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2026-2027 Working Bulletin [ARCHIVED CATALOG]
Leadership, Social Innovation Concentration/Social Work Dual Degree MA/MSW
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More individuals worldwide have become involved in change-making, working on incredible initiatives and in organizations that focus on a range of issues related to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
Andrews University equips these world changers – Christ’s disciples, who order their lives around missionary purpose and who embrace responsibility for the Great Commission. Therefore, Christian social innovation through the MSW/MA LSI dual degree program emphasizes the implementation of kingdom values to address societal issues, focusing on alleviating various forms of suffering through social entrepreneurship, social advocacy, and social services and development. This approach equips graduates to liberate victims from physical, mental, social, and spiritual bondages (Romans 8:21). By integrating faith-based principles with innovative solutions, we seek to create a more just and compassionate society.
Collaborative Program Objectives
The program aims to:
- Embody Christ’s method of compassionate service and love, fostering transformative impacts that align with the vision of the kingdom of God on earth as it is in heaven (Matthew 6:9-10).
- Explore the Social Change Model of Leadership Development as a purposeful, collaborative, values-based process that results in positive social change.
- Enhance the participants’ competencies to pursue various impactful careers across the different sectors, including professional social work, nonprofits and NGOs, corporate sectors, consulting, government and public sectors, and education and research.
- Equip Christian social innovators to develop effective solutions to challenging problems in their communities domestically and globally.
Distinctive Features of the Program
- The program focuses on experimental and experiential learning through internship opportunities with public, private, nonprofit/NGO sectors, and faith-based partnerships, along with a social work field-based practicum.
- The program fosters dyadic learning, how to apply the learned theories and principles in an application, through projects initiated by the participants in social entrepreneurship, social advocacy, or social services and development.
- The program helps participants cultivate financial resources through various matching seed grant opportunities up to $5,000 to initiate their social innovation project to demonstrate the critical knowledge and skills needed for being social innovators to affect change in their organizations, local communities, and across the globe.
- The program aims for participants to develop a social innovation project and create a case study to document its design process, implementation procedure, and evaluation of its collective impact through critical service learning.
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Total Credits - 73
To facilitate this objective, the two programs will reduce the total number of required credits and will share a practicum and a limited number of elective courses. Social Work MSW: For the Regular Standing MSW student, the School of Social Work will reduce the required number of credits from 56 to 46. For the Advanced Standing student, the required number of credits will be reduced from 33 to 24. This is accomplished by allowing students to take their required electives from the School of Leadership. Leadership MA: The Leadership, Social Innovation Concentration MA is a 36-credit degree, but it will share credits with the MSW program and accept 9 MSW credits as electives, thereby reducing the Leadership in Social Innovation MA credits to 27. The following Leadership classes will be replaced with 9 credits from the Social Work Program: EDRM 505 - Research Methods - 3 credits
LEAD 535 - Principles of Academic Writing - 1 credit
LEAD 545 - Personal Narrative - 1 credit
LEAD 600 - Annual Conference - 0 credit
LEAD 605 - Learning Group - 0 credit
LEAD 630 - Introduction to Leadership - 2 credits
LEAD 635 - Leadership and Learning Plan - 2 credits Program Information
Information for the two programs (Leadership, Social innovation Concentration MA and Social Work MSW) follows: Click here to jump to Social Work MSW.
Leadership MA (Concentration Design)
The 36-credit Masters of Arts in Leadership helps individuals develop a leadership mindset and the complex skill-sets needed for leaders in communities and high-performance organizations engaged in today’s fast-changing contexts of change. Designed around a distance-delivery model, this MA can be taken by on-campus participants as well as participants at a distance. It is intended to integrate well with other leadership programs in the department or university, and serves as a bridge to both the undergraduate leadership program and the doctoral leadership program.
The participants’s program can be adapted to varying personal, organizational, or regional contexts. Recent college graduates transitioning into employment who want to further their leadership development as well as experienced employees who want to target specific areas of leadership for development will find the design of this program flexible to meet their leadership needs.
The overall goal of the MA Leadership program is to develop leaders with a strong sense of personal mission, the ability to work in teams, and experience in leading change that can provide better services and professional solutions in varied local, regional and global situations.
Participants work with their advisors to develop a personalized Leadership & Learning Plan (LLP) integrated with a schedule of courses. The “core + concentration” design allows individuals to work at their own pace to develop a specific set of competencies that are aligned with their area of concentration and specific areas of leadership development. The program requires 36 credits and the completion of a portfolio and research work.
Program Delivery
The MA in Leadership is typically an interactive online asynchronous program unless it is offered as a cohort-based program in-person. The program is also offered on the main campus for students taking the Social Innovation and Higher Educational Leadership concentrations. The interactive online courses follow fixed enrollment with semester start and end dates (see Global Campus definitions). All participants interact with each other and the instructor throughout all courses. They are also part of a learning group which meets regularly for mutual support and accountability, and to engage in significant sharing and evaluation of learning related to competency development. The online program requires two-week online orientation attendance via Zoom in the first year, and at least one week of attendance via Zoom in subsequent years for the annual Leadership Conference and other planned learning events designed to support participants in specific areas of their program (e.g., research boot camps). These support events are often organized in connection with the Annual Conference. These two requirements may also be met by attending the orientation and annual conference remotely, as approved by the academic advisor. Students are also encouraged to come to campus for graduation.
Dual Degree Option
The Leadership MA, Social Innovation Concentration may also be taken in conjunction with the following dual degree option:
Concentration - 18
Participants work with advisors to develop a course plan in one of the 18-credit concentrations: Portfolio Requirement
The MA in Leadership program requires the development, presentation and successful approval of a portfolio that documents leadership proficiency in a minimum of 5 competencies. - Students must select competencies required in their concentration that align with the Leadership Program competencies. To facilitate portfolio development, participants must register for one or more of the following courses: EDAL 680 , LEAD 680 , LEAD 675 , or LEAD 696 .
Student Learning Outcomes
The MA in Leadership requires documented theoretical knowledge, practical application, and reflection in a portfolio that selects from among the following core areas: - Successful participants will demonstrate reflective praxis within their personal development as a leader. This may include areas such as worldview, ethics, values, & spirituality.
- Successful participants will demonstrate reflective praxis in developing interpersonal leadership. This may include areas such as communications, mentor/coaching, & social responsiblity.
- Successful participants will demonstrate reflective praxis in developing their leadership within organization(s). This may include areas such as resource development, legal and policy issues, organizational development, creativity, innovation and change, & evaluation and assessment.
- Successful participants will demonstrate growth and maturity in leadership scholarship. This will include areas such as reading, understanding, and evaluating research as well as data collection and analysis.
Social Work MSW
The Master of Social Work (MSW) degree is a professional degree enabling the graduate to enter practice as an advanced-level practitioner. Graduates are prepared to work in a variety of clinical, administration, and development focus areas. The foundation curriculum for the MSW consists of 9 CSWE core competencies that are required for every accredited MSW program: 1) Demonstrate ethical and professional behavior; 2) Advance human rights and social, racial, economic, and environmental justice; 3) Engage anti-racism, diversity, equity, and inclusion (ADEI) in practice; 4) Engage in practice-informed research and research-informed practice; 5) Engage in policy practice; 6) Engage with individuals, families, groups, organizations and communities; 7) Assess individuals, families, groups, organizations and communities; 8) Intervene with individuals, families, groups, organizations and communities; and 9) Evaluate practice with individuals, families, groups, organizations and communities. Distinctive Andrews University competencies include: 10) Demonstrate a Christian social work perspective; and 11) Apply trauma-informed perspectives when assessing and intervening in practice with individuals, families, and groups. The curriculum is designed to teach students the knowledge, values and skills, along with understanding of the cognitive and affective reactions and judgement that accompany these dimensions. Measurement outcomes for these competencies can be found on the first page of the Andrews University School of Social Work website. The Andrews University MSW program is accredited by the Council of Social Work Education through the year 2027.
Delivery
All tracks of the MSW program are available in the face-to-face and interactive online synchronous format (see Global Campus definitions). Online students are encouraged to come to campus for graduation.
Dual Degrees Options
The MSW Dual Degree Programs allow the student to complete two degrees in one additional year, with a tuition reduction of 33% for the MSW credits. To facilitate this objective, the two programs will reduce the total number of required credits and will share a practicum and a limited number of elective courses. Specifically, the School of Social Work will reduce the required number of credits according to the Dual Degree Agreements by allowing students to take their required social work electives in the other graduate program. In addition, approximately 16 credits will be shared between the two programs. The following Dual Degree options are available:
Curriculum
Core advanced interpersonal practice courses supplemented by optional areas of focus are offered. Students wishing to enroll in core graduate social work courses must be enrolled in the MSW program and/or have the instructor’s permission. Students may transfer up to 20% of the credits from one degree into the MSW program. All courses are subject to change based on accreditation needs. Areas of Focus
Students may choose to specialize in the following focus areas: Trauma Informed (available online), Clinical/Counseling (available online), Human Services Management (available online), School Social Work (available online), Medical Social Work, International Social Work, and Child Welfare Certificate. Please refer to the School of Social Work website for further information: www.andrews.edu/cas/socialwork/. Students are not required to choose a focus area. Additional Requirements
- A minimum cumulative GPA of 3.00 in Social Work Program.
- No grade of D or F (or U) may count toward a graduate degree.
- The maintenance at all times of professional conduct and behaviors appropriate for a social worker according to the National Association of Social Workers’ Code of Ethics.
- Defense of the professional degree portfolio as part of SOWK689 Advanced Professional Seminar. This portfolio is a demonstrative collection of professional competencies.
- Other Andrews University degree requirements as presented in the Graduate Academic Information section of this bulletin.
Past experience strengthens all MSW student applications. However, following Council on Social Work Education requirements, no social work course credit can be given for life experience or previous work experience. English Language Requirements
For those applicants whose native language is not English, the following is required: - Demonstration of English proficiency by obtaining at least a minimum score on any one of the following exams. Exam must be taken within two years prior to enrollment.
- TOEFL ITP (paper-based): A minimum score of 550
- TOEFL iBT (internet-based): 80 with a minimum of 20 on each section
- IELTS (Academic version ): 6.5
- PTE (Academic version): 54
- MSW program participates in the Bridge program which allows students who are close to the minimum scores to take 3-6 credits of MSW courses along with ESL courses. Requirements to participate in the Bridge program are below.
- TOEFL ITP (paper-based): A score of 500-549 (2-3 ESL courses and up to 3-6 credits of regular MSW course work)* OR
*with permission of the department - Nelson Denny: score of 13
- Personal interview with MSW program director or designee
Applicants who fail to meet any of the above may be admitted only after committee consideration of the specific circumstances. Additional course work in English may be required. A student who graduated from a four-year English-speaking high school, college or university may be exempted from all or parts of the above requirements. Graduate Record Examination (GRE)
Students who are applying for admission to the MSW program are not required to take the GRE. Assistantships
Students have the opportunity to apply for graduate assistantships—teaching or research. These assistantships give students the opportunity to develop their expertise. Students interested in becoming social-work educators—especially those with years of clinical experience—may teach undergraduate courses. Research assistantships offer experiences in community consulting, grant writing, and/or conducting research. MSW Student Handbook
The MSW Student Handbook has been designed as the social work student’s aid in understanding the program requirements of the School of Social Work as well as relevant policies of Andrews University. Inside the handbook you will find information such as expectations of students, the MSW curriculum, departmental policies, and other relevant information. Practicum Manual
The Practicum Manual has been designed as your aid in understanding practicum education requirements, your role as a student in a practicum agency, and relevant policies of Andrews University. You are responsible for the information found in this handbook, so please take the time to familiarize yourself with the handbook and know where to find questions and answers if the need arises. Student Learning Outcomes
Students who complete this program will: - Demonstrate ethical and professional behavior
- Advance human rights and social, racial, economic, and environmental justice
- Engage anti-racism, diversity, equity, and inclusion (ADEI) in practice
- Engage in practice-informed research and research-informed practice
- Engage in policy practice
- Engage with Individuals, Families, Groups, Organizations, and Communities
- Assess Individuals, Families, Groups, and Communities
- Intervene with Individuals, Families, Groups, Organizations, and Communities
- Evaluate Practice with Individuals, Families, Groups, Organizations, and Communities
- Demonstrate a Christian Social Work Perspective
- Apply trauma-informed perspectives when assessing and intervening in practice with individuals, families, and groups
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