Mount Mary University offers an accredited four-year Bachelor of Arts in Social Work degree. You can complete the program on a full-time or part-time basis (though the part-time option will lengthen the program completion time). The program offers courses during the day and evening.
A minimum of 67 credits in social work are required for this major. You also must complete the university’s core curriculum requirements per social work curriculum sheet. Nine professional classroom courses are required, in addition to supervised fieldwork. Most classes include discussion, group projects, role-playing, field trips and sharing of fieldwork experiences, along with traditional lectures. Mount Mary University awards academic credit for life experience in many curricular areas. However, no credit for life or work experiences is awarded for required social work courses, specifically those courses required by the BSW social work major and the MSW which begin with the SWK prefix
Complete degree requirements and a listing of courses are available in the Undergraduate Bulletin (PDF).
Gain Experience Through Required Fieldwork
Social work majors must complete 500 hours of supervised fieldwork before graduation. Fieldwork allows you to gain hands-on experience in a real-world environment. Field placements are completed over three semesters during junior and senior year at two different agencies. You will work with social work faculty to select your placements.
These placements provide you with a greater understanding of the social work profession, give you opportunities to get professional experience working with persons of all ages and diverse cultural backgrounds, and develop a rich professional network. Several Mount Mary students recently received job offers from their field placement organization before graduation.
Fieldwork placements are located in the Milwaukee metro area. Milwaukee’s strong ethnic communities offer rich learning experiences for social work students.
Make a Difference Through Social Action Projects
During your senior, you will complete a social action project to educate specific communities about pertinent issues such as co-sleeping, budgeting for persons in transitional living, the process for teen mothers to apply for and attend college, nutrition for young children or job seeking skills for incarcerated women.
Complete a Senior Capstone Project
During your senior year, you’ll take a social work capstone course, where you will complete a comprehensive portfolio displaying achievement of required skills for beginning practice. In the course, you also will prepare for the state certification exam for entry-level social work practice, sharpen your professional job seeking skills and learn from potential employers about their expectations of new employees.
Participate in Research
Throughout your coursework, you will get to participate in research projects ranging from library research-based term papers or family genograms to formal research projects. Projects may include term papers on a global social justice issue, preparing a single system design research paper based on a personal goal or fieldwork experience, and critiquing social work research articles pertaining to at risk populations.
Understand Social Work Program Procedures and Objectives
The social work program provides two handbooks—one for students majoring in social work and the other for field instructors who teach and monitor our students during field placements—to aid in understanding program policies and procedures.
- Social Work Student Handbook
- Social Work Field Instructors Manual
See the social work program’s mission, learning goals and outcomes assessment.