MASTERS IN SOCIAL WELFARE

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UC BERKELEY HISTORY

BERKELEY SOCIAL WELFARE HISTORY

THE MSW PROGRAM

FIELD EDUCATION

FACULTY

STUDENTS

STUDENT SUPPORT

CONTACT US

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table of contents

© 2014 by the Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved.

welcome.The UC Berkeley School of Social Welfare is an international leader in social work practice and social policy. Our faculty are consistently ranked the top thinkers in their chosen areas of study who challenge conventional wisdom by producing new thinking, practices and research. Our graduates are leaders of the social work profession in California and throughout the nation. We offer active joint graduate degree programs in public health and public policy as well as a pupil personnel services (school social work) credential program. Great change is afoot in our society, and many people are feeling the unequal ways in which these developments are occurring. As social workers, we have a responsibility to help shape these changes and, as our School’s mission states, “transform the systems that perpetuate poverty and social disadvantage:’ These disparities are now a part of our national dialogue, and we have a major role to play in pointing the way forward to a more just society.

This coming decade will likely be a time of significant transition that disrupts many of our assumptions about how the future of our communities, our profession and even our own lives will unfold. While these disruptions will be painful, they also present an opportunity to rethink our approaches to social services, social change, higher education and scholarship. The newly revised mission of our MSW program is to “develop future leaders of the profession who are deeply prepared for multi-level social work in specific areas of practice”. We hope you become leaders who challenge conventional wisdom with new ways of thinking and practice. What better place to consider, study, gain new skills and help shape these changes than at UC Berkeley - a vibrant intellectual community that is the top public university in the world - and in the School of Social Welfare, which also consistently ranks among the top social work schools.

I look forward to this journey together. Even in an unpredictable world we can work hard to help create maximum access for

those among us who are often ignored, left behind or pushed out. By doing so we will build a better place to all live our lives.

Jeffrey EdlesonDean and Professor, Berkeley Social Welfare

uc berkeley history

Founded in the wake of the gold rush by leaders of the newly established 31st state, the University of California’s flagship campus at Berkeley has become one of the preeminent universities in the world. Its early guiding lights, charged with providing education (both “practical” and “classical”) for the state’s people, gradually established a distinguished faculty (with 22 Nobel laureates to date), a stellar research library, and more than 350 academic programs.

Berkeley became a catalyst of economic growth and social innovation - the place where vitamin E was discovered, a lost Scarletti opera found, the flu virus identified, and the nation’s first no-fault divorce law drafted. Scholars at Berkeley have conducted groundbreaking research on urban street gangs and on basic human nutritional requirements, identified why wartime supply ships were failing at sea, invented technologies to build faster and cheaper computer chips, and imaged the infant universe. It also spawned the Free Speech Movement in 1964 that was a model for other social movements that have fundamentally changed our society.

The University of California is widely considered the nation’s premier public university system and Berkeley ranks consistently as the nation’s and world’s leading public university. The goal of graduate study at Berkeley is to inspire independence and originality in the pursuit of knowledge.

uc berkeley history

The first graduate-level social work curriculum at Berkeley was established in 1918 in the Department of Economics by Berkley’s first woman faculty member, Jennifer Peixotto. The graduate Certificate in Social Service was established in 1927 and was accredited by the American Association of Schools and Social Work the next year. Berkeley Social Welfare with its MSW degree was established in 1944 and since then we have prepared over 11,000 social work professionals for leadership positions in public and nonprofit human service sectors.

Our students are trained and equipped with the knowledge of professional practices, policies, and programs required to address a wide range of contemporary societal problems. They use empirical evidence to inform practice and transform lives. Through our field education program, our 200 master’s studentscontribute over 130,000 hours of vital support to over 150 human service agencies and their low-income clients through the San Francisco Bay Area each year. With over 200 graduates of our doctoral program, our School produces top-notch professors and researchers for some of the best social work schools and policy centers throughout the country and around the globe.

berkeley social welfarehistory

1964

2014

The steps of Haviland Hall, home of the School of Social Welfare, 50 years apart.

the MSW programThe Master of Social Welfare (MSW) is a 2-year, full-time degree program that trains students for a range of social work leadership and practice roles. Students are prepared to practice with specialized skills at specific intervention levels, and are thoroughly grounded in knowledge of social and psychological issues, social policies, and social service organizations.

Berkeley Social Welfare’s MSW Program mission is to develop future leaders of the profession who are deeply prepared for multi-level social work in specific areas of practice. We achieve this through an education built on the strongest available evidence, oriented to advancing social justice, and responsive to changing needs of local and global communities.

At the time of application, MSW students select one concentration designated to prepare them for specialized practice in a specific area:

Direct Practice in: Child and Family Services Community Mental Health Services Gerontology Services Health ServicesManagment and Planning

In service to our professional leadership mission, the goals of the MSW program are organized around three central leadership themes:

• Leadership in Service • Leadership for Social Justice and Social Change • Leadership for Evidence-Informed and Competency-Based Practice

Alameda County Foster Youth AllianceAsian American Recovery Services Inc.Bay Area Community ResourcesBay View Hunters Point FoundationBerkeley Mental HealthBerkeley Unified School DistrictBoys and Girls Clubs of San Francisco

Catholic Charities of the East BayChildren’s Hospital OaklandDepartment of Veterans AffairsFamilies First Inc.First 5 Contra CostaFred Finch Youth CenterGlide Foundation

A sample of agencies providing field placements in the Bay Area

in the field

A sample of agencies providing field placements in the Bay Area

in the field

field educationThe field education program is where knowledge and experience are integrated and skills are tested and refined. Working with hundreds of outstanding social service agencies and social work practitioners throughout the Bay Area, our field education program emphasizes preparation for practice with and on behalf of the neediest and most disadvantaged groupsin our society. We recognize that field placement can be, at various times, exhilarating, exhausting, confirming, and challenging. We are eager to make the field experience a memorable and significant experience in the development of each student as a social work professional.

• To provide opportunities to apply conceptual learning to real-life practice situations; • To develop and refine skills in intervention and professional functioning; • To test and evaluate student performance in professional roles.

Field placement has three basic goals:

Hope HospiceInstitute on AgingKaiser Permanente–San FranciscoLa Clinica de la RazaMarin General HospitalMt. Diablo Unified School DistrictOn Lok Senior Health Services

Pathways Home Health and HospicePivotal Point Youth ServicesSaint Mary’s HospitalSan Francisco FoundationSan Francisco Unified School District

Seneca CenterSutter Delta Medical CenterUCSF AIDS Health Project

Jennifer Jackson, LCSW

“My sheer enthusiasm for being a part of Berkeley’s field team is based on its unique model of field education that prepares students for advanced professional roles by pairingguidance and support with rigorous field and classroom education. In short, it is a framework of involvement. That type of involvement has been vital in my own continual learning process, and I strive to create that type of learning environment for students.”

Field Consultant and Lecturer

Greg Merrill, LCSW

“You’ve got to learn your instrument. Then, you’ve got to practice, practice, practice. And then, when you finally get up to the bandstand, forget all that and just wail.” Charlie Parker, American Jazz Saxophonist and Composer

“Social workers are a lot like jazz musicians to me. We go out into the world, harmonize with a wide range of voices and instruments, and we invent and innovate through collaboration. The Berkeley classroom will certainly teach you the history and theory of music, how to analyze music, and the fundamental tenets of innovative harmonizing. It’s the field experience, however, where students learn to play live in the unparalleled arena of the San Francisco Bay Area.”

Director of Field Education

Berkeley Social Welfare’s pre-eminent faculty ranks top in the nation in per capita productivity. Nationally and internationally recognized as leaders in their fields, our senate faculty conducts cutting-edge research on the major issues facing California, the US and the world. Our field faculty represents a diversity of experience and talents, training and preparing our students to excel in their roles as the next generation of social work practitioners and professionals in the field.

Assistant ProfessorAdrian Aguilera“My research focuses on utilizing information technologies (Internet, mobile phones) to develop and disseminate innovative and effective interventions to underserved populations. My current research is primarily focused on utilizing mobile phones and text messaging in particular as an adjunct to cognitive behavioral therapy for depression in public sector clinics serving both English and Spanish speakers. This research aims to improve adherence to treatments using cost effective means and to improve the overall quality of care that is provided in resource limited settings.”

Associate ProfessorCatherine Mary and Eileen Clare Hutto Chair for Social Services in Public Education

Susan Stone

“The theme that cuts across all of my research interests is a concern for theacademic progress of vulnerable kids in schools. Too often, research literature stops after simply identifying groups of kids who perform poorly. What I do is take it up a level of analysis and think about the context and conditions in schools that can enhance kids’ behaviors and performance. In contrast to some researchers, I am very confident that altering classroom and school climate can be preventative and helpful measures. There are some kids who are going to need a lot of support, so it is important to always see the big picture, ensuring that they have positive school conditions and making sure we also layer academic and psychosocial supports.”

our faculty

Bay Area Social Services Consortium (BASSC) California Child Welfare Indicators Project (CCWIP)California Social Work Education Center (CalSWEC)Center for the Advanced Study of Aging Services (CASAS)Center for Comparative Family Welfare and Poverty Research

Center for Prevention Research in Social WelfareMack Center on Mental Health and Social ConflictMack Center on Nonprofit Management in the Human ServicesRisk Reduction Research

Research Units at Berkeley Social Welfare

FACULTY SPOTLIGHT

FACULTY SPOTLIGHT

Adrian Aguilera

Susan Stone

Clockwise: James Midgley, Kurt Organista, Julian Chow, Jill Berrick, Cathy Ralph, Neil Gilbert, Michael Austin.

The keystone of the School’s research enterprise is the Center for Social Services Research (CSSR), in which policy analyses, program planning and evaluations are conducted to improve social and human services. The Center’s research units and sponsored projects offer a critical bridge between our faculty and students

and the larger community of concerned policy-makers and practitioners in

social services worldwide.

“I wanted to focus on making the jobs of folks who went into direct practice easier by looking at the systems in which they and their clients function. The connection between the classroom and the field placement was most useful to me; my field placement was like my own personal case study. A lot of my success is attributed to the fact that I felt prepared to go into the workforce even at a young age.”

our students

Alexis Fernandez (MSW ‘10)

Berkeley Social Welfare administers or awards over $1.2 million in departmental fellowships and awards to graduate students.

STUDENT SPOTLIGHTS

our students

“My favorite thing about UC Berkeley’s Social Welfare program was the cooperative and supportive community. The formal and informal study groups, support groups, and social events I participated in all wereinstrumental in my MSW experience, and helped solidify for me the importance in this field of relying on colleagues for emotional support and different perspectives. I think I learned just as much from my fellow students in the program as I did from the formal curriculum.”

Rachel Hahn (MSW ‘14)

On April 23rd, 2014, Berkeley

Social Welfare community came

together to raise awareness about

the erroneous and destructive

attitudes about sexual assault

by participating in Denim Day.

Encouraged by Dean Edleson,

a leading expert in domestic

violence, students, faculty and

staff donned student-made

denim bracelets in solidarity with

the event that was taking place

across the United States. Additional poster boards and

resources were available for

viewing in the Haviland Commons.

Denim Days

student support Average ratio of student to faculty support:Instructor - 30:1Field Consultant - 15:1Faculty Advisor - 8:1

Joshua DullaghanGraduate Advisor for Admissions, Academic Advancement, and Student Funding“I love being able to work with students from the time they apply to our program to the time they cross the commencement stage in a cap and gown. From the beginning of their journey as an MSW student, they are ready to hold dynamic conversations about the world of social work. Yet they each have unique perspectives which elicits growth and refinement within each other. No one leaves our program the same way as when they entered and that’s the main reason I come to work every morning. To see that change happen.”

Emerald TempletonDirector of Professional Development“Working with the students at Berkeley Social Welfare has been a fruitful and rewarding endeavor. My goal is to support students in applying theory and practice to working in impactful careers. Our students have many prospects of connecting with agencies actively pursuing them. The two years of graduate preparation provides our students with unique opportunities to engage in meaningful experiences that empower them to accomplish their professional charges and become leaders in the field.”

Berkeley International OfficeUniversity Health ServicesCounseling & Psychological ServicesRecreational Sports FacilityGraduate Diversity Program

American Indian Graduate ProgramDisabled Students ProgramTransfer, Re-entry, Student Parents CenterCal Veterans Student ServicesCal Independent Scholars Network

A sample of graduate student services

contact us.Quick question? Call (510) 642-9042 or e-mail socwelf@berkeley.edu.Admissions advising is available through one-on-one meetings and by appointment only. Please e-mail socwelf@berkeley.edu to schedule an appointment.

socialwelfare.berkeley.edu

Berkeley Social Welfare120 Haviland Hall, #7400University of California, BerkeleyBerkeley, CA 94720-7400

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