About the Department
Department Overview
A degree in professional social work teaches the specialized skills needed to help diverse people in a variety of ways. Social workers provide one-on-one counseling, intervene with families, lead small groups, and facilitate change in communities and the environment. Professional social work promotes social and economic justice for all people through advocacy, and organizational and political change.
The Department of Social Work offers both a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in Social Work. Bachelor of Social Work (BSW) students learn theories to help them understand and assess client situations, learn direct practice skills such as interviewing, and complete a supervised internship in their senior year. The Master of Social Work (MSW) offers concentration courses that allow students to specialize in a selected area of social work practice. Courses and internships prepare graduates for positions as advanced-level practitioners, clinicians, supervisors, and managers, in addition to leadership roles in community and program development.
MSW Program Mission
The Master of Social Work program at Azusa Pacific University develops competent advanced social work practitioners who can integrate the knowledge, values, and skills of social work to advance social justice and provide services to assist individuals, families, groups, organizations, and communities. Grounded in the profession’s Code of Ethics and sensitivity to diversity, the MSW program is committed to excellence in teaching and scholarship, the integration of faith and learning, the development of professional leadership, and the strengthening of communities in local, national, and international contexts.
BSW Program Mission
The Bachelor of Social Work program at Azusa Pacific University seeks to develop competent generalist social work practitioners who can apply the knowledge, values, and skills of social work, while integrating a Christian perspective, in order to enhance the well-being of diverse individuals, families, groups, organizations, and communities, advancing social justice locally and globally.
About Social Work
Social workers help people overcome some of life’s most difficult challenges: poverty, discrimination, abuse, addiction, physical illness, divorce, loss, unemployment, educational problems, disability, and mental illness. Social workers help prevent crises and counsel individuals and families. In addition, they also work to develop organizations and communities, both locally and internationally, in order to assist people to cope more effectively with the stresses of everyday life.
The Bachelor of Social Work Program has been nationally accredited since 1982 by the Council on Social Work Education. The Master of Social Work Program has been accepted for candidacy for accreditation. APU’s programs in professional social work maintain the following goals:
- To prepare students for professional social work practice with diverse individuals, families, groups, organizations, and communities, both locally and globally.
- To provide knowledge based on scientific inquiry, built on a liberal arts foundation, of human behavior and the interaction of person and environment.
- To prepare students for lifelong learning, critical thinking, and advanced study.
- To equip students to collaborate with the community to advocate for the development of policies, resources, and programs that seek to advance human well-being, promote social and economic justice, empower clients, and respect diversity.
- To educate students to the values and ethics of the profession, and to the integration of Christian values throughout their practice.
- To engage in ongoing scholarship reflecting the goals and needs of professional social work practice.
