular Program
| Year I | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Fall Semester | Credits | Spring Semester | Credits |
| SOC-WK 5510 | 3 | SOC-WK 5511 | 3 |
| SOC-WK 5532 | 3 | SOC-WK 5533 | 3 |
| SOC-WK 5530 | 3 | SOC-WK 5534 | 3 |
| SOC-WK 5536 | 3 | SOC-WK 5531 | 3 |
| SOC-WK 5565 | 3 | SOC-WK 5550 | 3 |
| 15 | 15 | ||
| Year II | |||
| Fall Semester | Credits | Spring Semester | Credits |
| SOC-WK 5512 | 3 | SOC-WK 5513 | 3 |
| SOC-WK 5540 | 3 | SOC-WK 5541 | 3 |
| SOC-WK 5578 | 3 | SOC-WK 5579 | 3 |
| Elective | 3 | Elective | 3 |
| Elective | 3 | Elective | 3 |
| 15 | 15 | ||
| Total Credits: 60 | |||
Advanced Standing Program
Students who have received a Bachelor of Social Work degree from a Council on Social Work Education accredited program, may apply to our MSW program as "Advanced Standing."
| Year I | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Summer Semester | Credits | Fall Semester | Credits | Spring Semester | Credits |
| SOC-WK 5538 | 6 | SOC-WK 5512 | 3 | SOC-WK 5513 | 3 |
| SOC-WK 5540 | 3 | SOC-WK 5541 | 3 | ||
| SOC-WK 5578 | 3 | SOC-WK 5579 | 3 | ||
| Elective | 3 | Elective | 3 | ||
| Elective | 3 | Elective | 3 | ||
| 6 | 15 | 15 | |||
| Total Credits: 36 | |||||
The graduate social work program grants the M.S.W. degree when students have completed the following degree requirements:
- 60 credit hours of class (48 hours) and field (12 hours) for regular program students.
- 36 credit hours of class (30 hours) and field (6 hours) for advanced standing students.
- To remain in good standing, students must maintain a cumulative GPA of 3.0
- Students take four electives (12 credit hours)
| Code | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| Elective Options | ||
| Behavioral Health and Substance Use Disorders (SUDs) | ||
| Grief and Loss in Social Work Practice | ||
| Social Work Practice with Immigrants and Refugees | ||
| Psychopathology in Social Work Practice | ||
| Family Organization and Development | ||
| Life Span Issues in Developmental Disabilities | ||
| Advanced Group Interventions in Social Work | ||
| Collaborative Family-Centered Practice | ||
| School Social Work Practice | ||
| Core Concepts of Child and Adolescent Trauma | ||
| Developing Trauma-Informed Systems of Care | ||
| Ethics in Social Work Practice | ||
| Special Topics In Social Work | ||
| Readings And Investigations In Social Work | ||
| Foundations of Public Service | ||
| Leadership, Change and Social Impact | ||
| Leadership In Disability Studies: A Multidisciplinary Approach | ||