The Carthage Social Work Internship Experience

I often ask my students and colleagues, “What major on our campus do you think has the most rigorous internship requirement?” They rarely know that the answer is social work! In social work, the internship is referred to as the “signature pedagogy” of our discipline. This means that the social work internship is one of the primary ways that our students learn and demonstrate the knowledge and skills necessary to become practicing social workers. 

The social work internship program at Carthage requires all of our students to complete 450 hours of fieldwork over the course of their senior year. Students receive a total of eight course credits for their internship, which they take alongside specific classes that enable them to apply social work theories and concepts to real-world social work practice. Typically, our seniors spend about sixteen hours per week at their practicum sites. I often remind my students that they’ve probably never had a four-credit class that required them to spend sixteen hours per week to be successful, along with other relevant assignments for the internship class. For this reason, we encourage our students to plan ahead and make efforts to leave themselves no more than twelve credit hours to complete during their two senior-year semesters.

This planning process includes being intentional about matching students with field sites that will be a good fit for them. We typically start working on this in January of their junior year. After completing our pre-field workshops, where students learn more about the internship experience and prepare for interviews, I meet individually with each junior to discuss their interests and goals for their senior fieldwork. All students interview with at least two agencies before making a decision. This helps to expose them to a range of options in learning about social work roles and opportunities. We require a mutual decision between the field site and student to be sure there is enthusiasm and commitment by both the agency and student to work together. 

Professor Minsky-Kelly with staff, students, and alumni at the Emergency Gun Violence Summit (2024)

We are proud of the wide range of internship options available to our students, which includes traditional social work settings like schools, hospitals, and child welfare settings, and nontraditional sites such as libraries, advocacy organizations, and on-campus placements. Because our program is relatively small, I am also able to provide a lot of individual support and mentoring for our students as they navigate the realities of social work and begin to see the struggle and resilience of those they serve in our communities. 

BY DEBRA MINSKY-KELLY

Licensed Clinical Social Worker

Field Director and Assistant Professor at Carthage College