Program Overview
The Social Work Associate in Arts program prepares students for transfer to a four-year institution to pursue a Bachelor's in Social Work. It provides foundational knowledge in social work principles, history, policies, and practices, emphasizing work with marginalized populations and a person-environment perspective. The program aims to equip students with the skills and values necessary for entry-level social work practice.
Program Outline
Degree Overview:
Overview:
The Social Work Associate in Arts curriculum has been designed to fulfill the requirements of current and aspiring students interested in transferring to a college or university and attaining a Bachelor's degree in Social Work. It offers fundamental knowledge in the field of social work study, enabling a smooth transition to the junior level at four-year institutions that provide a Council of Social Work Education-Accredited Bachelor in Social Work degree (BSW). Social Workers work with vulnerable populations, and this program explores the significant history, policies, theories, and applied practices used when collaborating with marginalized individuals, families, groups, and communities. Social Workers employ a person-environment construct that analyzes human challenges through a diverse, multi-systemic lens. The program primarily aims to equip students with the foundational knowledge, values, and skills demanded of entry-level social work practitioners.
Objectives:
- Enhance self-awareness of one's motivations for pursuing social work.
- Comprehend and apply the knowledge, values, and skills of the Social Work Profession at an introductory level.
- Identify the historical development of the knowledge and values of the Social Work profession at an introductory level.
- Examine the impact of key societal systems that have fostered the systemic devaluation and discrimination towards specific societal groups.
- Describe the relationship between the knowledge and values of a culturally competent social worker at an introductory level.
- Demonstrate introductory level skills necessary for working from a strengths perspective with diverse individuals, families, groups, organizations, and communities.
- Identify and explain the concepts, assumptions, and critiques of developmental theories, particularly related to experiences at the intersection of people and their environments, within a multicultural context.
Outline:
- First Semester:
- Introduction to Information Technology
- English Composition I
- General Psychology
- Introduction to Probability and Statistics or College Algebra
- Introduction to Social Work and Human Services
- Second Semester:
- Human Behavior and the Social Environment
- English Composition II: Writing About Literature
- Public Speaking
- Introduction to Sociology
- American History I (recommended; or higher HIS)
- Third Semester:
- Social Welfare Policy
- Biological Sciences
- Contemporary Moral Problems
- Experiences in Diversity
- American National Government (recommended; or higher POL)
- Fourth Semester:
- Statistics
- Counseling Skills
- Science Elective/Laboratory Science
- Humanities Elective (Literature or Foreign Language)