Social Work

Degrees Offered:
Bachelor of Social Work (B.S.W.)

Overview

With Barton’s Social Work Program, you’ll be ready for entry-level practice in a variety of social service settings. Our comprehensive approach provides you with a rigorous professional foundation and in-depth exploration of each area of social work—values and ethics, diversity, social justice, human behavior and the social environment, social welfare and policy, social work practice, research, and field education.

Special Features

As part of your professional education, you’ll complete 100 hours of service learning in your junior year and a 420-hour internship during the spring semester of your senior year.

Course Information

You’ll begin the social work curriculum in your sophomore year. Courses are offered in a cohort style, which means you’ll take courses with the same group of students. Because you know everyone in your classes so well, a beneficial group dynamic and a positive learning environment result.

Coursework covers social welfare and policy, direct practice, human behavior, research, and senior seminar. You have a wide choice of electives, such as:

• Marriage and the Family
• Substance Abuse
• Child Welfare
• Juvenile Delinquency
• The Aging Network
• Social Psychology

Scholarships and Financial Aid

The Roy Branch and Alma Abernathy Barham Scholarship is awarded annually to an upper-class social work major.

Internships

Your internship in your senior year allows you to gain in-depth experience in a social service agency. Some of the agencies where students have been placed are:

• Duke Medical Center
• Guardian Ad Litem
• American Red Cross
• Departments of Social Services
• North Carolina Public Schools
• Domestic Violence Shelters
• North Carolina Department of Corrections
• Assisted Living Facilities
• Hospice
• North Carolina Public Health Department

Career Opportunities

A bachelor of social work degree from Barton gives you everything you need to work as a generalist practitioner in a variety of settings, including hospitals, domestic violence programs, criminal justice agencies, and mental health centers.

You may also apply for advanced standing in graduate programs that offer a master’s degree in social work. Students have gone on for advanced degrees at:

• Virginia Commonwealth University
• University of Maryland
• East Carolina University
• University of South Carolina
• University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
• University of North Carolina at Greensboro
• North Carolina A&T State University

Clubs and Organizations

The Hamlin Society provides social work majors and others on campus with the opportunity to explore and address social problems on campus and in the community at large.

Omicron Alpha, the honor society for social work majors, recognizes those students who demonstrate academic excellence.