Field Resources for Students

Welcome to field! Please use this website for reference to all things field education. Students should start thinking about field early in their respective program. BA students attend a field forum the semester/year before they are supposed to start their internship year. BA students can be placed in internship during any semester (fall-spring, spring-summer, summer-fall, spring block, and fall block). All full-time MSW students (including FT Advanced Standing) start their internship during their first fall semester. Part-time MSW students typically start their internship in their second academic year of their program. MSW students are only placed during the fall-spring academic year. Please reach out to your respective field director for questions about the placement process for your internship.

 

Your Field Directors

• Prof. Danielle Seemann (she/her, dswatson@memphis.edu) is the BA Field Director. She places all of the undergraduate social work students for their internships.
• Prof. Cherry Malone (she/her, ccmalone@memphis.edu) is the MSW Field Director. She places all of the first-year MSW students for their internships. Prof. Malone also is in charge of all of the clinical affiliation agreements for our agency partners.
• Prof. Maggie Landry (she/her, malandry@memphis.edu) is the Assistant MSW Field Director. She places all of the second-year and Advanced Standing MSW students for their internships.

 

Hourly requirements for Field

All Students

All students are eligible to receive up to 25 hours for "volunteering" outside of their internship per semester. Students, please check with your field director for more information on what counts as volunteer hours.

BA Students need a total of 400 hours for their placement:

SWRK 4830/4840 - 150 hours
SWRK 4831/4841 - 250 hours

Depending on the student's situation, this can break down into:
Fall Block: 28 hrs/wk (15 wks)
Fall/Spring: 13 hrs/wk (30 wks)
Spring Block: 28 hrs/wk (15 wks)
Spring/Summer: 16 hrs/wk (25 wks)
Summer/Fall: 16 hrs/wk (25 wks)

First-year MSW students need a total of 400 hours for their placement:

SWRK 7051 (fall) - 160 hours (14-16 hrs/wk)
SWRK 7052 (spring) - 240 hours (16-18 hrs/wk)

Second-year/Advanced Standing MSW students need a total of 500 hours for their placement:

SWRK 7053/7055 (fall) - 250 hours (18-20 hrs/wk)
SWRK 7054/7056 (spring) - 250 hours (18-20 hrs/wk)

 

Field Handbooks and Resources

All students, regardless of program track must be available for weekday, daytime field placement internships. 

MSW Field Manual for AY 2025-2026

BA Field Manual for AY 2024-2025

The School of Social Work creates a "Quick Reference Guide" for use between academic years while the full field manuals are being updated. Students can reference this guide here: Field Quick Reference Guide for AY 2025-2026. 

NASW Membership: All students enrolled in field education must obtain a membership with NASW. At this link, students can join, re-join, or renew their NASW memberships. Student memberships are $60 per year. If you are an MSW student who had a membership as a BSW student, you will need to call the 800-number at the bottom of the linked page and explain you are still a student, so they can edit your account and give you the correct membership rate.

Student Liability Insurance: Students enrolled in field education must obtain a student liability insurance policy of $1,000,000 (one million dollars) per claim, $5,000,000 (five million dollars) aggregate claim coverage. Options for coverage include Preferra or CPH Insurance. Preferra insurance can be found here. Select the Apply Online button under "Students". Remember to have your NASW member ID number handy when applying/renewing. CPH Insurance can be found here. Under CPH, when selecting a policy, be sure to mark it as a "Mental Health Student" liability policy. Remember to have your NASW member ID number handy when applying/renewing. Students must provide proof of coverage to their respective field director, and remain covered for the duration of their field education experience. Coverage prices range from $15-25 per year. Alternatively, students may obtain their own liability insurance outside of these provided companies, however, coverage must be for a student policy with the required minimums described above. 

Request to Use Employment as Field Form. Updated for use during AY 2025-2026 (summer 2025, fall 2025, spring 2026). Do not submit this form unless you've met with your respective field director first!   Online Only (UM Global) students who live outside of Memphis, TN and Jackson, TN, please read the "Protocol for Global Students" and contact your respective Field Director to discuss placement options.   All students are expected to abide by the NASW Code of Ethics at all times.    

Official Field Form Hosting Website

The University of Memphis School of Social Work uses Experiential Learning Cloud (ELC; formerly Tevera) in order to provide a seamless experience for our students to track their field placement internships. Students pay for Experiential Learning Cloud by their nonrefundable $30 per-credit-hour lab fees associated with their field placement courses. Once a student has an ELC account, they receive lifetime access. This means that they will not only use it to track their field placement internships while they are in school, but ELC also allows for licensure supervision hours tracking post-graduation. The data housed in ELC never goes away, so students looking to verify their internship hours for licensure and/or jobs post-graduation will be able to do so independently. 

Your respective field director will provide more details on your ELC account, and create your account if you do not already have one associated with the University of Memphis. If you do NOT have an ELC account for the University of Memphis, please DO NOT try to create one. Your field director must do this for you. 

If you do already have an ELC account, you may log in here. 

 

Help Us Recognize Our Stars: 2026 Field Education Awards

Please keep your agency field instructor in mind when you are interning. Nominations are open for the 2026 Field Education Awards. Field students are encouraged to submit nominations for the field instructor of the year award for Summer 2025, Fall 2025, and/or Spring 2026. Field instructors and sponsoring agency personnel are also encouraged to submit nominations for the field student of the year. Nominations are open until March 2nd and must be submitted via Qualtrics (see flyer linked below). Awards are to be announced at our annual Symposium, scheduled for April 17, 2026. Any questions about the awards, the nomination process, or selections process, can be addressed to Prof. Maggie Landry, malandry@memphis.edu.   Nomination eligibility information and links to submit your nominations can be found on this flyer.    

Resources for Field Instructors and Agencies

Field instructors and agencies can reference the Community Field Resources webpage for information specific to them.