Social Work majors get a taste of what their career will look like during their final semester.
Many seniors at NW fill their time with classes, time with friends, job hunting or even some job shadowing. Education students spend their last semester getting a taste of their future workplace as student teachers, but they aren’t the only ones who get to spend the final semester in the workforce. For social work majors, their final semester is filled with practicum in the field that they want to go into.
This semester, social work students get to practice their skills gained over their years of study in a professional setting. The sites they are placed at are very diverse, such as school settings, community development or child and family services. All of these placements have an emphasis on experiencing diverse settings of different racial, ethnic, sex and age-related lifestyles.
A couple of our students currently experiencing this practicum are Mikaela Opgenorth and Lucy Young. These students provided some insight on some of the blessings, and challenges of this unique semester.
Opgenorth, who is seeking to go into medical social work or be a licensed therapist after completing her undergrad, discussed her experience as a non-traditional social work student. She is non-traditional in the sense that she is 30 years old and lives off campus with her husband and two young kids.
“This has admittedly changed how school is structured for me from the last 3 semesters I have done where I attended classes full-time and did homework with the rest of my free-time (mostly evenings) which had a significant impact on the amount of time that I spent with my family.” Opgenorth said.
For Opgenorth, this semester has felt more natural for her to be in the workforce. While this has made it more difficult at times to find the motivation to complete the coursework for her senior seminar class that goes along with practicum, she said this semester has been a great experience.
“Having been in the workforce already, I love it.” Opgenorth said “It’s glorious and brings back a sense of ‘normalcy’, allowing more time to be spent in the evenings with my husband and children.”
Opgenorth is doing her senior practicum work at ATLAS and Center for Financial Education in Sioux Center.
“ATLAS is a faith-based non-profit that walks alongside community members to help them in a variety of ways, but mostly through mentoring and connecting them to the resources that they need to help meet any needs that they may have.” Opgenorth said.
Another senior Social Work student is Young, who is looking into going into child welfare. This semester, she is doing her practicum at HHS in O’Brien country.
“My week consists of shadowing social workers and child protective workers, as well as learning the ropes to documentation and helping out wherever I can.” Young said “It’s such an odd place to be. I don’t usually have homework, so I don’t get to ‘trauma bond’ with my friends while studying together. I don’t interact with as many people or really meet new people on campus. It definitely feels more like having a real job outside college.”
Like many senior social work majors, Young is experiencing something different in her college routine. While at times, this experience may be difficult, it prepares students for the future in a very direct way.
“It’s been quite the experience. At times it’s exhausting but my day-to-day is usually pretty different so that aspect is really fun.” Young said “I would say that it’s nice to have more structure, but with HHS, we often see clients when they are at home—meaning, not during work hours. It’s not your typical 9-5.”
With this new practicum semester, Young has encountered the blessing of getting to experience her calling in a real world setting.
“I have been so blessed to be in the O’Brien office. The people I work with between the Primghar and the Orange City office are great. It’s a lot easier to be curious and ask questions when people are willing to answer.” Young said. “I am also extremely grateful that I am gaining more insight on what my future could look like. Prior to this semester, I didn’t have much other experience in the social work field. Now I am getting to see what it actually looks like in the field.”
Because of the abnormal schedule for a college student, Young and other senior social work majors have had to work harder to stay connected with people. Young uses her “favorite relational ministry” skill of photography to keep her campus connections strong.
“I definitely have to be more intentional with my friends—especially because I miss dinner time a lot.” Young said “I really enjoy the weekends and try to make plans to take advantage of the time I do have.”
For any social work students looking forward to practicum in a future semester, Young offers some advice
“Go all in for your practicum.” Young said “You get as much out of it as you put in. It will probably be intimidating at first but advocate for yourself—the Lord will put the right people in place that will hear you and guide you along the way.”
