Abilene Christian University is offering a new Master of Science in Social Work program beginning in fall 2007. ACU will be the only Church of Christ affiliated college or university to offer this degree and the first graduate program in social work in West Texas.
Dr. MaLesa Breeding, dean of the College of Education and Human Services, said the new program will be a great opportunity to continue the mission of the university, preparing students for Christian service and leadership throughout the world.
"Social workers are needed throughout our nation and the world," said Breeding. "As a society, we face many challenges with which social workers intervene – increasing poverty, substance abuse and spousal and child abuse and neglect."
The new MSSW program will come together to form a new School of Social Work, which will be administered in the College of Education and Human Services. Once the program begins, the university will seek full accreditation for the MSSW, a process that takes a minimum of three years.
The School of Social Work is being directed by Dr. Paul Ammons, professor of social work. Ammons joined the ACU faculty in spring of 2006 after a 30-year teaching career at University of Georgia, where he served in several administrative roles.
"Students coming to our program in social work will have the unique opportunity here to focus on how to integrate their faith in social work practice," said Ammons. "Equally important, they will focus on how to gather the best available information about the clients they will be working with and then translate that information into useable intervention with their clients."
ACU's MSSW program offers an innovative curriculum aimed at preparing leading edge social work practitioners. The concentration in evidence-based practice is designed to produce versatile social work leaders who are able to incorporate their faith and employ technology to identify and make use of what works - the most promising interventions, the most forward-thinking programs and policies - to empower and instill hope in their clients and to promote positive social change, said Ammons.
Students must be admitted to both the Graduate School and to the MSSW program, and prospective students should contact the Graduate Admissions Office or the School of Social Work for further information.
"Our goal is to prepare our social work students in such a way that they are not just well prepared, but that they are so well prepared that the work they do is not just work, it is seen as the unfolding of God's plan in these students' lives," Breeding said.
To learn more about the MSSW program, visit www.acu.edu/mssw.
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