(Social Work and Family Studies)
The well-being of individuals, couples, and families is a national and global concern. Family studies is an integrative field that synthesizes knowledge from many liberal arts disciplines, particularly economics, political science, psychology, social work, and sociology.
The Social Work and Family Studies Department offers a concentration in family studies.
Recommendations for Graduate Study
The concentration in family studies is designed to enable students to learn about families in both theory and practice; it is a course of study that can enhance student learning in any major. This concentration prepares students entering careers with families including marriage and family therapy, education, and ministry, or to family practice in law, medicine, nursing, social work, or public policy. Students who intend to go directly to graduate school in family social science or related fields should also consider enrollment in a statistics course and a research methods course in social work, psychology, or sociology/anthropology.
Requirements for the Concentration
Recommended preparation: introductory courses in social sciences, biology, and statistics
Course List | Code | Title | Credits |
| FAMST 132 | Introduction to Family Studies | 1.00 |
| FAMST 242 | Family Relationships | 1.00 |
| FAMST 391 | Senior Seminar: Special Topics | 1.00 |
| 2 | 2.00 |
| Asian American Literature | |
| Family, Faith and Values | |
| Human Sexuality | |
| Storytelling, Healing and Family in Aboriginal and Maori Cultures | |
| First-Year Seminar (Only when offered as FYS 120 'Young Adults in Relationships') | |
| Topical Seminar (Only when offered as HIST 188 'Sisters Under the Swastika') | |
| Women in America | |
| Family Health | |
| Developmental Psychology | |
| Parenting and Child Development in Diverse Families | |
| Introduction to Race and Ethnic Studies (literature) | |
| Topical Seminar (when taught as Race, Gender, and Sexuality) | |
| Sociology of Dying, Death, and Bereavement | |
| Families, Marriage, & Relationships | |
| Family and Gender Roles in Spain: 1900 to Present | |
| Total Credits | 5 |
Experiential component with families
This requirement is usually an academic, credit-bearing experience completed during the senior year (including the previous summer.) It is designed to ensure that concentrators participate in an experience that applies basic family knowledge (theories, frameworks, concepts) to real families in a setting beyond the classroom. It must be approved by a faculty member in the Department of Social Work and Family Studies prior to enrollment and entered into the Department Google Doc. The experience and concomitant learning is presented as a graded assignment for a public audience in the senior seminar FAMST 391. Through the experience, students demonstrate attainment of intended learning outcomes for family studies. Watch for an email each semester from the program director with a Google Form to fill in your plans for completion.
Guidelines for the experiential component:
Includes approximately 40 hours devoted to direct experience with families (more than one family);
- A family interaction is considered having contact, even if it is at a pick-up or drop-off from an after-school program or camp, with more than one member of a family;
- Can be domestic or international experience;
- Can be a volunteer activity that is not graded;
- If for credit, can be taken either graded or Pass/No Pass (P/N); and
- Must be approved by a faculty member in the Department of Social Work and Family Studies prior to enrollment.
The experience may be:
- A project in a senior year course; or
- Work with families in a social work practicum or nursing clinical; or
- An independent research project with family interaction (FAMST 394); or
- An internship with a family serving agency (quarter-, half-, or full-credit FAMST 294); or
- A summer experience prior to senior year that involves direct experience with families.
