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Social Work
Major
Help People, and Change the Systems Around Them
Learn to walk with individuals and families, and to confront the causes of injustice.
Social Work at Goshen College prepares you to work with individuals, families, groups, and communities, while addressing the structural causes of injustice. The whole program is grounded in social justice and service.
This is a hands-on accredited program. As a result, it pairs academics with real practice. Agency-based learning is integrated throughout the curriculum, culminating with a 400-hour field placement. This intensive, supervised placement happens during your senior year. This means a significant part of your final year is spent learning in a real social work setting. Weekly seminars and close faculty mentoring support you throughout this professional training.
Is Social Work Right for You?
If you want to spend your life helping people, this is a strong fit. And the demand is always there. The degree equips you to sit with families in crisis. At the same time, it equips you to engage the systems that put them there to foster system-level changes. You’ll graduate as a beginning professional social worker ready to take the Licensed Social Worker (LSW) licensure exam.
Beyond that, the field is wide open. There are over 101 possible careers in social work. For example, some graduates work in schools or child welfare, others go into mental health, crisis counseling, criminal justice, and health care.
You won’t do it alone. Goshen College keeps its classes small. Its faculty bring real practice experience. And weekly seminars guide you through your senior field placement. As a result, you’re supported through a demanding program. We welcome students of every background. So you’re a fit if you want to care for others and the common good.
What You’ll Study
- Human Behavior & Ethics: Courses that help you understand people in context and the values the profession is built on.
- Policy & Research: Students learn how systems function, shape lives and how to study them.
- Practice: Put it to work with people by working effectively with individuals, families, organizations, and communities, capped by the 400-hour supervised senior field placement.
View the complete program requirements in our catalog
400 Hours in the Field
Your first agency-based experience (20 hours) occurs in SOWK 200 Introduction to Social Work so that from the beginning of your professional education you have real-life experiences to ground your learning. Your second agency-based experience occurs in SOWK 209 Social Service Field Experience (40 hours) broadening your understanding of the range of social work practice settings. Your senior field education (SOWK 409) includes 400 hours of closely supervised beginning level practice.
At each level, real social work settings focused on enhancing human well-being for all and meeting basic human needs provide a foundation for your professional development. Students are placed in schools and after-school programs. Other settings include child welfare organizations, community mental health organizations, and Clubhouses. Some students work in long-term care for older adults while others join host organizations where social workers serve on interdisciplinary teams.
Regardless of where you chose to complete your placement, you will graduate with a strong resume and a clear sense of where you’re headed.
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Paying for Goshen
This is worth asking about early. Social work students are eligible for institutional scholarships and need-based aid, and Goshen offers generous financial support to keep your education within reach. To see your own price after aid, run the net price calculator and talk with a real person in the financial aid office. Graduates who continue into Goshen’s Master of Social Work also receive a 10% alumni discount.
View the complete program requirements in our catalog.
Common Questions About Social Work
Graduates are equipped to take the licensure exam toward becoming a Licensed Social Worker (LSW). There are over 101 possible careers, including school-based social work, child welfare, mental health and addictions, crisis counseling, criminal justice, health care, community practice, and international social work. 100% of graduates are employed, in grad school, or in service within a year.
You’ll take foundational and advanced coursework in human behavior, policy, and practice, including Human Behavior and the Social Environment, Social Welfare Policy and Programs, working with individuals, families, and groups, working with communities and organizations, Research Methods in Social Work, and Social Work Ethics, alongside the 400-hour field placement.
Every senior completes 400 hours of supervised field education in a real setting, schools, child welfare, community mental health, long-term care, or host organizations like clinics, police departments, and public health departments. It’s supported by weekly seminars and close faculty mentoring, so you reflect on the work while you do it and graduate ready to practice.
Social work students are be eligible for institutional scholarships and need-based aid. Use the net price calculator on the financial aid page for your real number, and a counselor can help. Graduates also enter Goshen’s Master of Social Work at advanced standing, on an accelerated timeline and with a 10% alumni discount.
Start your application at the Goshen College apply page, or request information first if you’d like to talk through fit, the field placement, or careers in social work before committing. Schedule a visit to meet the faculty. Admission to Goshen is the first step into the major.
Students have completed their 400-hour field placement at organizations across the region, including Ryan’s Place, Goshen Intermediate School, Cora Dale House, the Elkhart Police Department, and Oaklawn. Placements span schools, family and grief support, community mental health, and law enforcement, so you can build hands-on experience in the setting closest to the population you want to serve.
Students have completed their 400-hour field placement at organizations across the region, including but not limited to:
- Bashor Children’s Home
- Boys and Girls Club of Elkhart County
- Elkhart County Unified Family Court
- Greencroft Goshen
- Healthy Beginnings, Elkhart County Health Department
- LaCasa
- Lexington House
Ready to get started?
Courtney Cotter
Assistant Professor of Social Work
Nata Fontan
Assistant Professor of Social Work
Jeanette Harder
Program Director of the Masters Program of Social Work and Professor of Social Work
