Persons interested in earning a bachelor of social work degree from East Central University can enroll at the Eastern Oklahoma State College campus in McAlester.
The social work program offers opportunities for students interested in working in child welfare, with older adults, social services and in a variety of areas in mental health and health care, including hospitals and hospice.
ECU professors will teach three beginning-level courses for the BSW degree this fall at McAlester.
“Intro to Social Work and Social Welfare” (SOWK 2273) will meet Tuesdays from 4:25 p.m. until 6:20 p.m. “Human Behavior and Social Environment I” (HURES 2083) is scheduled for Thursdays from 7:05 p.m. until 9:40 p.m. The third course, “Field Work Studies in Social Work” (SOWK 2511), a service-learning course, is scheduled by arrangement and must be taken concurrently with “Intro to Social Work and Social Welfare.” Additionally, students should enroll in “Interviewing Techniques” (HURES 2103).
ECU’s social work program is one of only six accredited BSW programs in Oklahoma and the only one in the southeast quadrant of the state, said Dr. Carol Bridges, director of the social work program.
“Our primary objective is to prepare students to enter competent generalist social work practice at the beginning professional level following graduation,” she said. “There is a need for degreed social workers to work in agencies and organizations in southeast Oklahoma and the social work program seeks to meet this need through its degree program in McAlester.”
Program prerequisites are an introductory sociology course, a general psychology course and a human biology course (general biology). Students also should have completed a computer literacy course and “Freshman Composition I and II” with a grade of “C” or better.
“Most of the students who have completed the social work program at McAlester have been EOSC graduates,” Bridges said. “Students planning to enter the program in the fall should either hold an associate of arts or science degree or lack only a few hours toward the associate’s.”
More information about the social work degree, contact Dr. Bridges at 580-559-5405 or Angela Price, ECU academic adviser at McAlester, at 918-302-3614.