SOCW 6351: Social Policy, Welfare, and Change discussion

MSW Field Experience - Field Placement

© 2019 Laureate Education, Inc. 1

MSW Field Experience - Field Placement Program Transcript

NARRATOR: At Walden University, our faculty is as dedicated to your success as you are. These videos offer a preview of what's next in your program.

DONNA MCELVEEN: Hello, I'm Dr. Donna McElveen with the MSW program, connecting today with you about field experience. At this point, many of you have completed Skills Lab I and may be working on securing your field placement. If you haven't completed Skills Lab I, this is a good time for you to connect with your advisor about when you should enroll.

If you've already identified an agency and you're working with your coordinator to finalize things, great. You're entering the next important phase of your educational journey in the MSW program. For those of you still working on your agency search, I want to remind you of resources that are available to assist you.

We have a list of the agencies we've partnered with in the past and we also have downloadable instructions for completing a search of your community. You can find these resources on our field website under the locating and agency tab. We realize it can be stressful thinking about completing your field experience, but you've come this far and we know you're prepared to begin the journey. I want to introduce one of your peers, Lahella. She wants to share with you her experience with locating an agency, Skills Lab, and provide a few tips and suggestions for success.

LAHELLA JONES: My name is Lahella Jones. I am a master of social work student at Walden University and my current concentration is military. My current field placement is called Making a Difference, Inc. It is a nonprofit counseling agency here in Enid, Oklahoma.

Right now, Making a Difference is in the first stages of creating a youth center, Enid's very first youth center that's geared towards middle school children and, eventually, high school students. It's really great to be able to be a part of the business planning and helping develop the strategic planning for it, getting the information for the grants together. Skills Lab prepared me for field placement mostly because I haven't been in the field of social work.

I was in the military for 10 years. And then when I got out of the military, I became a stay-at-home mom. I had zero clue as to what that looked like. So to be able to meet people, number one, who have been in the field. So I met a few of the ladies who had bachelor's degrees in social work and I learned a lot from them.

To speak with professors who have been in the field for so many years, it was very eye-opening to me to hear the different experiences that social workers can be placed in so many different areas, which is one of the reasons that I love social work. It's because you can walk into basically any job and be able to apply it to what we're

MSW Field Experience - Field Placement

© 2019 Laureate Education, Inc. 2

learning, one way or another. You're working with people and, in some capacity, you're helping populations in some capacity.

So that was really great for me to carry that into my current field placement. If I could give any advice about when you start to look for your field placement site, I would say do it as early as you possibly can. We know that it's coming. We know that it's something that we need to do to complete our degree.

So the sooner you start, the better off you'll be. Well, thank you so much for having me. I feel very grateful to be here and being able to discuss my experience with you. And I hope that everything that I said is helpful to future students coming through the process.

DONNA MCELVEEN: Thank you, Lahella. I really appreciate you sharing how networking and starting the process early are so important. It sounds like your field experience has taught you a lot about the social work profession. Along with Lahella's advice, I want to provide you a few things you can do now to continue preparing for field experience.

First, if you're currently working with your field coordinator to secure your placement, stay in touch with them. If you're still considering where you want to intern, go to our field website and utilize resources there under locating an agency. If you haven't attended Skills Lab, connect with your academic advisor about how to enroll.

And last, if you need help with any part of this process, please reach out to our field team. We're here to help you. It's been great connecting today and hearing Lahella share her experiences and tips. I hope this has been a helpful reminder about staying active in the field placement process. I look forward to your progress in the program.

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