Bachelor of Social Work (B.S.W.)

Accredited by the Council on Social Work Education, the Social Work Department offers the Bachelor of Social Work (B.S.W.) Degree. Graduates of Livingstone College's Social Work Program are prepared for entry-level professional employment in public and private agencies such as child welfare agencies, schools, hospitals, and service agencies for the elderly and handicapped. Careers also involve work with the developmentally disabled, homeless shelters, and housing programs.

The program's goals are designed to enable graduates to articulate a practice paradigm that emerges from a commitment to human rights, social and economic justice, and individualized strength and collective empowerment.

The following goals are rendered from this guiding programmatic commitment.

To provide a curriculum that prepares graduates for competent beginning professional generalist social work practice with diverse client systems guided by the social work profession's values and ethics.

To provide a curriculum that prepares graduates to advance human rights and social, economic, and environmental justice as well as engage in policy practice and prevention activities that are designed to prepare graduates to identify, assess, and develop strategies that change conditions that impede, infringe, and deny clients these justices to promote healthy functioning and well-being of diverse client systems.

To provide a curriculum that prepares graduates to alleviate poverty, oppression, and other forms and injustice mechanisms.

To provide a curriculum that prepares graduates to engage in practice-informed research and research-informed practise undertaking a scientific, analytic evidence-based research approach to practice to enable them to adapt to an ever-changing practice environment.

To provide a curriculum that prepares graduates to utilize the generalist intervention model to effectively practise with diverse individuals, families, groups, organizations, and communities.

The B.S.W. The program builds on the traditional liberal arts general education base. The program trains its graduates to perform as a beginning generalist practitioner to serve the global community. Graduates also maintain awareness for lifelong learning, continuing education, or graduate and specialist study.

Social Work majors must fulfil the forty-seven (47) general education credit requirements of the College. Majors must also complete forty-two (42) credit requirements for professional foundation courses, fifteen (15) credit requirements in cognate or support courses for the major, nine (9) credit requirements in Social Work elective courses, and nine (9) credit requirements in free electives. Additionally, Social Work majors must complete six (6) credits in Spanish and six (6) credits of college mathematics.

Students who wish to major in Social Work must apply for admission to both the College and the Social Work Program. There are two (2) separate admission requirements specified in the "Admission Procedure" section of the Social Work Department Student Handbook. Copies of the handbook may be obtained from the Director of the Social Work Department. After admission to the program, students must maintain a 2.5 GPA in major courses and a 2.0 GPA overall.

All senior Social Work majors are required to a fifty dollar ($50) field instruction fee when they register for the SWK 460: Field Instruction/Seminar course and must make arrangements for transportation to and from their field placement site before the beginning of the course.

Livingstone College was founded by the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church in 1879. Its two previous names were Zion Wesley Institute and Zion Wesley College.

Livingstone consists of two schools: an undergraduate College of Arts and Science and Hood Theological Seminary, a graduate school of theology. The college supports high intellectual, cultural, and moral standards based upon sustaining values emanating from the Judeo-Christian ideal. To provide this, the college offers a coordinated program of liberal arts and career-oriented curricula with co-curricular activities. The student may acquire competencies and skills necessary to function responsibly in society. Livingstone remains under the auspices of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church.