Field Experience
Social Work
Junior Year
During their junior year, our 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
Our 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.
Recent Field Experiences
- Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Ocean State
- Boys Town New England
- Child & Family
- CODAC Behavioral Healthcare
- East Greenwich Strategic Support Program
- Education Exchange
- Foster Forward
- Grand Islander Center
- Groden Network
- Juanita Sanchez Educational Complex
- Jonnycake Center of Peace Dale
- Kent Center
- Kent Hospital
- Looking Upwards
- Middletown Public Schools
- Newport Hospital
- Ocean Tides
- R.I. Coalition for the Homeless
- R.I. Department of Children, Youth and Families
- R.I. Veterans Home
- Saint Elizabeth Community
- Salvation Army
- St. Mary's Home for Children
- Turning Around Ministries
- Village House Nursing and Rehabilitation Center