Students enter their formal, educationally-directed field practicum in their senior year. During this year-long learning experience, students function as social work trainees under the supervision and guidance of professional agency personnel. Earlier volunteer experiences during the junior year have served to introduce and familiarize them with community resources and services. The senior year field practicum provides them the opportunity for a more in-depth and continuous experience. It also provides the Program with further indices to assess the student’s suitability and readiness for professional social work practice.

The practicum is for the full year, beginning in September and ending the end of April, for a total of 480 clock hours. Students commit to train sixteen hours weekly both semesters with days/hours mutually agreed upon between student and field instruction supervisor. Concurrently, students in practicum meet on campus both semesters with their field liaison in a required integrative seminar to share orally and in writing their field experiences. Students also submit a weekly field report documenting learning activities/learning goals; integration of knowledge, values, and skills from the classroom; and their subjective reaction to their field practicum experience. Additionally, students take the last methods/practice class, social work with families and groups in the fall semester. Whenever possible, field instruction supervisors are encouraged to provide student trainees with opportunities to participate in the organization and facilitation of a client group appropriate to the fields of the population the agency serves.

Because field practicum is concurrent with methods and other social work classes, students are better able to apply in the integrative seminar the academic (knowing) with their experience (doing) and work toward a better synthesis of social work practice. Case examples, didactic instruction, role-play, and the sharing of experiential learning among their fellow students all contribute toward integration which fosters understanding and application of social work knowledge, values, and skills in effective generalist social work practice. The teaching methodology in the "Integrative Seminar" is to maximize student participation both orally and in writing through the use of the weekly field reports, written exercises which are experiential in nature, readings, and the expectation that students will integrate knowledge from foundation content areas defined by CSWE. Some of the topics covered are: developing a professional self, personal/professional relationships, confidentiality, values and ethical dilemmas, learning by supervision, ethno-sensitive social work practice with systems of varying size, record-keeping/documentation, termination and research knowledge/methodology. The integrative seminar also allows faculty field liaisons in their capacity as field seminar instructors to assist students with their evaluative research assignment which is agency-based and focuses on an aspect of practice evaluation or service delivery program evaluation.