Field experience is the “signature of pedagogy” according to the Council on Social Work Education (CSWE), this means that your internship is an integral opportunity to apply and practice the theories and concepts you learn in your academic courses. Field is a place for you to develop your identity as a social worker through incorporating self-awareness, intersectionality, and social work values in real life settings with a variety of populations. Field is a space to grow, make mistakes and learn with the support of your field instructor and field team.

We highly recommend that you begin planning for your field experience as soon as you are admitted to the program. You will need to be prepared to spend between 10 to 20 hours per week in a professional field setting. Few agencies offer learning and supervision opportunities outside of regular business hours (8am-5pm). Knowing that each individual has different outside obligations to balance, such as academic course load, family, work, social obligations, childcare and self-care, it will take time to prepare and ensure that you have appropriate bandwidth and capacity for your field learning. This may require you to seek additional support, permissions and schedule adjustments that take time to organize.

The field team and your placement specialist are here for you as a resource to assist you in finding a suitable agency placement, however, this process is fully rooted in reality. If you work full time, have family obligations, have schedule restrictions, unique preferences, or accommodations you are responsible for initiating, advocating, and planning for your unique needs in a proactive manner.

To get started today please reach out to Field Team at fieldplacement@onlinemsw.du.edu

By choosing the Two-Agency Based Internship option, you will complete one foundation internship and one concentration internship.

By choosing the Virtual Field Experience (VFX) Internship option, you will complete 265 hours of your Foundation Year hours over the course of two quarters as part of a Virtual Field Experience course, which teaches evidence-based interventions and provides you with the opportunity to role play therapeutic interactions with professional actors posing as clients. After the VFX course, you will be placed in one in-person community agency setting to complete the remaining 135 Foundation Year internship hours and the 500 Concentration Year internship hours.

You will complete the concentration internship. 

Placement Specialist: Before you begin your placement, you will work one-on-one with a member of our dedicated field placement team to identify sites in or near your community. Your Placement Specialist will be your point of contact during the field placement process.

Field Liaison: Once you begin your placement, your Field Liaison will monitor your field education experience. This MSW@Denver faculty member will act as a mentor on issues of practice and professional development while working with staff at your site to ensure they are providing you with a quality practice experience. Your Field Liaison is also the instructor for the field seminar course (if you are a VFX + Agency Internship student, you will not have seminar until the concentration year portion of your community based internship, but will still have a field liaison the entire time).

Field Instructor: The Field Instructor will be a professional social worker at your field placement site. You will work directly with your Field Instructor to develop your social work skills and practice. If your field placement site does not have a qualified Field Instructor on staff, you will be assigned an off-site Field Instructor to provide supplemental supervision every other week.

Task Supervisor: The Task Supervisor serves as your primary supervisor while in your field placement if you have an off-site Field Instructor or your on-site Field Instructor is not able to provide day to day oversight and meets with you for weekly social work supervision only.The Task Supervisor is a qualified professional that will be responsible for task assignment, overseeing skills development, and overall performance.

Field Faculty/Staff Team: The GSSW field team (DU staff/faculty) support the overall placement process. You will meet with them for approval on specific processes such as Place of Employment internships, Duplicate internships, and field exception forms. 

You will be assigned a Placement Specialist prior to your internship. During a welcome call, they’ll tell you about placement procedures and policies, ask about your previous experience and discuss your goals.

Review the MSW@Denver Field Placement Process Infographic

Note: The search for your placement site cannot begin until all of your mandatory forms are completed. Complete these forms on time to prevent a delay.

Placement timelines can vary depending on your location and needs. Once a qualified site expresses interest in you and confirms their availability to host, your Placement Specialist will collect pertinent information via an Agency Qualification Form (AQF). Your Placement Specialist will then prepare this placement for Faculty Review. All sites are subject to faculty approval. 

Click here to connect with your Placement Specialist for additional support.

*At any time if you wish to receive more frequent updates please let your Placement Specialist know. In addition to the above, your Placement Specialist will be in touch with you as soon as they have identified a quality placement opportunity and will support you through the interview process.

Most social service agencies do not offer evening or weekend placements. Per MSW@Denver policy you need to ensure that you have time in your schedule for your field experience, this means availability Monday-Friday 8am-8pm. If you do not have this flexibility, it may limit your placement options and require that you are more proactively involved in identifying agencies that are willing to host you during your available schedule. To maximize your placement options, field learning experience and training opportunities, you need to prepare as early as possible to accommodate your internship.

Two-Agency Based Internship Track MSW students should expect to maintain this schedule during placement:

VFX + Agency Based Internship Track MSW students should expect to maintain this schedule during placement (note that all hours are done at the same agency):

Advanced standing MSW students should maintain this schedule during placement:

While we do our best to find quality sites that are convenient and accessible, you may be required to commute up to 60 miles to your placement site.

Student placements are identified based on the availability of learning activities, qualifications of supervisors and an agency’s capacity to host students. If you have a specific preference regarding populations or scheduling, speak with your Placement Specialist about the referral process.

Click here to connect with your Placement Specialist for additional support.