Virtual Open House Master of Social Work Transcript

Joelle Patricio: Hello, everyone! Thank you for joining. As everyone’s getting their audio connected, just wanted to say welcome. If you are here for the information session for the Master of Social Work at George Mason University, you’re in the right place. And as we just give another minute, please go ahead and use the chat to introduce yourself. We would love to get your first name, if you have a specific specialization in mind, or a specific modality, as well as where you are joining us from. So if you can put that in the chat, that would be great. And I will pause for a few seconds. Yes, I can repeat that. If you could introduce yourself, your first name, the specialization and or modality you’re interested in, as well as where you are joining us from. Alright, and as those come in, I’m going to move forward. So this is our agenda for the evening. We’re going to do introductions, highlight what makes us unique, go over our curriculum, our different campus options, practicum education, learning outcomes, our stipend program, talk a little bit about is social work right for you, go over all of the admissions information, along with funding, and if time permits, some Q&A. So in the meantime, if you have questions you don’t want to forget, feel free to put that in the chat.

Daphne King: And we will try and get to it when we can.

Joelle Patricio: This is how to participate. You should have the chat control at the bottom of your screen, and it looks like some responses are coming in, so I think everyone’s able to see it. If you would like to raise your hand to participate, that will notify us, but we won’t be taking questions verbally until the end. So again, please type your questions into the chat box, and we’ll try to address as much as we can. Alright, so introductions. My name is Joel Patricio Chong, and I’m the Graduate Admissions Coordinator for the college. Nice to have you all on tonight, and I will pass it to Lisa.

Lisa Climer: Good evening, everyone. Thank you for joining us. My name is Lisa Clymer, and I’m the Director of the Practicum Education Program here at Mason.

Evelyn Tomaszewski, Department of Social Work: Hi, I’m Evelyn Tomaszewski. I’m the Divisional Director of Graduate Programs, and I’m also an Associate Professor.

Daphne King: Good evening, I’m Daphne King. I am the Associate Divisional Director of Graduate Programs and an Assistant Professor here in the Department of Social Work. And at the bottom of this slide, there’s also a link where you can view more of the bios from faculty within our department. Alright, so this next slide features our social work competencies. We are accredited through the Council on Social Work Education. And the Council on Social Work Education, as our accrediting body, provides schools of social work, departments of social work, with educational policies and competencies that all programs have to ensure that students are able to meet once they graduate from the program. I am not going to read all of the competencies, but just wanted to highlight that all of these competencies are embedded within our coursework. Within, our MSW program, these competencies are areas where you will, be competent and practicing as ethical social workers once you leave our program. These competencies also, connect to our code of ethics, through the NASW, National Association of Social Workers. These competing… competencies will also be present and encompassed when you start your practicum, as Lisa will talk about a little bit later. But all of the competencies, provide us with practice behaviors as we provide services to clients And clients can encompass individuals, families, groups, organizations, and communities. And so each of the competencies highlight a different, area of practice with our clients. You will see these competencies again when you start your coursework. All of the courses will feature this same infographic, and then within each course, when you click on each of the numbers, more information on each of the competencies will be provided.

Evelyn Tomaszewski, Department of Social Work: The MSW program has this mission statement. This guides our work, in the classroom, in the practicum. And we commit that graduate students will uphold social work values and principles and take part of collective responsibility for each other and the environment as global citizens, lead as transformative social workers, scholars and practitioners. Really committed to ensuring that we take action around economic, social, racial, and environmental justice from a framing of human rights for all. We believe in co-constructing knowledge with lived experience of people we serve to deliver through evidence-informed policy and practice. We will identify, help you identify and apply evidence-informed practices across individuals, communities, systems, and policies which are anti-racist, anti-oppressive, and appropriate to local, regional, and global environments. And for you to learn and practice public service, through creating community partnerships, building capacity, and providing technical expertise, and to collaborate with allied professionals to promote holistic human health and well-being. We have a commitment to strengths-based practice, person and environment, and really looking at a systems approach, and you’ll be learning more about that today. So, what makes our social work program unique? We are accredited by the Council on Social Work Education, we have renowned faculty, and as Dr. King mentioned, please do check out the bios of each of the faculty members. We’re named one of the best online MSW programs of 2023 by Forbes, and one of the top 100 MSW graduate programs. And we are… our design of our curriculum is focused on licensure preparation. It’ll prepare you to apply to sit the LCSW or the LCS… LMSW exam in Virginia.

Daphne King: So, this next slide just features a little bit of information so that you can compare the two program options. We like to say that we have one MSW program, but two different campuses, or two different program options, meaning online or in person. The MSW program, whether online or on campus, has the same criteria and the same courses. For our online campus, it’s primarily asynchronous, which means that you will participate in the courses and engage in the coursework and the courses on your own time. However, there are set due dates for assignments that you still have to meet, but you just don’t have to report to class at any set day or time. Some faculty will provide support, through optional, live class sessions that occur via Zoom, as well as virtual office hours. But again, the program being asynchronous means that it’s primarily self-directed. As stated, many instructors will hold some optional Zoom sessions, as well as office hours will occur via Zoom. When it comes to your practicum seminars, those are synchronous via Zoom. However, students have to report in person to their assigned agency during typical business hours, and again, Lisa will discuss that when we get to, talking about practicum.

Evelyn Tomaszewski, Department of Social Work: The in-person campus is primarily synchronous. You’ll engage in your courses on a particular day, a specific day of the week, a specific time, and you will, of course, complete your coursework in your own time, and as in the online program, also do group work. There are set due dates for assignments and in-class discussions, again, including group work. The classes are on the Fairfax campus, and it’s a full semester. You have the support of faculty, including office hours, and the practicum seminars are the same, synchronous via Zoom. So let’s do a quick overview of the MSW program. The on-campus program has several options. Two-year, what might be considered more traditional, full-time, two-year. Three-year and 4-year programs, which are a little more part-time, advanced standing, which I noticed there are a couple students interested in advanced standing, we’ll talk more about that. A dual degree, and a bachelor’s to accelerated master’s, or BAM, MSW.

Daphne King: And our online program, has a little bit of a different option for course progression than online, or excuse me, than on campus. One thing to note with our online program option is that, our semesters are divided into two 8-week sessions. So students will take classes in each of those 8-week sessions to make up a full semester. So with the part-time option, that means that students are taking one class in each of those 8-week sessions. For part-time, that is 6 credits a semester. The accelerated option would be the equivalent of full-time. That will be 9 credits a semester or 3 courses, in a semester. So that does mean that in one of those 8-week sessions, you may be taking two classes if you choose the accelerated option. And then we also have advanced standing and the bachelor’s to Accelerated Masters.

Evelyn Tomaszewski, Department of Social Work: As an example, this is an on-campus generalist year, fall start, full-time. So that’d be 15 credit hours a semester. And in the fall, you would take these classes, and in the spring, the classes that are listed. If you decide to do a 3- or 4-year program in the on-campus option, you would take 9 credit hours. So you would take the first 3, 600, 656, and 623 in the fall semester, and do your direct practice course and practicum in the second. All semester. In the spring semester, if you’re not full-time and you want a 3- or 4-year program, you would take the first three courses, 644, 659, and 6… 71, and in the second year, spring semester, you would take psychopathology and your practicum. So the difference is, in full-time, you will have a practicum in year 1 and 2, and in three or four-year program, you’ll have your practicum in year one and year 3. And one distinction that I want to make between our part-time… our online campus and our in-person campus is, for online, we do admit in all semesters, so we have an admissions for fall, spring, and summer semesters, as you can see, on this slide. There was a question in the chat that asked, how fast or quickly you can move through.

Daphne King: The online, option with the accelerated, pathway. One thing that I will say is for our traditional part-time, where you’re only taking two classes a semester, that is completed over 10 semesters. The accelerated option can be completed over 8 semesters, for online, and then for advanced standing, that can be completed over 6 semesters. So you can see, for the accelerated option, it does have you completing it two semesters sooner than if you did the traditional part-time. This slide features just a snapshot of what your course progression looks like if you’re choosing the part-time option and you’re going to start, courses in spring semester. You’ll have your first course, which is the Foundations of Social Work and Social Welfare, during Session 1. As well as, for Session 2, you would be taking Social Work 623, which is Human Behavior. Again, our, sessions are 8 weeks in length, so your first session, would be 8 weeks, the second course will also be 8 weeks, and that gives you, a full semester. For a summer semester, we only, have classes during Session 1, so that means if you take two classes together, during summer, they will be occurring concurrently. Since we don’t offer courses during Session 2. But these are the two courses that you would take for Summer 26, again, if you are using the… doing the part-time option. If you’re looking at the accelerated option, this is what the course progression would look like. Spring semester, you would have, three classes. One class during Session 1, which is the Foundations of Social Work and Social Welfare, and then you would have two classes during Session 2, which is 623, Human Behavior, and 656, Poverty, Oppression, and Inequity. Again, for summer semester, if you decided to go the accelerated option, you would be taking these three classes at the same time during summer. However, since the courses move so quickly, I don’t often advise students to take 3 classes at the same time, and just because you chose the accelerated option doesn’t mean that you have to take three classes every semester. There is some flexibility with, going down to 2 classes, or even one during the summer if needed, and we have students that do that all the time, that it may start off accelerated, and then, you know, life happens, or again, it hits summer semester, and they opt not to take all three classes during summer, and that’s totally fine. It just means that we adjust your course plan a little bit. This next slide just really features samples of our coursework, as well as our electives. As you can see from the slide, we have two specializations, children, youth, and families, or Adults in Healthy Aging. And our specializations really just encompass working with certain populations. One thing that I tell students is that regardless of which specialization you declare, you’re always going to be working with multiple populations, because our children and adults are in multi-generational families, and so you want to build those skills to work, across those dynamics within families. So again, this is just giving you a snapshot of what some of the coursework can look like. The infographic also talks about, the importance of both specializations and the importance of working with, both populations and what that may look like as our society continues to change and grow. And so, I won’t read what’s on here, but when you get the slides after tonight’s information session, you can take a look at that a little bit more closely.

Evelyn Tomaszewski, Department of Social Work: Thank you for that. I just wanted to add something, one more, that’s unique, that makes Mason MSW program unique, is all students take a course called Global Community Health 500, which was on the previous slide. And this course is taken with students from every discipline that’s part of the College of Public Health, and there is nothing like it in any other MSW program. And it’s a really great opportunity to practice that part of our mission that talks about interdisciplinary work. And to, also help others understand the role, and importance of social work in multidisciplinary teams. Thanks, Joel. So, as Dr. King mentioned, the previous slide had a few sample electives. Here’s the list of electives that we currently offer. Not all of these are offered every semester. It’s pretty much the menu. So, students must take a minimum of one macro course, which are the courses listed on the left-hand side, 3 credits. With a requirement of 12 credit electives, or 4 courses, across, your specialization year. The macro electives and the clinical electives, most of them, the clinical electives are available on both, both options, but not all of them. For example, if you’re interested in advanced trauma theory and practice. That is currently offered in the on-campus program only. If you’re interested in social work practice in schools, it’s currently offered in the online program option only. Good news is, is that students can request to take a course in the other program option. So all the courses are available to all MSW students. Regardless of the campus of origin. So, the other thing I want to note with electives is that we’re really trying, out some new ideas and new ways to present electives. For example, the on-campus program, even though we’re a 15-week semester, we’re do… we… and in person, we are, initiated a synchronous 15-week class, so one night a week. Students meet synchronous online with the instructor, and we find that students in the online option find this accessible as well, because it’s still online. So we’re working to be creative, and we welcome feedback from students on what could help make the program more accessible to them. The dual degree program is an MSW and a master’s in Conflict Analysis and Resolution. This program is in partnership with the Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution, so you’ll receive two degrees. In the dual degree, you can choose either Children, Youth, and Families, or Adults and Healthy Aging as your specialization. It’s currently available through the on-campus program, and it’s 3 years if you go full-time. But there are students who have done this degree part-time. So, again, adapting, adapting your coursework, you can do it in 4 years. The other thing that I want to note, that some of the Carter School classes are only held in person, not many, but a couple, and that campus is in Arlington. So there’s easy transportation available through Mason to get to that campus, but it is on a different campus. Our on-campus classes are in the Fairfax campus. Advanced standing, again, I saw a couple of students interested in advanced standing. There is specific criteria, which is on our website, and we’ll be going over this in a little bit. While meeting the criteria, you will start your specialization year as 33 credits. BSW students in your senior year, can apply. Your degree must be earned within the last 5 years, so if you’re receiving your BSW this year, or you received it last year, and you want to work, you have 5 years, before, you… and within 5 years, you want to think about returning for your MSW. Why 33 credits? Because all students are required to take Social Work 674 Psychopathology before entering their, specialization year as advanced standing students. On campus, that’s the summer prior, and it’s online synchronous. In the online option, it’s the first semester, online asynchronous. And this is available, of course, on both on-campus and online options. Our newest addition is a Bachelor’s of Accelerated Masters, or BAM. And you can earn both your BSW and MSW degrees at an accelerated pace. These are for students who are working towards their BSW. They’re not sure if they will, want to apply for advanced standing, or they want to work, a little more quickly to get their… to get the credits towards their MSW degree, and you can read the criteria here. There’s a little bit more information in a slide later that’s much more comprehensive. But again, this is available in both the on-campus and online program options. We’re not going to go into this chart. If you’re interested in the BAM option, or the advanced standing option, have a look at this. It has, we’ve thought through all the questions that might be asked, but of course, you can reach out, and at the end, Joelle will give you her email if you have any questions about BAM versus advanced standing.

Lisa Climer: Okay, let’s talk about practicum. So you may have heard the term field, or field education for MSW programs. We use practicum education here at Mason, and that’s a change that we just made in the last couple of years, because we feel that, you know, that, that really is the term. Field is, a term that, you know, that has been widely used, but really it is practicum education, which is meant to, you know, signal the comprehensive nature of the learning experience and, the application of theory and concepts that you’ll be getting through your coursework. And your practicum is going to be, you know, a very structured experience, that offers a lot of opportunities for interaction, both at the site where you’re placed and through the seminar course. It offers comprehensive supervision of your skill development, and, you know, obviously helps prepare you for professional practice beyond the MSW. So, we like to say that practicum education is the signature pedagogy of social work education, and what we mean by that is just that it’s the pivotal experience in your transformation from, you know, a social work student to a professional social worker. And the purpose of practicum education is to, you know, provide you an opportunity to apply your knowledge, skills, values, and ethics to professional practice. It’s designed and coordinated, so that you can demonstrate the nine social work competencies that were referenced earlier. And so, it is a comprehensive program, you always have a seminar course that goes along with your agency-based practicum experience. You know, you’ll be practicing using your skills with actual clients at all five system levels, so again, that’s going to be individuals, families, groups, organizations, and communities. You’ll have assignments that, bridge your practicum seminar course and what you’re doing, at your agency. Sorry, when there’s a pop-up in the chat, it blocks my… it blocks my slide. You’ll have clinical supervision, with a social worker at the agency where you’re placed, and you’ll be evaluated, each semester as part of your practicum. You’ll be evaluated and receive feedback About your, your progress, and of course, you’ll be, you know, out in the actual community, working with, working with clients, working with programs, working with, alongside other social workers. So, the structure for practicum, there are two, two levels of practicum within the MSW, the traditional MSW program. So students who are in the traditional MSW program, as opposed to the advanced standing, will have both a generalist practicum and a specialization practicum. In the generalist year, the practicum is 16 hours a week. And that adds up to 225 hours each semester, fall semester and spring semester, and students need to have completed 450 hours of practicum, by May, when they complete spring semester. During that time, students have one hour of dedicated supervision each week with their practicum site instructor. That’s the social worker at the agency that’s providing supervision. Students will be working to demonstrate competency, in all nine of those, competency areas. And, students at the generalist level will be interacting, again, at all five system levels, so with individuals, families, groups, organizations, and communities. And then in the specialization year, the practicum is 20 hours per week, so a bigger time commitment, 300 hours each semester, 600 hours total for the year. Again, there’s 1 hour of dedicated supervision time each week. And students need to demonstrate competency in all areas and work at those different… at those different levels. So, in other words, not just working with individuals or families, but also bringing in groups and communities, organizations. And placements for specialization year provide opportunities, you know, to work with the population specializations, so children, youth, and families, or adults in healthy aging, and also more advanced clinical practice. It is important to keep in mind, as you’re considering the program, that most practicums are taking place during, what we consider to be business hours, so weekdays during the day. There are some sites that offer, alternative hour practicums, but for the most part, students are completing their practicum, during the agency’s business hours. And then, in terms of how we, identify practicum, opportunities, we work collaboratively with students. Sometimes students know about an agency, and, you know, we’re always willing to develop new partnerships as long as they meet the criteria. We partner with agencies in… throughout Northern Virginia, the DC metro area, all of Virginia and really all of the U.S, because we have students, in our online program option who are, you know, all throughout the United States. There are a couple different kinds of placements. A traditional practicum is when a student is matched through the Practicum Education Program, and referred to one of our partner agencies that we’re already affiliated with. During that matching process, you work with a placement coordinator, and we consider, you know, your interests and skills, and location, and other factors such as transportation, and details about the agency that may make them a good match for you. There’s also employment-based practicum. This is when a student is already employed by an agency in a role that allows them to demonstrate, the social work competencies, and to further develop skill in those areas. And the agency also would be providing, social work supervision if it’s an employment-based practicum. So, in that scenario, the student and the employer submit an application for employment-based practicum, and the employer does need to enter into an affiliation agreement with Mason before that employment-based practicum can begin. I think I’m passing this on to Dr. King.

Daphne King: Alright, so the next slide really just, provides a little bit of information on the profession of social work and how fast we are growing. Data shows us that the profession of social work is expected to grow by 16%. It says by 2026, but I think we can extend that a little bit beyond 2026. The profession of social work is growing, and that’s because as social workers. We impact all facets of society. We don’t just work in social services or child welfare, we work in a variety of settings that are too numerous to list on this slide, but this slide does give you an opportunity Or, excuse me, this slide does give you an idea of some of the areas that you are able to work or practice in as a social worker.

Kathy Cornejo: Hello, good evening, everyone. My name is Kathy Cornejo, and I’m the coordinator for the Child Welfare Stipend Program. The Child Welfare Stipend Program, CWSP for short, is a workforce development program in partnership with the Virginia Department of Social Services. This program is housed in multiple universities in Virginia, George Mason being one, Norfolk State, Radford VCU, and now Virginia State University, and we all work very closely and partner together. The purpose of this program, is to support social work students who are hoping for a postgraduate career in public child welfare in Virginia. For accepted students into the program, they received an educational stipend of $10,000 per academic year. Which goes directly towards their student account. I’m asked this question often, so I will share that $5,000 is dispersed at the beginning of the fall semester, so generally around mid to late August, and the remaining $5,000 is dispersed in the spring semester, which, according to the calendar of how money is dispersed, is the beginning of January. There is a work payback requirement. So, essentially, for every academic year in which a student receives $10,000, they must work for a local department of social services anywhere in the state of Virginia for one calendar year. So, for example, if I participate in this program the last year of my MSW program, I received $10,000, which goes directly towards my student account for tuition and fees. Then upon graduating, I have 6 months to secure qualifying employment with, a local agency within Virginia. There’s 120 agencies in the state of Virginia. And I’m trying to think… there is the link right there to our webpage, as well as the deadlines for the application. I don’t want to confuse anyone, so I will explain. There are two different deadlines. The first is for current students who are rising BSW seniors. and current MSW generalist students who are rising to their specialization year. And then for those students who are applying to the university, prospective students, and that includes anyone who is currently not a GMU student, applying for either, transferring their generalist year or, advanced standing student, that deadline for prospective incoming students is March 1st.

Evelyn Tomaszewski, Department of Social Work: So make sure you check that when you do your application. On your application, it’s important to note that you’re interested in the Child Welfare Stipend Program, so Professor Carnejo can reach out to you.

Kathy Cornejo: Absolutely. And if anyone’s interested, I know this is a lot to take in, and if you aren’t receiving the answers to your questions that you have by visiting our website, please feel free to reach out to me. I know that my information is on our website, and I’d be more than happy to answer your questions or to schedule a meeting to chat. Thank you.

Evelyn Tomaszewski, Department of Social Work: Joelle, as we go to the next slide, there’s a question I’d like to answer. I think it was Dina, asked about the dual degree program. And so, I’m going to put some information in the chat. In the dual degree, you take all the same courses that a student in the MSW program would take, except you are required to take two electives, not four electives, because you have electives in the Carter School. So, the courses I put there are names of required courses, for the conflict, courses, and I would encourage you to check out the Carter School elective list. It’s an amazing range, of opportunities and options.

Daphne King: And Joelle, before we talk about the admissions, information, there are a couple of questions in the Q&A. So, the first one, is for practicum, and it’s, have you seen students who do their practicum while having a full-time job?

Lisa Climer: Yes, we certainly have. It’s just, it’s challenging, and, it definitely takes a lot of, planning and excellent, you know, time management and. Kind of self… self-care, and it also, you know, jobs that are flexible in terms of the days and hours that you need to be at your employment, are a little bit… that’s easier to pair with a practicum. So it’s, you know, it’s just something that, really takes a lot of planning, but there are students who succeed with that.

Daphne King: And then the second question is for dual degree. How many credit hours is the dual degree program with the Carter School, assuming one completes it full-time?

Evelyn Tomaszewski, Department of Social Work: That program is… I have to look it up right ahead, I just brought that up because I don’t want to say the wrong number, is, $78 credits. So, typically, students take, do their practicum in year one, and most of their MSW courses, except for one six-credit course at the Carter School. The second year, it’s a mix of electives in social work and the Carter School requirements. In your third year, you take your specialization, your practicum. Hope that got the questions. And I see someone asked, will we get a set of the slides? Absolutely, you’ll get slides after tonight.

Joelle Patricio: Alrighty, with that, we will move on to all the admissions information. So just highlighting some four, important materials you make sure you add to your application. It’s going to be things like your transcripts, your resume, two letters of recommendation, and then your personal statement, and I will go into more detail now. So, again, lots of texts. You will receive a copy of this presentation. I’m going to go over the different requirements, for both the on-campus and the online campus, and these are going to be based on the different types of MSW pathways we have. So for the 2-, 3-, and 4-year on-campus pathways, as well as the part-time and accelerated online campus pathways, we’re going to require your resume, transcripts from all institutions attended, two letters of recommendation, and your expanded goal statement, and we will go over the prompts for the goal statement in a bit. And there is a minimum GPA requirement of 3.0 on a 4.0 scale. Next will be advanced standing. This is for both modalities, in-person and online. Again, resume, transcripts, two recommendations. For advanced standing specifically, we’re also looking for recommendations that are professional or academic in nature. One of them must be from the BSW program director or a full-time faculty member. And then again, the goal statement. And for the advanced standing pathway, we do have a slightly higher GPA, it’s going to be a 3.2 on our 4.0 scale. And we calculate this using the last 60 credits of your most recently completed degree. We are also going to request your BSW Practicum Education form. And you will be required to participate in a panel interview via Zoom. And then for BAM MSW, again, this is for current undergraduate BSW students at George Mason, only open to that group. It’ll be your resume, transcripts, recommendation. And the goal statement, and then that is the same GPA minimum there of 3.2 deadlines. So for the on-campus program, since we only start students in the fall, for Fall 2026, we are looking at January 15th, 2026. And after that date, we’ll continue rolling on a space-available basis. For the two-year program specifically, that’ll be through April 2026 that we will roll. For part-time and accelerated, which are online pathways. We have spring is just passed, the deadline was December 1st. Summer 26th is going to be April 15th, and Fall 26th is August 1st, so a little closer to the start of the program. Advanced standing on campus, again, fall only. The early decision deadline is going to be December 15th, and it will continue to roll through April 2026, space available. And then for Advanced Standing Online, we only have Advanced Standing Online for spring and… spring and fall, excuse me, not for summer. So for spring, that passed, that was September 1st, and then for fall, that will be July 1st. And then BAM MSW, again, only for current George Mason BSW students. It is going to be a deadline of July 15th for Fall 2026. And if you’re interested in our MPH program, let me know. Happy to go over that with you, in a separate meeting or over email.

Daphne King: And just, a quick note with the, due dates for the, applications. If you are looking, for… specifically for the online program option, if you are applying for summer, or fall semesters, and you want to start your practicum. In, fall semester of 26, you want to get your application in by April 1st. We have a deadline that we need to get to practicum in April, and so if you are thinking that you’re going to start, that you’re going to apply for summer 26 or fall 26, and you’re thinking that you want to choose the accelerated option and want to start practicum, you really do want to get your application in early, and I would say by April 1st.

Evelyn Tomaszewski, Department of Social Work: So, Joelle mentioned the prompts. These are part of the application packet for the entire MSW program. You can read these prompts as I’m reviewing them, but what we really want to stress here is the first prompt is we want to learn about you. Why the MSW program at George Mason. Tell us about the reasons that connect for you, maybe it’s your academic background, work, volunteer experience, your professional career goals. This is your opportunity to help us understand who you are and connecting to the program. The second prompt is equally important. It has you looking at a social justice issue, a social issue that’s important to you. Something that connects for you, and how does that connect to the social work profession? We ask you to look at the Code of Ethics, which you can find online, the NASW Code of Ethics, and looking at this social problem, write us a response, as outlined. There is two reasons for this. It’s an opportunity for you to think about a social issue, to connect it to the social work code of ethics and the profession, but also for you to show us your writing skills. And, so it’s really important to ensure that you follow APA 7th in… when you submit that document. And please do… do both prompts. One prompt will not allow the, your application to go forward. You have to complete both prompts.

Joelle Patricio: And as a technical note, yes, please put both prompts in the same document. It will only give you the option to upload one document in the application portal, and then just separate them out when you’re writing it. Alright, back to me. These are the required materials that we went over earlier. You do need to complete the online application, and there is a non-refundable application fee that is $75. We do have fee waivers, available for specific groups of people, so please click on that link, or do a quick Google search. Gmu fee waivers to see if you qualify. If you are applying for in-state tuition rates, there will be an option to select that, and to fill out the details, in order to qualify for in-state tuition. As a note, this does not apply to the broader DC, Maryland, Virginia area, this is just for Virginia residents. We require unofficial transcripts from all institutions attended. Unofficial meaning if you have a copy of your transcript, that is considered unofficial, and you upload it directly to the portal. If you are admitted and choose to enroll, that’s when we will need official transcripts sent directly from your institution.

Joelle Patricio: Like we mentioned, the expanded goal statement covering both prompts, two recommendations, depending on which pathway you are applying to, that’ll change who we require recommendations from. And we can go into more detail on the website here about requirements. More information if we have anyone here who was educated outside of the U.S. We will require a detailed transcript evaluation from a NACI’s partner. A nice, tip here, if you are applying at least 6 to 8 weeks before the posted deadline, you can opt for the internal evaluation, that’s done by George Mason, free of charge. Just a note that the evaluation won’t be released to you to use for other institutions later. This’ll just be done for us. But that way, it will help you save some cost. And we will also require English language proficiency test scores, depending on where you are educated. For all of our MSW applicants, we require a minimum of 30 credits of liberal arts, and at least 3 credits in each of these following areas within those 30. So those areas will be statistics, English composition, History, or government, and the social sciences. And if you are shy of this 30 credit minimum, or the 3 credit minimum, in any one of these areas. You may be considered for provisional admission. Maybe not if you’re 27 credits shy, we’re looking for a little closer to that, full requirement there. If you have questions, please feel free to contact us. And maybe you’re not ready to commit to a full degree program, or you’re still trying to figure out if the MSW is right for you, we do have a non-degree application option, and if you do this pathway, up to 12 credits earned in non-degree status can be applied to a degree-seeking program here at Mason. And you do need a 3.0 GPA for eligibility, so we ask that you contact Professor Tomaszewski prior to applying to make sure that the classes you’re interested in taking have availability for you. And a note here, if you are… if you go through the whole process and you’re admitted to the program, yay, congratulations! We do need you to go back into your portal, we need you to read through your decision letter, and we do need your response through the portal. As much as we love hearing from you via email, we need you to respond with the form in the portal to either accept and confirm your intent to enroll. To defer, or to decline the admission offer. Emailing us will not change anything for your application status, so it won’t, be able to set up your student account. And if you do need to defer, you can defer once per application to the next consecutive, the next available semester. So, for example, if you apply to the on-campus program, that is fall-to-fall. If you apply to our online program, that would be fall to spring, and so on and so forth. All right, going over the dual degree program just a little bit more. So it’s available through the MSW on-campus program only at this time, and it can be paired with either specialization. A note about the application process, if you are applying to dual degree, and I know we had some interest, you are still selecting the MSW program in the application portal. You will go down, continue filling out the application. There will be an option for program pathway or program type. You’ll hit that drop-down, and that’s when a very long list will pop up. You’re looking specifically for the dual degree MSW, MS and Conflict Analysis and Resolution program. It’s important you click the right one, because once you select the dual degree. That will generate the prompts for you, and that will make sure that your application is reviewed by both the College of Public Health, Department of Social Work, and the Carter School. And when you submit the one application to both programs, there are four possible outcomes. It’ll all be in the same decision letter. You could be admitted to both, admitted to one or the other, or denied to both. So it’s not an all or nothing. Very briefly, these are the tuitions and fees for the current academic year that we’re in. I have graduate rates up top, and then we have undergraduate rates below, only applicable if you’re doing the BAM pathway.

Joelle Patricio: And I will pass it back here.

Daphne King: All right, and so before we get into the next couple of slides, there is a question in the chat for on-campus. The question says, for on-campus classes, what time of day are the classes asking for when I work?

Evelyn Tomaszewski, Department of Social Work: That’s a great question, and I was putting something together to share, but I will also say that, the general sphere classes. Are Monday, Wednesday, Friday, because you do, 16 hours a week in practicum, so you would do your practicum Tuesday, Thursday. Your specialization year, you need… you do more hours in practicum, so you generally do those Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and take classes Tuesday, Thursday. It’s possible in your general sphere to align your classes on taking 2 of those three days. Students talk with one another, they figure out when they can share classes, and we try to have, the required classes at the… in the 4.30 slot. For students, knowing that they… that many students, or some students have to work during traditional hours. Conversely, students work in the evening, so they take the 10.30 or 1.30 classes.

Daphne King: And then there is a question, in the Q&A. That just asks, are there any scholarships available for first-year students in the MSW program? And I believe we are going to have a slide towards the end of the presentation that has funding opportunities for you all. To, look into. So, the next couple of slides are not meant as a deterrent, but they are meant to help you really think about the profession of social work, what it entails, and you know, is the fit right for you? Especially before coming into the, you know, program and spending the money on the degree. Now, social work is a very rewarding profession. I have been a social worker for over 20 years and have thoroughly enjoyed every social work position that I held, but the work can also be demanding. I know when I worked as an investigative social worker, in the District of Columbia, it was, rewarding, but it was also demanding work, especially with the hours and, you know, some of the, clients that we served and some of the issues and challenges that they came with. So you really want to make sure that you understand that, you want to understand the focus that we have on, helping, you know, to enhance the functioning of the clients that we serve, whether it’s individuals, families, groups, and communities. MSW, of course, is considered the terminal degree to practice as a social worker. Some questions for you to maybe reflect on for yourself. and to consider is the commitment that social workers have to working with people. And people that may have very different values, beliefs, and backgrounds from us. This could not… this is not just clients, but it’s classmates, colleagues, it’s your professors, and maybe supervisors. So you want to understand, your interpersonal skills, you want to understand, how you communicate. You want to understand and know whether or not you’re able to handle multiple tasks at one time. This bullet point and the third bullet point connect for me, because you also want to understand what your own, you know, biases are, and examine those biases, and how those biases may impact your work as a social worker, and what you can also do to challenge, your own biases. Social workers sometimes work jobs that may have hours that are not traditional, that may be unorthodox. So, schedules can sometimes be unpredictable. Again, when I worked in Child Protective Services, I worked, a shift that was, 3 days… 4 days on, 3 days off, and I worked from 3 p.m. until 1.30 in the morning. So, you have to be mindful of that when it comes to family responsibilities, maintaining, you know, relationships, engaging in your community, or doing things outside of work. So you want to be mindful of that as well. Let me go to the next slide. This slide, again, just continues, building on the previous one. There is a link here to, a resource that you may want to read. It’s called, Getting Your MSW, How to Survive and Thrive in a Social Work Program. I know that, the book Spell Yours old. It’s from… written in 2006, but I think the concepts still apply today to give you some reflection on the profession, and you’re pursuing the social work degree. One thing that I think is really important for students to understand is being able to accept feedback. And sometimes the feedback isn’t necessarily always what we want to hear, especially from a supervisor or from a faculty member, and you want to ask yourself, how you can accept the feedback. Take it in the spirit that it is given, and use it as a way to grow, and as a way for self-improvement. Again, some of the things that we do as social workers can be emotionally challenging for us, so you want to look at how you’re taking care of yourself, what things we encounter that may elicit or trigger a certain response from you. I would highly recommend checking out the website for the National Association of Social Workers, as well as for the Council on Social Work Education. Their links are provided on this slide to help you, you know, really continue to form your view of the profession of social work, and how you will engage, in the profession, as well as with obtaining the MSW.

Joelle Patricio: All right, like promised, details on funding, we have a lot of different opportunities here. So the first thing that we want to point out is that it’s a separate process from the application itself. You will need to go ahead and apply for these on your own. The first opportunity is going to be our child welfare stipend program. We have a link there. We do have CPH scholarship page that is updated every semester. They are not available to all students for every scholarship, so just be sure to read the description and who, is eligible there. We have graduate assistantships within the Department of Social Work, as well as across the university. You are not limited to just the department. When you’re applying to assistantships, we have more details and resources on funding and financial support for graduate students at Mason, along with links here for the NASW scholarships, fellowships, and awards, and then the CSWE scholarships and fellowships. And we wanted to highlight some research opportunities. We do have the Swirl Lab, Social Work Investigate… Integrative, I’m sorry, Research Lab, and you can read more details there, as well as our current faculty directory, showing what research they’ve done, or what research they are currently doing.

Evelyn Tomaszewski, Department of Social Work: Joel, could I just jump in here and also say that, we are all work and some play, and what I mean by that is. Your MSW degree is all that you may get. And in addition to these opportunities, we… there’s an MSW student association. You’ll have access to professional faculty… faculty advisors. You’ll also… there are workshops and briefings on licensure, for example, or career building, career development. There are Social Work Month activities you can engage in, engage in. A diversity and social justice committee, which students can, can collaborate with. And there’s, series, like human rights series, that students put together across the semesters. Many opportunities in addition to the academics, the classes, and the practicum that you’ll, that’ll be part of your education, and that we welcome answering questions about and talking more, about.

Daphne King: And just to elaborate on that a little bit, just because you’re in the online program option, or you are taking courses in the online program option, doesn’t mean that you can’t ever come to campus. We had students in our online program option that came to campus for all kinds of activities and events, and some even lived further down in Virginia, and even, you know, outside of the Virginia area. So we welcome our students in the online program option to come to campus as well. Before Joel closes us out, there is one question in the Q&A, and this is for practicum. So, besides for the hours, how does practicum on the master’s level look different from bachelor’s?

Lisa Climer: That’s a great question, and So the, both the BSW practicum experience and the first-year master’s practicum experiences are considered generalist, practicums, so that just means that it’s laying a foundation of skills, you know, learning to, engage, assess, intervene, and evaluate at those different system levels that we’ve been talking about. And so, because someone who graduates with a BSW has had a generalist practicum experience, that’s what enables them to apply for the advanced standing program and bypass the generalist year of the… of the master’s program. Students who aren’t applying for advanced standing. And who are gonna do the traditional two-year master’s. You know, there may be some overlap between the generalist practicum experience you have in your first year of the master’s program, and what you did as a, you know, as a BSW. Or there could be… there are some agencies that we partner with who will work with either a BSW student doing their practicum or a first-year master’s student. So those… Those generalist practicum experiences at the bachelor’s and master’s level can look… can look similar, I hope that answers the question. Alrighty, and as our last slide. This is how to get in touch with us if you have follow-up questions, if something comes up later. I think we’re all putting our emails in the chat right now, so Dr. King, Professor Tomaszewski have put their emails there. If you have questions about admissions requirements, the process, your materials, deadlines, timelines, any of that. Feel free, to call us in the phone number ending in 1901. Honestly, the best way to get in contact with us will be email, because we have our whole team available via email. That will be cphgrad at gmu.edu. And if you would like to meet with us during our drop-in hours, we have that weekly, throughout the semester. Those are Tuesdays in the afternoon, or Thursdays, right before the lunch hour. And you can register online.

Evelyn Tomaszewski, Department of Social Work: Thanks, everyone.

Daphne King: Alright, thank you, everyone.

Joelle Patricio: Thank you, thank you! Have a good evening!