Overview
Boston College Graduate School of Social Work: Field Education Is Key
At Boston College's Graduate School of Social Work, students get a real-world education. Field education is the cornerstone of Boston College's Master's of Social Work program.
Students convert the knowledge learned in the classroom into skills applied in the real world through intensive "hands on" opportunities to develop a professional social work identity. Students learn as part of a cohort that gives more than 200,000 hours annually in service to the community in Boston and around New England. The student serves an apprenticeship with an experienced supervisor, who provides mentoring and preparation for a career in social work.
The goal of field education is to integrate classroom learning with the development of competency in practice. Clinical practice students focus on direct practice with individuals, families, and groups. Macro practice students are placed in settings that provide them with experiences in advocacy, community development, social planning, and policy analysis.
The mission of Boston College's masters in social work is both professional and academic. By building a strong foundation for teaching and learning with hands-on experience and rigorous scholarship, the program prepares its students in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, for an effective and meaningful practice of social work and it fosters the attainment of social justice.
Boston College Research Opportunities
Research represents the lifeblood of academics and learning at Boston College. The college emphasizes social welfare and social work with the same intellectual rigor with which medical schools pioneer new stroke treatments, physicists explore the fabric of the universe, and business schools analyze best practices in investment finance.
Boston College masters of social work program bridge's theory and practice by systematically testing ideas and methods in research settings and translating the results into the field. This empirical approach enriches the academic programs taught on its campus in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, and advances social policy and practice.
Boston College's wide-ranging research appears in a variety of academic publications and makes headlines in main stream media outlets. And, its research centers and networks in Chestnut Hill are renowned for conducting groundbreaking work and providing critical services.
Boston College International Program
Since its founding, Boston College masters degree in social work program has been committed to the international dimensions of social problems and social work. Though the issues each country or community faces may be unique, the research-driven knowledge, experience-based insight, and field-tested skills required to address them are endlessly adaptable--as Boston College graduates demonstrate throughout the world.
Boston College's renowned Masters of Social Work Global Practice Concentration has recently taken its students to five different continents, where they were placed in refugee camps, child abuse centers, women's empowerment programs, and a wide range of other social service agencies.
Boston College's students have chances to practice social responsibility through myriad opportunities such as providing HIV/AIDS counseling, drafting immigration policies, helping develop programs for sexually exploited girls and teens, and evaluating housing for the poor.
Boston College Graduate School of Social Work's international field placement is not "study abroad." It is a three-month program that places students in the field, bringing The School of Social Work students into bona fide contact with some of the globe's most intractable and devastating problems including AIDS, extreme poverty, and genocide.
