Social Work (B.S.W.)

Social Work majors will gain invaluable hands-on experience through fieldwork placement and will gain the skills needed to serve diverse clients and communities in a variety of human service agencies, providing direct services and advocating for human rights and social and economic justice.

All pre-social work program students MUST earn a minimum of 120 credits to graduate with a BSW degree.

Social Work Pre-requisites/General Education Requirements

Pre-Social Work students enter through the College of Arts and Sciences where they complete their general education and social work prerequisite courses. The required courses are listed in sequence below:

 Freshman Year, First Semester (16 credits)

• CRS 101 Critical Reading and Writing Seminar IThis course strengthens critical reading and academic writing skills through engagement with liberal arts texts with a focus on "Discovering your strength" as a Trinity woman. The ability to comprehend and write about arguments in academic texts is essential for success in all liberal arts courses and in lifelong learning. Students will develop the ability to identify a text's main argument and the evidence used to support that argument. Students will also reflect comprehension by accurately and clearly paraphrasing and summarizing texts' arguments. Students will also use annotation and argumentation strategies to respond to liberal arts texts with their own ideas.
  
  All students will be expected to work toward the following learning goals:
  Explore and develop values, especially those relating to social justice, race, and gender, through the study of and response to a variety of academic texts;
  Develop confidence as readers and writers;
  Actively read, summarize, and analyze texts;
  Articulate and support an argument;
  Write clearly, logically, and with attention to audience;
  Formerly CRS 101 - Critical Reading Seminar.
  
  4 credits
  Prerequisitea: None.
• PSYC 101 Introductory PsychologyIntroduces the student to the scientific study of the mind and behavior. All major sub-areas of psychology (social, developmental, clinical, physiological, motivation and emotion, sensation and perception) are explored, as well as the major theoretical perspectives (behavioral, cognitive, psychoanalytic, and humanistic). Formerly PSY 121 Introductory Psychology.
  3 credits
  General Education Curriculum: Knowledge and Inquiry Area
  FLC Area V
  Core: Area II
• HPNU 120 Medical TerminologyThis is an 8-week course designed for individuals interested in learning the language of medicine required to work within a variety of health care fields. The student will acquire word-building skills in the field of medicine and will have a solid understanding of basic medical language and a foundational start on basic medical science and health related concepts that will be useful for other courses within the health professions.
  
  1 credit
  Prerequisites: None
• MATH 108 Finite MathematicsThis is a quantitative literacy and reasoning course designed for education majors and those students intending to study nursing and other allied health fields. Topics include: problem solving, set theory, logic, algebra, and measurement; including unit conversions and dimensional analysis. Additional topics include functions, graphs, systems of equations and inequalities, as well as probability and statistics. Real-world applications will be emphasized throughout the course. Formerly MATH 108 and MAT 108 Elementary Mathematical Modeling.
  4 credits
  Prerequisites: None
  General Education Area: Foundational Skills
• BIOL 101 Introduction to BiologyExplores various aspects of biology from cell structure to metabolism, diversity and ecology. The course consists of two hours of lecture and three hours of laboratory per week. Recommended for non-science majors. There is an additional laboratory fee for this course. Formerly BIO 101 Introduction to Biology.
  4 credits
  FLC Area I
  Core Area II
  General Education Curriculum: Knowledge and Inquiry

 Freshman Year, Second Semester (16 credits)

• CRS 102 Critical Reading and Writing Seminar IIThis course further develops the critical reading and academic writing skills addressed in CRS 101 through engagement with texts in a particular academic discipline. Students will choose a CRS 102 course that addresses an interesting, meaningful or important disciplinary question, and build reading and writing skills through close readings and written responses to the assigned texts. CRS 102 courses are offered on a variety of academic topics, and students choose the one that is most compelling to them.
  All students will be expected to work toward the following learning goals:
  -Describe and apply comprehension strategies
  -Summarize textual ideas accurately and in their own words
  -Compare, contrast and organize textual ideas and arguments into writing
  -Apply revision and editing strategies to writing
  -Acknowledge sources according to disciplinary conventions
  -Locate, differentiate between and evaluate the credibility of academic sources
  
  Formerly CRS 102 - CRS: Prof & Career Success in the Health Professions.
  
  3 credits
  Prerequisite: CRS 101.
  This course is usually taken simultaneously with English 107.
• ENGL 107 College CompositionDevelops effective writing of evidence-based, thesis-centered academic essays. Emphasizes the research and documentation skills necessary for successful academic writing. Focuses on argumentative essays that build to a substantive research paper. Formerly ENG 107 College Composition.
  3 credits
  General Education: Foundational Skills Area
  FLC Area I Core Area I: Skills for Work and Life
• SOCY 100 Introduction to SociologyIntroduces students to the science of sociology and prepares students for upper-level social science course work. Formerly SOC 100 Introduction to Sociology.
  3 credits
  General Education Curriculum: Knowledge and Inquiry Area
  FLC Area V
  Core Area II: Understanding the Self and Society
• BIOL 121 Human Anatomy and Physiology IA systematic approach to the study of the human body. The first part of this year -long course emphasizes the tissues, the integumentary system, the bones and skeletal tissue, muscles and muscle tissue, and the nervous system. Students have the opportunity to apply concepts discussed during the lecture portion of the class to clinical questions presented throughout the semester. Three hours of laboratory per week. Does not fulfill Biology major requirement. There is an additional laboratory fee.
  4 credits
  Pre-/Co-requisite: MATH 102, MATH 108 or MATH 109.
  Pre-requisite: BIOL 101 (SPS); pass BIOL 101 with a C or better or placement test score (CAS).
  General Education: Knowledge and Inquiry Area.
• General Education Course:
  •  Choose ONE  course under History, Arts, and Humanities for a total of three credits
  • (See History, Fine Arts, and Literature course options) 

Sophomore Year, First Semester (16 credits)

• MATH 110 Introduction to StatisticsThis course presents the basic principles of statistics with applications to the social sciences. Topics include descriptive statistics, graphical representations of data, normal probability distributions and the Central Limit Theorem, linear correlation and regression and probability theory. This course also offers an introduction to the use of statistical software. Formerly MAT 110 Introduction to Statistics.
  3 credits
  Prerequisites: MATH 102, MATH 108, MATH 109 or higher level mathematics course.
• COM 150 Critical Reasoning and Oral ArgumentationThe course is designed to improve the capacity for reasoning and to gain the strategies necessary for assessing the variances in messages in everyday interactions. The course also assists students to construct convincing arguments and critically evaluate the claims and premises in written and oral communication. The course fits into the larger first year curriculum by giving a set of methodological tools with which to critique complex arguments, assess the sufficiency and relevance of social scientific evidence, and prepare creative and well-reasoned arguments in a variety of written and oral communicative contexts.
  3 credits
  Prerequisites: None or PHIL 150 Critical Reasoning and Oral ArgumentationThe course is designed to improve the capacity for reasoning and to gain the strategies necessary for assessing the variances in messages in everyday interactions. The course also assists students to construct convincing arguments and critically evaluate the claims and premises in written and oral communication. The course fits into the larger first year curriculum by giving a set of methodological tools with which to critique complex arguments, assess the sufficiency and relevance of social scientific evidence, and prepare creative and well-reasoned arguments in a variety of written and oral communicative contexts.
  3 credits
  Prerequisites: None
• BIOL 122 Human Anatomy and Physiology IIA systematic approach to the study of the human body. The second part of this year-long course emphasizes the endocrine, lymphatic, cardiovascular, respiratory, digestive, urinary and reproductive systems. Students have the opportunity to apply concepts discussed during the lecture portion of the class to clinical questions presented throughout the semester. Three hours of lecture and three hours of laboratory per week.
  
  Does not fulfill Biology major requirement. Prerequisite: C or better in BIOL 121. There is an additional laboratory fee.
  4 credits
• Choose a Foreign Language I
  • (See Foreign Language I course options)
• General Education Courses:
  • Choose ONE courses under  History, Arts, and Humanities for a total of three credits
  • (See History, Fine Arts, and Literature course options) 

Sophomore Year, Second Semester (12 credits)

• PHIL 251 BioethicsExamines the legal and moral issues in areas dealing with the biology of human health and development, for example, experimentation on human subjects, organ transplants, euthanasia, abortion, fetal tissue use, contraception, and other aspects of human reproduction, as well as questions regarding rights to health care. Formerly PHI 211 Applied Ethics: Bioethics.
  3 credits
  General Education Curriculum: Values and Beliefs
• CHEM 113 Chemistry for the Health SciencesIntroduces students to basic concepts in chemistry, including the nature of matter, chemical reactions, stoichiometry, solutions, principles of organic chemistry, and the chemistry of the most important biomolecules. The course also introduces students to the proper use of basic laboratory equipment as well as basic laboratory techniques. Lab experiments are designed to provide the student with the tools to understand connections between theory and results found in the lab.
  4 credits
  General Education Requirements: Knowledge and Inquiry (Science and Mathematics)
  Prerequisites: MATH 108
• POLS 244 Law, Justice and Human RightsInvestigates notions of law and justice through the evolution of human rights and the extent to which legal systems embrace and promote such rights. Utilizes case studies to examine theory and practice of human rights and associated legal structures, including major intergovernmental and nongovernmental organizations, and international and national legal frameworks.
  3 Credits
  Prerequisites: None or any RST prefix
• Choose a Foreign Language II
  • (See Foreign Language II course options)
• General Education Courses:
  • Choose ONE  courses under  History, Arts, and Humanities for a total of three credits
  • (See History, Fine Arts, and Literature course options)

Social Work Major Courses