Social work students spend 540 hours in field placements, including a 60-hour field experience during their junior year and a 480-hour full-time internship during their senior year—Chemical Dependency students perusing a LADC complete 880 hours of internship over two semesters.

Students enroll in a one-credit Internship Orientation course the semester before their internship. Students identify their career goals and human service organizations that are closely aligned with their career goals during this course. Students interview with two organizations before selecting a field placement site.

Yes. If your agency wants to offer a stipend, please discuss this with the student during the interview process. Students may complete an internship in their place of employment.  Please see the field director for specific details on employment-based internship requirements.

Yes. BSU provides professional liability insurance for students in the field. This includes professional errors and omissions coverage. Detailed information is in the Memorandum of Insurance.

Yes. If social work services are normally offered during those times. Approved professional staff must be present and available to respond to student questions and needs and provide backup.  Students may intern up to 40 hours/week.

The block 40-hour per week field placement begins the first week of BSU’s term and ends the final week. Summer internships begin on the first day of the summer session (mid-may) and conclude at the second summer session (late July).

Yes. The student must submit, get approved, a written request to the Director of Field Education detailing the date and reason for the early start and proposed activities and hours (no more than 40 hours total). Students may begin their internship a maximum of two weeks before the beginning of the semester.

Yes, if it is relevant to the student’s learning goals and approved by the agency. Generally, up to 16 hours per semester for interns is the maximum number of training hours approved. Consult with the Director of Field Education for clarification.

If a field day is missed, interns must schedule makeup hours to meet the required hours per term.

Please make sure the student has supervisory support while field instructors are gone. If a field instructor expects to miss more than one week, discuss a plan for supervision with the student and Director of Field Education.

The person offering the supervision must be a Field Instructor approved by the Bemidji State University Social Work Department. Non-social work interns may be included in group supervision.

The need for a criminal background check and/or drug test should be noted during the interview.

Students will have several assignments throughout the semester. Assignments are derived from the internship textbook A Field Guide for Social Workers: Applying Your Generalist Training (Larkin, 2019). Students are expected to complete assignments at the internship site. Assignments allow students and field instructors to “take a deeper dive” with internship course content as it connects with the field site. It is estimated that students will spend approximately five hours per week on assignments.