Ever ask yourself: why study social work? Anita Tucker, Professor and Associate Chair, describes some of the amazing and unique opportunities for experiential learning and hands-on experiences as well as top-notch academic training you'll receive at UNH.
[Music] Here at UNH in our Department of Social Work we have some unique options. We have a dual Masters with Social Work and the Law School, so we have an MSW-JD. We also have an MSW program that has partnered with the Department of Recreation Management, which is the one that I coordinate. It is two Masters in two and a half years. We bring in students internationally and from across the country who have, after their undergraduate work, gone out and worked in the outdoor field—whether that's wilderness whether that's Peace Corps whether that's Nature's Classroom. Some folks work in schools that do outdoor programming. We have students who come from Outward Bound or from the national Outdoor Leadership School—lots of different places where they really believe in the power of experience.
I was drawn to UNH as a faculty member because it's big and small. You're not taught by grad assistants; you have frontline access to all your faculty whether that's face to face or in online classes. Core faculty teach, they advise you, they're there with you every step of the way.
We're also part of University of New Hampshire which is an R1 designated research institution which provides an infrastructure for so much more that an R1 gives you: access to research, working collaboratively with professors who have grants or who are doing training things, who have access to practice or who are in the community doing work at the policy level at the State House all that sort of stuff. So it's this small little program in a larger University structure which supports access to all this other stuff outside of the department which is really what I love.
I think it's really important to have them experientially practice. I can teach them about research but what a better way to learn about research than to do research, and all the challenges and successes we find in engaging in the research process. We're really training the next generation of adventure practitioners so that we can retire and leave it in good hands.
It's the only one like it in the country and actually in the world, and we're really proud of that.
My aim is that I'm not needed, right? When they replace us, when I retire, I'll know the field is in good hands.
