BA MAJOR
What You’ll Study
Through a mix of classroom experiences, field work, service-learning, and work crew assignments, you’ll learn the workings of different social systems and develop professional problem-solving skills to help you make positive changes in the lives of others.
Topics You’ll Cover
- Developing empathy and cultural sensitivity for people of different ages, classes, cultures, races, sexual orientations, and beliefs
- Advocating for client access to social services and resources
- Learning effective methods of intervention, and how to decide when to intervene
- Applying social work ethical principles to your professional practice
Current Issues in the Field
In this program, you’ll wrestle with the most common problems social service organizations face today. These three issues are woven throughout your courses:
Environmental Sustainability
As the state of the physical and natural environments becomes more urgent, social work can no longer afford to ignore the effects of environmental degradation on people and communities, as well as the relationship between social and environmental justice.
International/Global Perspective
The world is becoming more and more “globalized,” and it’s essential for social workers to approach their work with a global perspective. Understanding global interdependence will help you work with client systems both domestically and abroad.
Multigenerational Practice
As the population ages, people from different generations are co-existing like never before. Whether you work with children, teens, the elderly, communities, or social policies, social workers today need to be aware of multigenerational needs and opportunities.
Field Internship
Social work majors complete their coursework with a semester-long field internship at a local social service agency. You’ll work with a supervisor to practice social work, helping real clients and interacting with agency professionals.
Some Recent Field Internship Agencies
- Buncombe County Department of Social Services
- Children First Family Resource Center
- Goodwill Industries
- Women At Risk
- North Carolinians for Criminal Justice
- United Way
- Pisgah Legal Services
- Center for Participatory Change
What can I do with a social work major?
With a bachelor’s degree in social work, you can make a difference for society’s most marginalized populations, like the poor, homeless, children, teenagers, elderly, mentally ill, people with physical and developmental disabilities, LGBTQIA, people of color, and refugees.
The major can also be useful if you’re looking to pursue graduate school in social work or if you’re interested in a related service field like public health, recreation, city planning, public administration, or policy development and analysis.
Manuals, Accreditation & Assessment
Social Work Program Policy Manual
Social Work Field Education Manual
Council on Social Work Education (CSWE) Form AS 4(B) Assessment of Student Learning Outcomes
Read more about Warren Wilson College’s accreditation and licensure.