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Social Work, Community and Health: Sociology & Criminology

The Social Work, Community and Health concentration is recommended for students interested in social work, nonprofit administration, counseling, community development, public health, public policy, law, advocacy and other related careers. Internships are required of seniors during their spring semester, and students will be assisted in being matched to an internship site based on their career interests.

Requirements and Internships

Students needing an internship should notify the department in September of their senior year. Participation in an internship requires a 2.75 GPA. An additional 300/400 level course can be used by permission of the Chair, if unable to complete an internship. The concentration requires a total of 18/19 credit hours, consisting of four foundational courses and at least two electives.

Core Courses

  • SC 225 Sociology of the Family (3 cr.)
  • SC 273 Public Health in U.S. Society (3 cr.)
  • SC 385 Poverty, Social Justice and Welfare in the U.S. (3 cr.)
  • SC 475 Internship and Seminar (4 cr.)

Select at least two electives from the following courses:

  • SC 115 Masculinities (3 cr.)
  • SC 202 Social Change (3 cr.)
  • SC 215 Individual & Society (3 cr.)
  • SC 255 Prejudice and Discrimination (3 cr.)
  • SC 257 Social Inequalities in Society (3 cr.)
  • SC 260 Consumer Culture in Society (3 cr.)
  • SC 265 Victims of Crime (3 cr.)
  • SC 275 Family Violence (3 cr.)
  • SC 295 Death and Dying (3 cr.)
  • SC 315 Sexuality and Society (3 cr.)
  • SC 320 Sex and Gender (3 cr.)
  • SC 325 Gender, Health & Medicine (3 cr.)
  • SC 335 Prisons and Human Rights (3 cr.)
  • SC 340 Juvenile Delinquency (3 cr.)
  • SC 343 Drugs and Crime (3 cr.)
  • SC 365 Ethnicity, Crime and Criminal Justice (3 cr.)

Program Highlights

One male and two female students talking on a bench near the quad in the fall

Internships

Our students have completed internships in over 80 nonprofit and governmental agencies throughout the Cleveland metropolitan area. Internships are available to seniors in their spring semester, and students are matched to an internship site based upon their career interests. It is not uncommon for our students to be offered employment by the agency where they interned.

Sites include:

  • Achievement Center for Children
  • AIDS Task Force of Greater Cleveland
  • Alzheimer’s Association – Cleveland
  • American Red Cross
  • Arrupe House
  • Big Brothers, Big Sisters of Greater Cleveland
  • Business Volunteers Unlimited
  • Care Alliance Health Center
  • Catholic Charities
  • Center for Reducing Health Disparities
  • Children’s Rehabilitation Hospitals of the Cleveland Clinic
  • Cleveland International Program
  • Free Medical Clinic of Greater Cleveland
  • The Gathering Place
  • Legal Aid Society
  • Light of Hearts Villa
  • Make a Wish Foundation
  • New Avenues to Independence
  • Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless
  • Organize Ohio!
  • Recovery Resources
  • Salvation Army
  • Senior Citizen’s Resources
  • Shaker Heights Youth Center
  • United Way
  • University Hospitals of Cleveland
  • University Settlement House
  • Witness Victim Service Center
JCU students in class 2012 (photo provided to Ed Hahnenberg by university photographer)

Small Class Sizes

Our small class sizes of usually 25 or less allows individual attention to each student while encouraging greater interaction with their professors and classmates.