Social Work Program at Calvin Earns Reaccreditation

July 20, 2005 == MEDIA ADVISORY

The social work major at Calvin College heard good news last week about the
status of its program.

It has received from the Council on Social Work Education (CSWE) a full,
eight-year reaccreditation.

That stamp of approval comes after the department went though a laborious
three-year review that included reams of written materials, counsel from an
advisory council made up of local social work professionals and a February 2005
visit to Calvin by two site visitors (social work faculty of other
institutions) authorized by the CSWE to be the eyes and ears of the Commission
on Accrediation.

Cheryl Brandsen, director of the social work program at Calvin, says the news
is good for the department, good for students, good for graduates, good for
area employers and good for people who seek out professional social work
services.

"It's really the best news we at Calvin could have received," she says. "The
summary from the site visit was excellent. They were very impressed in
particular with our students. It's nice to conclude the process on such a
positive note."

Although Calvin has offered social work courses since 1934, it did not
introduce a social work major until the late 1980s and was granted
accreditation in June of 1992, accreditation which was renewed in June 1997 for
eight years.

The latest accreditation saw some changes from eight years ago.

Back then the Council urged Calvin to address what it saw as weaknesses in how
the school prepared its graduates to deal with diversity.

This time around the Council praised Calvin's commitment to equipping its
students to practice their craft in an increasingly pluralistic North American
society.

"Students," the site visit summary said, "are well-prepared to practice
diversity-competent social work. Students articulately defined diversity
broadly to include differences in world views, values, culture, socio-economic
and political persuasions. Their understanding of diversity beyond the obvious
differences of race, gender and religion reflects the program's emphasis on
preparing graduates well-steeped in culturally competent practice."

Brandsen says Calvin graduates go on to practice in a wide variety of diverse
settings, so educating students to be prepared for that is a critical concern.

"It was gratifying to see the site visit summary be so positive in that area,"
she says.

Brandsen also was pleased by how the site visit summary made mention of
Calvin's strong emphasis on the liberal arts.

"Social work is a professional program," she says, "so people sometimes wonder
how it fits in at a liberal arts school like Calvin. But you look, for
example, at the human biology course that our majors all take, with its
discussions on end of life and beginning of life issues. That's a really
important course for our majors and one of the reasons we believe that our
liberal arts emphasis as a college is a perfect fit for the social work major.
It was nice to see the site visit affirm that."

Indeed the summary said: "The liberal arts core is foundational to the social
work program. The collaborative working relationship between liberal arts
cognate faculty and the social work program faculty is strong and provides a
seamless integration of liberal arts content for social work students."

That liberal arts foundation also allows Calvin social work majors to choose
from a variety of minors. Brandsen notes that social work majors will minor in
everything from Spanish to political science to missions, depending on what
their career goals are after graduation.

Also, she says, all majors are required to do a 400-hour practicum, or
internship, their senior year which further allows them to explore plans for
their future and gain experience as generalist social work practitioners.

That internship includes a senior seminar in which what students are seeing in
the field is integrated with what they have learned in the classroom.

"Here the social work program," says Brandsen, "is indebted to its large
network of social service agencies in west Michigan, in Chicago and in
Washington, D.C., who graciously provide sites for students to work in and
top-notch social work supervision."

See the social work major website at
http://www.calvin.edu/academic/social_work/

See the social work major handbook at
http://www.calvin.edu/academic/social_work/handbook.htm

See the Council on Social Work education website at
http://www.cswe.org/

-end-
Received on Wed Jul 20 12:23:06 2005