Episode Four: Exploring Practicum Education in Social Work
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Description
What does it really take to prepare social work students for impactful internship experiences in both online and residential settings?
In this episode, Whitney Luce, LMSW, Director of Practicum Education and Clinical Associate Professor, and LeAnn Gardner, LISW-CP, M.Div, Associate Clinical Professor and Assistant Director of Practicum Education (Online Program), share insights about the practicum journey at The Garland School of Social Work. They discuss how internship placements come to life, the unique challenges students face, the vital support systems in place, and how personalized mentoring and faculty guidance help students grow professionally and personally. Hear stories of student transformation, the importance of community and connection in online learning, and thoughtful advice for prospective social workers considering the path.
Join us to learn about how real-world practicum experience shapes future social work leaders and how care and intentional support make a difference along the way.
Transcript
SPEAKERS
Curtis Isozaki, LeAnn Gardner, Whitney Luce
Curtis Isozaki 00:00
Thank you so much Whitney and Leanne for joining us on The GSSW Podcast. Just so excited for us to engage in a conversation, ask you some fun questions, and then some questions about practice and just The Garland School of Social Work. Thanks for being here!
Whitney Luce 00:16
Glad to be with you! Thank you, Curtis!
LeAnn Gardner 00:19
Thank you!
Curtis Isozaki 00:21
So during our time together, we want to be able to highlight some practical experiences from some of our students, and also kind of explain some different processes, support systems, and just really the benefits of practical education here in The Garland School of Social Work. Can't wait to hear some testimonies from you, from your perspective on the overall practicum experience. We're glad that others are joining in and listening into this conversation, but by tradition, we want to start off with some fun, rapid fire questions. So, wanted to ask you, what is one word to describe where you're living right now? Share where you're living and then give us one word to kind of get an inside look at where you're at,
LeAnn Gardner 01:05
I would so I'm in Charleston, South Carolina, and two words I would describe are: beautiful and historic,
Curtis Isozaki 01:14
Love that!
Whitney Luce 01:15
Mmmh, good ones! So, living in wonderful Waco, Texas, I would describe it as charming!
Curtis Isozaki 01:24
Such a good word. I'm starting to resonate with that word so much more living in Waco, Texas. All right. Another question, what is your go-to order at your favorite coffee shop or tea house?
Whitney Luce 01:38
Oh, I know Leanne's such a coffee person, um, I would say vanilla latte for me.
LeAnn Gardner 01:46
That is the same for me, with almond milk. My favorite coffee shop here, called, The Odd Deck, has homemade Pop Tarts, and they are amazing! So, occasionally, I'll let myself get one of those too.
Curtis Isozaki 01:59
Love that. Alright! Y'all now know friends to hear their favorite coffee orders so you can get them because these wonderful women work so hard for our beloved community. So, get to know what their favorite coffee shop drink order is. If your life in The Garland School were a reality show, what would it be called? Shifting gears, if you're life in The Garland School of Social Work were a reality show, what would that show be called?
Whitney Luce 02:32
I will jump in! I think, kind of like "The Office." It would be the practicum office, because I think a lot of times I feel like I would just look at the camera with like, a "Can you believe this kind of face?" Because you just never know what's going to happen in practicum. It's like, you know what students experience an issue that comes up the way an agency can change overnight. It's just it never ceases to amaze me. So, I feel like sometimes with "The Office," it's like just funny scenarios that come up with that show. So that's what I would think of for me.
LeAnn Gardner 03:16
So, mine is more personal because I always get a kick out of the fact that I live two lives: one is on Central Time and one is on Eastern Time. So, it would probably be like "Time Zone Confusion" would be the name, and I mean that literally, but also figuratively because my social and professional life is online. So, my people here have no idea who the people I talk about on a regular basis are. So, it's like a weird, it's a weird experience to be, you know, virtually entrenched in a place you love and the people you love, but then be an hour later with people you see on the regular. So, something about time zone confusion and because sometimes I miss meetings because of the time zone. Even though I've done this six years.
Curtis Isozaki 04:11
Love that. Thank you so much. Leanne and Whitney for being a part of The GSSW Podcast. Would love for you to be able to take a moment to introduce yourself and your role here in The Garland School of Social Work.
Whitney Luce 04:23
Okay, I'll jump in first! I'm Whitney Luce! I am the director of practicum education. I'm also a clinical associate professor. I have been at The Garland School since 2014 and I am a two-time graduate of The Garland School as well. I oversee our internship programs, both residential and online. So, I get to support the wonderful online team that oversees practicum. I also work closely those that support practicum in Waco, and I get to interface more directly with Waco students around practicum, but certainly have my hands in both worlds online and residential. I love to be involved in practicum where students are really taking what they're learning in the classroom and applying it, and getting to work with real clients and a real agency. Just love being part of that experience for them, where it all really comes to life.
LeAnn Gardner 05:32
Then I am a graduate as well, and I began teaching as an adjunct in 2007. So, I've been a part-time faculty for a very long time, and then moved to Charleston in 09', and begged and begged and begged to keep connected. That is just when online learning was kind of taken off. I've kind of bragged that I've taught in every iteration of online learning, like from just audio to what is now pretty seamless with Zoom. Then six years ago, I kept begging to be full time, and this position of Associate Director of Practicum became available, and I began working in the practical world, and I still teach as well. So, it's a really nice combo of stimulating a lot of parts of my brain, teaching, being with students. Then also kind of more macro work around policies and placing students, making sure we're partnering with sites now across the country that can meet their professional competencies.
Curtis Isozaki 06:50
Thank you so much for all that you do in The Garland School of Social Work. Y'all have been a part of this community for some time, and have been able to see the impact of The Garland School, so to kind of start off with some of our questions, how have you seen The Garland School of Social Work prepare social workers for worldwide service and leadership?
LeAnn Gardner 07:10
So I would just say that I'm really proud of our curriculum, of how we are so intentional about making sure students are prepared. But another part of helping prepare social work students is, I think, caring for them and being intentional. You know, in our communications about how can we meet our accreditation standards and take into consideration students' unique needs at the same time. Then, I also think having really solid and quality teachers that are modeling for them how to be social workers in the world is very important. Likewise, having a good, solid vetting process for students who are in practicum will help prepare them for worldwide service and leadership, because they are then interfacing with their communities and agencies that are representing social work values. Of course, that doesn't always happen to the degree that we would like it to, but we do try hard for that to happen. I think really, though, preparing students for service and leadership really does start with like the one-on-one relationships. The modeling and them seeing seasoned social workers work through ethical dilemmas present in class, professional ways of talking about things. So I do think we are really good at relationships in The Garland School, which I think helps with that preparation.
Curtis Isozaki 09:04
Fantastic. How does support like, supervision and faculty guidance, distinguish and enhance the overall practicumeducation experience?
Whitney Luce 09:14
I would say at The Garland School, so part of our internship component is an internship seminar. So, it is a class that goes along with the student's time in the internship setting. Not all schools require a seminar, but we feel as though it's really important and really helps students to understand what they're doing in the internship, to have support as they face challenges in the internship, and to really be able to reflect on the connection between classroom learning and application. So we have faculty who teach those seminars, and so that's a really important part of the supervision process. We also support the supervisors who are in the settings with our students by offering various types of continuing education opportunities for free. That is a way that we say "thank you" to our supervisors, but it's also a way that we can continually offer training and education to them. Which supports our students in having supervisors who are invested and are always staying abreast of various changes and new research, and that kind of thing. So those are, those are some of the ways that we really try to enhance the practicum experience. Then, of course, there's just a connection directly with students that we get to have and that members of our teams get to have during the placement process, where we really get to hear what students are passionate about and some of their interests, then try to find, if possible, things in their communities that connect with that. So it's a really, I'd say it's an honor to be part of helping students to, for some of them fulfill what they feel like is a calling in their lives, and certainly to be part for all students, of equipping them for their future work.
Curtis Isozaki 11:36
So reflecting of all the different students who've kind of been a part of this journey, can you share a story of a student who particularly had an impactful practicum placement experience?
Whitney Luce 11:47
Okay, let me think about this one for a moment. So I shared one fairly recently with you. Curtis, so I don't want to um duplicate. I will say that for some students. So I can, I can say, for instance, there's a student in the Waco area who came into the program and in their advanced year, said, I have such a passion for working with older adults, and that is just something that I really feel called to do, and I feel like I have some natural tendencies that maybe make me good at that, but I don't know. I want to check it out. I want to see what it's really like. And I always appreciate when students are like I have this hunch, but I don't know, because we do often see that students will get into a placement, and maybe they didn't like, think they would like something, and then they're surprised that they really do, or they thought that something would be the perfect fit, and then it wasn't. They were like, Oh, this was helpful, because, you know, it wasn't as great of a fit. That's part of the benefit of practicum, no matter which way it goes. For this particular student, she just really flourished in the setting, and ended up being hired. [She] works with older adults with various mental health diagnoses, and is currently earning an LCSW, and also supervising students. Also, just really helping students to connect to this population and kind of open their eyes to all that is possible, because I think this is, you know, working with older adults is an area that not all students are aware of. They might think only medical or only a skilled nursing facility, and she does a great job of saying, there's so there's so much more. For clinical students, she really has been a wonderful role model for them.
Curtis Isozaki 14:01
Amazing! It's great to hear that experience of students, and we know that practicum does come with challenges and learning the field and experiencing different stories and journeys. So what do students commonly face during the practicums and how does gssw help them overcome these different challenges?
LeAnn Gardner 14:21
I love this question. So, in our online experience, students come with their lives, and they fit school in. Instead of moving away, go for school, and then their lives come after. It's a really interesting difference, and so we have adjusted to that in terms of creating supports around their needs. We haven't adjusted our curriculum any in any way, but we have adjusted that relationship piece of like, what do we need to do to help you? Is it writing help? Is it access to mental and physical health services? Is it access to faculty, to have mentoring so you can ask about professional development and licensure? Is it a licensure webinar? Is it, you know, connecting? I've done this before where I've asked both people permission of, like a student who's in Las Vegas, where there's not a big Baylor presence, and I remember another student from Las Vegas, and I'll write her and say, Hey, he's in Las Vegas. Can I connect you so you have, like, a Baylor friend in Las Vegas to network, just going the extra step to acknowledge the need for community, especially in our students who are not in Waco or not in Texas. I think is helpful. I briefly mentioned mentoring, and I think that is a unique part of our program. And so this year, we're piloting a group mentoring program. So for example, I'm leading one on trauma loss morning and grief. And so students sign up for once a month meetings during the term that is very informal, where we talk about that topic, but also possibly context of practice that might be relevant to that topic and what their particular interests are. I share resource list things like that, so it gives people a feeling that these experienced social work professors are available to them as mentors. I think that's a really important part. I would also say practicum specific. A huge resource we provide is we place students. They don't place themselves. So we don't hand them a list of 500 sites and say, go figure it out. We'll be here when you get back to give you the green light. We are sending sometimes, 100 emails, or phone calls in Las Vegas to say, "Hey, this student's interested in bereavement, where might be a site that we could partner with." We are doing the heavy lifting in partnership with students to try to find a good fit that first of all, meets the 10 competencies so they can graduate. Sometimes when the stars align, it's finally connecting a student who wants to be in a VA setting, getting that contract and being able to place there. That is the best feeling when we can make somebody's dream happen. Does it always happen? No, but it is a good feeling to work in partnership with the student towards their goals to make that internship experience as good as it can be. So there is hard. It's hard to go to school at night and do a practicum,. Two practicums if you're in the standard program. Our program is thorough and it is demanding, but I think we offer and encourage a lot of community within the students, but also student faculty, and then we also offer a lot of kind of more tangible assistance to help with the various things that come up. I will tell you that an example is a colleague of mine had a student reach out to her and say, "Hey, I'm gonna have my camera off for a minute. My cat, of 20 years just passed." I'm an animal person, so I I feel that very strongly. This colleague told me that she sent the student a card, um, and the loss of her beloved animal. I thought, how many other schools do that? I mean, maybe they do, but just the high touch relational aspect, I think, is how we support knowing that, you know, we can't remove classes. We can't, you know, we have to stay within our accreditation, but we can sort of love people through the program, through our care and concern.
Curtis Isozaki 19:16
So we'd love to hear from both of you as we kind of wrap up, what advice would you give prospective students exploring their career in Social Work at The Garland School
Whitney Luce 19:27
I'll jump in, I would say, to be curious and to stay openminded, would really be advice that I would give. I sometimes tell students that something I have found in the career of social work is that as I have been able to walk alongside people, that it has changed me. It really has and and for the for the better. I would say just for students to keep an open mind, because really, I think when we have the honor of really getting to know people's stories, then you know those experiences, to some extent, become part of our story, and we really start to approach other clients differently and sometimes to see the world differently, I would say, often to see the world differently. And that's a beautiful part of being a social worker. I would say also to students, don't be afraid to talk to your professors. Don't be afraid to reach out if you have questions, if you have concerns, even if you think, "Oh, I just learned about this, but it's just not sitting well with me. What about this aspect of it? Or why would we approach it this way?" I would say that our faculty like to have those conversations and appreciate when students really want to grapple with something, and they're, you know, they are eager to participate in those types of connections.
LeAnn Gardner 21:13
One related to what Whitney just said my first one I wrote down was to take risks.m Whether that is in an internship that sounds really hard, remembering that it's an eight, usually an eight month endeavor, and it is not your job. It's not your life. You're not signing on for your life. So do something really hard to learn the most you can. The second one I wrote down was lean on colleagues. Build those relationships with colleagues and faculty, like Whitney said. Then the last thing that I say, because every time I say it to a class, I see their shoulders just like they're just relieved, is remember, this is not forever. This is really hard. You're juggling a family, friends, you have so many roles. You're doing night classes in Waco. You're you're basically focusing on school. For good or for bad, this season will end. And my joke is, you will read fiction again, maybe not right now, but you will eventually read what you want to read, and kind of just reminding people that it is it is finite. You know it is something you've devoted yourself to, but it will come to an end in a celebration, hopefully, and you can kind of recalibrate your life to have some more downtime when you graduate.
Curtis Isozaki 22:43
Thank you so much for your words as we know and acknowledge that this season will end! We're so excited for the ways that it will begin as you join our family over here in The Garland School of Social Work. Thank you so much again, Whitney and LeAnn for joining us on The GSSW Podcast. Looking forward to next time!
LeAnn Gardner 23:04
Thank you, Curtis, for all you're doing!
Whitney Luce 23:06
Thank you!
Curtis Isozaki 23:07
Yes. See ya!