Junior Year Field Experience
During their
junior year, social work majors are introduced to the community setting of
social work practice by completing two semesters of a field placement. For eight hours each week, students are
professionally supervised in a social service agency, allowing them to learn
agency function and policies, staff practices, populations served and pertinent
and available community resources.
In the second semester, students practice beginning
skills such as interviewing, conducting home visits and community outreach.
Learning focuses on the conscious use of appropriate skills, the application of
values and knowledge in the field experience and the importance of the
supervisory relationship.
Through
these field placements, students experience firsthand the negative consequences
that racism, sexism and economic injustice have on the client populations of
the agency.
Senior Year Field Experience
Social work
majors complete two semesters of an internship during their senior year,
building on the fieldwork completed during their junior year. Students spend 16
hours each week in an approved practice setting, giving them the experience
necessary to begin as a generalist practitioner upon graduation.
During their
internships, students engage in professionally supervised learning experiences
in social service agencies working primarily with individuals and families.
These internships allow students to use their knowledge of a variety of
theories, skills and social work principles to explore practice domains and
strengthen their practice with clients. Students
follow clients through each phase of the helping process and engage in
community organizing, policy analysis, tracking legislation and testifying on
pertinent issues.
Field experiences
have included:
- Adoption Rhode Island
- Boys Town New England
- Child & Family
- CODAC
- Crossroads Rhode Island
- Looking Upwards
- Newport County Community Mental Health Center
- Newport Hospital
- Rhode Island Coalition for the Homeless
- Rhode Island Department of Children, Youth and Families
- Rhode Island Department of Corrections
- Rhode Island Department of Labor and Training
- Rhode Island Foster Parents Association
- Rhode Island Office of the Public Defender
- Women & Infants Hospital