{"id":2529,"date":"2019-11-08T12:58:50","date_gmt":"2019-11-08T19:58:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nau.edu\/social-work\/?page_id=2529"},"modified":"2025-08-14T21:57:08","modified_gmt":"2025-08-14T21:57:08","slug":"bsw-program-overview","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/school-social-work\/bsw-program-overview\/","title":{"rendered":"BSW Program Overview"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3>Study Social Work at NAU<\/h3>\n<p>Are you passionate about social justice and social change? Do you want a rewarding career working with the disenfranchised, vulnerable, and oppressed? Are you interested in providing assistance and support to diverse individuals, groups, and communities? A social work degree will help you accomplish these academic and professional goals.<\/p>\n<p>The social work degree will provide you with opportunities to learn the professional knowledge, values, and skills needed to help people experiencing overwhelming life challenges such as substance abuse, domestic violence, child abuse, homelessness, and death, as well as mental, behavioral, and physical illness or disability. Social workers approach their work with people from the strengths perspective, while also looking at the individual within their environment.<\/p>\n<h3>History<\/h3>\n<p>The Bachelor of Social Work (BSW) degree program at Northern Arizona University, accredited initially in 1991 retroactive to 1988, is the only BSW degree program serving the rural northern high plateau and far southwestern areas of Arizona.\u00a0 NAU Social Work Department has a longstanding tradition of community service and preparing competent professional social workers for generalist practice with Native Americans, Latinos, and disenfranchised and vulnerable populations of the Southwest.\u00a0 NAU became a federally designated Hispanic Serving Institution in the spring of 2021, demonstrating a commitment to serving underrepresented populations.<\/p>\n<h3>Mission<\/h3>\n<p>The mission of Northern Arizona University\u2019s\u00a0Bachelor of Social Work Program\u00a0is to advance social and economic justice by delivering immediately relevant education to the students we serve. We accomplish this student-focused mission by holding ourselves and our students accountable to the highest standards of ethical and competent Social Work practice. We strive to create environments where students, faculty, and community partners can thrive, and where mechanisms of oppression and discrimination are actively dismantled.<\/p>\n<h3>Program location<\/h3>\n<p>The BSW program is pleased to offer three choices of campuses for the convenience of our students.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Flagstaff mountain campus, in-person classes<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Yuma campus, in-person classes<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Online campus, fully online classes<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: none;\">\n<ul>\n<li>All online courses are offered in a 7.5 week format. Typically, students take two courses the first half of a semester, and two courses the second half of a semester.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: none;\">\n<ul>\n<li>Exception: Internship course (SW 408) is the full 15 weeks of the semester.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>All location options are fully accredited and fully incorporated into one NAU BSW Program<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Field education<\/h2>\n<h3>Supported professional experience for NAU students earning degrees in Social Work<\/h3>\n<p>Social Work Field Education is your opportunity to gain real-world experience in a supported environment and build your resume working with local organizations. You will apply what you learn in the classroom and move one step closer to a career in social work. This firsthand experience will help you discover, develop, and enhance your social work skills. The Social Work Field Education experience and training involves participating in the life of the agency, attending regularly scheduled meetings, and other activities involving or sponsored by the field placement site. To learn more about the requirements visit\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/nau.edu\/social-work\/field-education\/\">Field Education.<\/a><\/p>\n<h3>Frequently asked questions<\/h3>\n<!-- shortcode-accordion -->\n<div class=\"shortcode-accordion shortcode-accordion--closed\" style=\"position: relative;\" >\n        <a class=\"shortcode-accordion__trigger\" data-header=\"Am I able to take classes part-time to complete the BSW program?_0\" href=\"#\">\n      <div class=\"shortcode-accordion__header\">\n          <h4>Am I able to take classes part-time to complete the BSW program? <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Accordion Closed<\/span><\/h4>\n          <span class=\"shortcode-accordion__header__arrow\"><\/span>\n      <\/div>\n    <\/a>\n    <div class=\"shortcode-accordion__body\">\n        <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\">\n<html><body>\n<p>Yes. The BSW online and in-person programs are set up to go at your own pace.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n\n    <\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n<!-- shortcode-accordion -->\n<div class=\"shortcode-accordion shortcode-accordion--closed\" style=\"position: relative;\" >\n        <a class=\"shortcode-accordion__trigger\" data-header=\"Is an internship required?_0\" href=\"#\">\n      <div class=\"shortcode-accordion__header\">\n          <h4>Is an internship required? <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Accordion Closed<\/span><\/h4>\n          <span class=\"shortcode-accordion__header__arrow\"><\/span>\n      <\/div>\n    <\/a>\n    <div class=\"shortcode-accordion__body\">\n        <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\">\n<html><body>\n<p>Yes. Students will complete 450 hours of a field education internship prior to graduation. Students in the online program are able to complete their internship within their local community.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n\n    <\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n<!-- shortcode-right-column -->\n<div class=\"shortcode-right-column\" >\n    <div class=\"shortcode-right-column__container\">\n<!-- shortcode-contact -->\n<div class=\"shortcode-contact\">\n    <div class=\"contact-header\">\n        <h3>General inquiries<\/h3>\n    <\/div>\n    <div class=\"contact-body\">\n                <a href=\"mailto:SocialWork@nau.edu\" aria-label=\"General inquiries: Email Address\" title=\"Email Address\">\n            <div class=\"contact-icon-container\">\n                <i class=\"fas fa-envelope\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><\/i>\n                <span class=\"sr-only\">Email:<\/span>\n            <\/div>\n            <div class=\"contact-email\">SocialWork&#8203;@nau.edu<\/div>\n        <\/a>\n                        <a href=\"tel:928-523-9970\" aria-label=\"General inquiries: Telephone Number\" title=\"Telephone Number\">\n            <div class=\"contact-icon-container\">\n                <i class=\"fas fa-phone\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><\/i>\n                <span class=\"sr-only\">Call:<\/span>\n            <\/div>\n            <div class=\"contact-phone\">928-523-9970<\/div>\n        <\/a>\n            <\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<!-- shortcode-button -->\n<div class=\"shortcode-button shortcode-button--center\">\n      <a class=\"main-button\" href=\"https:\/\/programapplication.nau.edu\/\">Apply now<\/a>\n  <\/div>\n\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Study Social Work at NAU Are you passionate about social justice and social change? Do you want a rewarding career working with the disenfranchised, vulnerable, and oppressed? Are you interested in providing assistance and support to diverse individuals, groups, and communities? A social work degree will help you accomplish these academic and professional goals. The [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":475,"featured_media":2682,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"my-templates\/catalog.php","meta":{"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","ring_central_script_selection":"","footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-2529","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/school-social-work\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2529","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/school-social-work\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/school-social-work\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/school-social-work\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/475"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/school-social-work\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2529"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/school-social-work\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2529\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5421,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/school-social-work\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2529\/revisions\/5421"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/school-social-work\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2682"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/school-social-work\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2529"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}