Social Work Undergraduate

See also…

• Student Field Manual
• Social Work Undergraduate and Graduate Field FAQ

Overview

All BASW students enroll in field practicum.

The field practicum engages the student in supervised social work practice and provides opportunities to apply classroom learning in the field setting. The purpose of this course is to provide undergraduate social work students who have achieved senior status with a generalist perspective.

Structure

Students participate in an approved field placement in a community agency for 16 hours per week for a total of 240 field hours per semester.

Students begin field practicum during the fall semester of the senior year and concurrently enroll in Social Work 483A – Generalist Social Work Practice, and 489A – Field Experience.  The field experience continues through the spring semester, with enrollment in Social Work 483B and 489B.

Specific times and days of field practicum are arranged between the student and the assigned agency, but most agencies require daytime availability. Evening and weekend placements are not available. Students should arrange their schedules appropriately to meet these criteria.

Procedure

• During the spring semester preceding enrollment in field practicum, students attend a field orientation meeting and obtain the field application packet from the SDSU Bookstore.  The date and time is posted on the field bulletin board outside Hepner Hall 119 and announced in class.
• The field coordinator evaluates each student’s application to determine whether the student has met all requirements, and assigns the student to an agency for internship. Students who do not file the application by the deadline date will not be able to enter field practicum.
• Students’ field placements are arranged by the field committee (students are not permitted to locate their own agencies).

Field Experience Course / Internship Eligibility

In order to qualify for Undergraduate Field Experience Courses, students must meet the following requirements by the end of the Spring semester prior to their enrolling in SW 489A:

1. Must have Senior status class level 4 (at least 90 earned units)
2. Must have major status (Major code 558201)
3. Must have completed and passed the 15 units of 300 level social work courses (350 / 360 / 361 / 370).
4. Must have obtained a grade of “C’ or better in SW 381 and SW 382 (or students must retake course to meet this criteria)
5. Must have a major GPA of 2.4 or higher (includes all upper division social work courses taken – I, SP or U grades will be counted as an “F: in the GPA calculation).
6. Must have a minimum SDSU campus overall 2.0 GPA and be in good academic standing (cannot be on probation or disqualified) at the University.
7. Must have passed the Upper Division Writing requirement.