Senior year at ‘home’

Students, campus, community to benefit from BSW senior year in Bloomington

“Current and potential social work students are very pleased to hear the news,” said Kathy Byers, director of the bachelor’s degree in social work (BSW) in Bloomington. In addition to the obvious advantage for students, we think the campus and community will benefit from this change as our seniors will be able to be more actively involved.”

Junior social work students complete 15 hours of practicum in a local community agency, providing services to clients and assisting the agency in a variety of roles under supervision. In the fall, these students will complete their second practicum in Bloomington and surrounding communities working 20 hours a week.

Enrollment in social work classes has increased the past few years, with record high credit hours reported for both fall and spring semesters this academic year. Such increased interest in social work as a career is encouraging to the faculty on the Bloomington campus as the field continues to grow. The U.S. Department of Labor has projected that social work will increase in job opportunities faster than the average for all occupations through 2010, due in part to a sizeable elderly population and social service and health concerns generated by the aging baby boomers.

“The BSW degree prepares graduates for generalist social work practice in a variety of agencies,” Byers said. “Our current graduates are employed as case managers working with persons with persistent mental illness and development disabilities, family support workers in child welfare agencies, advocates in domestic violence shelters, agencies serving older people and a variety of other settings.”

http://www.indiana.edu/~socwork/