The document provides information about the MSW@USC field education program, including approved states of operation, curriculum overview, field education requirements, sample placement sites, placement site criteria, agency development process, field instructor responsibilities, and how to become a USC field instructor or partner agency. Key details include completing 1,050 hours of fieldwork over two years split between foundation and concentration placements, requirements for 50% of time spent in direct practice, and the process agencies go through to qualify for student placements.
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msw@usc field educationwebinar-9.28.11
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2. Welcome to the MSW@USC Field Education Webinar Presented by Elizabeth Pringle Hornsby, MSW Assistant Director, VAC Field Education Lorrin Ortiz Placement Development Coordinator, Virtual Academic Center September 28, 2011
3. Top-Ranked and CSWE Accredited Oldest and Largest MSW Program in the West Nation ’s Best Research Facility
11. Sample of Current Placement Sites County Department of Mental Health Veteran’s Affairs Hospitals/Medical Centers Catholic Charities Youth and Family Service Centers Schools Department of Health and Human Services Dialysis Treatment Centers AIDS Care Rehabilitation Centers Community Health Centers Adoption Services American Red Cross Intervention Services Behavioral/ Mental Health Facilities Alzheimer’s Agencies Lutheran Social Services Jewish family & Children’s Services Disability Centers Homeless Shelters Foster Agencies Therapeutic Counseling Rape Crisis Centers Prisons/Corrections Alcohol and Drug Facilities/Substance Abuse Hospice Mental Health Clinic Women’s Centers Transitional Services Cancer Centers Adult Day Health Care Juvenile Delinquency
Hello everyone and welcome to today’s webinar. We’ll be doing a presentation about USC’s Virtual Academic Center and provide you the opportunity to learn more about becoming a part of USC National Field Education Network. A few housekeeping things before we get started, the first thing to note is that your line is currently muted, and we ask that you please remain muted throughout the presentation. Since there are a lot of participants in the room today, we are trying to avoid any background noise that will distract the presenters. Let me introduction myself, I’m Elizabeth Pringle Hornsby, Assistant Director, VAC Field Education at University of Southern California School of Social Work and joining us also is Lorrin Ortiz, Placement Development Coordinator for the Virtual Academic Center. We’ll have Laurel Davis, Eastern Regional Field Coordinator for the Virtual Academic Center , present a few slides later in the session. You will have the opportunity to ask questions during the Q&A portion at the end of the presentation. Participants are asked to submit questions in the chat box below. If we do not get to your question today live, we recommend that you reach out to our field placement team. And that contact information is provided in these slides that will be emailed to you after today’s event. Ok, let’s get started…….
The USC School of Social is one of the best accredited schools of social work in the country and #8 by U.S. News and World Report. Things that make the school unique: The only school in the nation with a military social work curriculum track The oldest MSW and phd program in the West and largest number of specializations Reachers?? Rapidly expanding Among the nation's top three faculties in research with more than $25 million in funding An elite university with a very strong national alumni network
Now just a little more about the program. “ Best of Both Worlds”- The Virtual Academic Center is unique in the sense that it is a good mix between an on-campus and online program. While students do not have to go to a physical campus, they will be attending live synchronous classes where they will receive the same level of interaction with professors and classmates as provided with an on-campus program. “ Same quality education as the on-site program.” The curriculum structure, courses, and placement requirements for the Virtual Academic Center is based on the on-campus program in LA. Virtual Academic Center students, are considered full USC students and are invited to attend the graduation in LA with the on-campus students. “ Hands-on traditional field education” we will be covering this in great detail for the rest of the presentation. We hope many of you join our nationwide network.
USC has gone through a national process to gain approvals to enroll students at USC from every state. As you can see there are only a handful states where we are still going through the state government’s administrative process; North Carolina, Iowa, Maryland, Massachusetts and New Hampshire are the only states left. We hope shortly these states will go “green”. If you are from these states, I would still encourage you to go through the contracting process so when we do open enrollment in your area, you’ll be ready to take a USC student.
USC is the only accredited web-based MSW program offered by a prestigious research university. We launched the Virtual Academic Center in the fall of 2010 and currently have 728 students enrolled nationally. More than half of the MSW@USC student body live outside of California and this spring, 120 students will be graduating from the program. We expect in 2012 to enroll 1040 students. We have MSW@USC students placed at more than 575 partner agencies across the United States and an additional 600 + in Southern California, in both urban and rural settings, and that work with variety of different populations that are a part of our network.
The MSW@USC program mirrors the stringent curriculum and academic rigor of the on-campus program. The MSW program requires the completion of 60 units. The foundation year curriculum provides a knowledge base with theories and practice methods working with individuals and their environment. Students take courses like Human Behavior and the Social Environment I, Policy and Practice in Social Service Organizations and Social Work Research. The concentration year is advanced training and skill development in the following concentrations and sub-concentrations areas. Community Organization, Planning and Administration (COPA)- Engage people in improving organizations and communities. Families and Children- Support children and help families resolve social, emotional and educational problems. Mental Health- Promote social and emotional well-being through preventive and rehabilitative treatments. Military Social Work is the sub-concentration that focuses on the mental health, physical and transitional needs of service members, veterans and their families which can be studied in conjunction with any of our concentrations. So for example, you can choose mental health with a military sub-concentration and work in a VA hospital treating patients with post-traumatic stress disorder. As mentioned in the beginning of the presentation, the military sub-concentration is uniqueto USC. Currently we are the only School of Social Work that provides a focused specialization in this area. Also a new and exciting addition to our curriculum is the Evidence Based Practice coursework on Motivational Interviewing. This class is taken by all students right before they enter field education practice and we think this will be a good way to prepare students for the implementation of Evidence Based Practice in the future. Just like on-campus, Virtual Academic Center students have 3 choices as to how they can complete the program. Students can choose to attend the program full time for 4 semesters (or 2 years), an accelerated part-time program in 6 semesters (3 years), or 8 semesters (4 years).
Just a brief overview about our online environment. We are currently holding today’s webinar in an online classroom structure. But in the online classroom in the Virtual Academic Center, students see the professor’s image on top of the screen and then see themselves and other classmates below. These live online classes are held at regularly scheduled times and require attendance. This setting also facilitates face-to-face time with your professors and the ability to build relationships with your classmates, even though they might live in another state. Its very hard to hide in the back of the classroom since everyone is on web cam. There are many features offered in the live online class to facilitate lots of interaction like, break out rooms, survey option to poll a class on a hot topic, chat function to organize questions. In addition to the live class, students are required to do asynchronous class work on their own time. We also make a point of keeping our classes small and there are no more than 12 students per section. This makes class time more conducive to interactive discussion.
Field education remains the heart of the program and allows students to immediately apply what they learn into live practice. Students are placed in field education placements in their local community which is helpful in making local professional contacts. Foundation year placement orients students to the profession and enables them to provide direct service to individuals, families, groups and organizations and learn core practice skills including psychosocial assessment, clinical interviewing and evaluation. The experience is a stepping stone to developing self-awareness and professional values. Concentration year placement builds on the foundation of the first year, helping students develop advanced clinical skills and knowledge within a designated concentration area.
Now that we have provided a broad overview about the Virtual Academic Center, in this next part of the presentation, we’ll focus on what’s required to become a USC field placement or field instructor. Let’s start with field placement requirements which Lorrin Ortiz will Present.
We work with agencies of all sizes and in all locations from New York City to Alamogordo, New Mexico. We work on a local, regional, state and national level. Public and private, profit and non-profit. What an exciting opportunity for students to not only be in seminar with students from diverse geographic areas, but agency focus as well. We work with community based agencies (large and small) as well as hospital/healthcare systems, Catholic Charities/Jewish Family services, County DMH and DCFS, VA agencies, etc. Our agency partners meet both CSWE and USC criteria and provide robust learning opportunities for our students. I should also mention our newest national partnership is with the National Council for Community Behavioral Healthcare, a top advocacy association with a network of 1,800 community based organizations. They have been very helpful in tapping into community leaders passionate about social work and supportive of innovative approaches to workforce development issues and providing educational opportunities to their members.
Ability for students to spend 50% of their time in direct practice with clients – indiv, groups and families Sufficient number & variety of assignments Adequate time to permit both individual & group supervision w/ students Adequate professional working environment -- office space, telephone availability, clerical support and travel reimbursement (home, visits, conferences) Privacy to conduct group or individual sessions with clients Accessibility to resources such has a computer, printer, desk to engage in activities and complete work. Understanding that students are in the agency with the role of a learner. Enthusiastic Field Instructor/Agency willing to create a strong learning environment for the student
Foundation Year Provides broad perspective of social work practice where the goal is to build generalist knowledge Student placed at agency by USC with population different from what was experienced in past/are likely to experience in concentration Pre-placement meeting, not a placement interview Take into consideration bullet points above Student not involved in site selection Students will have taken the Motivational Interviewing course before beginning placement and be oriented to this Evidence Based practice.
Presenter- Lorrin Ortiz In the Concentration Year, students are developing advanced clinical skills typically with a focused population Builds on the Foundation year Student may interview with multiple agencies, mutual selection process While many criteria for development remain the same in the foundation and concentration year (geographic location, language), the biggest difference is that the student is actively involved in their concentration placement. They recommended specific areas and agencies of interest that are in alignment with their professional goals.
Expand in community management services-informal and formal service, community referrals, networking Direct practice is different in the foundation and concentration years- (expand on the differences) Relationship with the field instructor will become a vital com in evaluation of a students practice Students will use a variety of intervention skills and treatment modalities in delivering appropriate services. Through field instruction, students will also learn to evaluate their practice.
University recommends/requires that the FI be employed or contracted with the agency for a min of one year.
The 12 CEUs offered is online curriculum developed through consortium of schools of social work as standards of training for field instructors that is online self paced. Online and asynchronous – you can do at home at your leisure – even in your pajamas. We ask that you complete the FI course in tandem with your student’s first semester
With 4-5 cohorts starts a year and a FT and PT program, we have students in placement all of the time. Here is a quick summary of the upcoming dates to mark on your calendar. We may be talking to many of you right now about placements at the end of September through January
More dates….. Please note we will be providing this document as a reference to all of our attendees – so do not worry if you did not get all of the dates
We will reach out to everyone that indicated they were interested in receiving a call or email from the Placement Development team. All forms are located on our website msw.usc.edu Site visits are live and virtual through Skype and Interview stream. All agencies and student/agency matches are reviewed and approved by the USC Field Committee.
Please feel free to pass this information on to your friends and colleagues and to reach out to our agency development team for questions and to get you started in becoming a part of our network. This is such an exciting time to train the next generation of social work leaders and to be a part of the innovation and technology of the Virtual Academic Center. We appreciate your consideration. Also on our website, feel free to pass on information about the MSW degree program to your employees interested in advancing their career in social work and earning an MSW degree.
Let’s start our Q&A session. Feel free to chat your questions in the bottom chat box and they will be read a loud of us to answer live.
