Master of Social Work Scholarship

Make a gift to support the Master of Social Work Diversity Scholarship!

The WKU Master of Social Work Program, which admitted its first class in 2003, was created primarily to serve the MSW education needs of rural south central and western Kentucky. The MSW program enrolls approximately 120 graduate students, and our MSW program offers a unique concentration: advanced direct practice in rural settings.

The vast majority of our graduate students come from rural regions of the state, and these students graduate and continue to work in their rural hometowns, thus benefitting the families, children, and clients of these areas. Increasingly, WKU’s MSW program also draws students from other states and has a small but growing international student contingent.

For most of our students, obtaining their MSW is a hardship in terms of time and money. The WKU MSW Program attempts to make the program as accessible as possible by offering online classes, face-to-face classes on Saturdays, and internships in their local communities.

With the increasing cost of graduate-level education, students are more dependent on financial assistance. Your support will help provide scholarships for students to obtain their Master of Social Work with lower financial debt and serve the rural communities of Kentucky.

“Social work is a profession for those with a strong desire to help improve people’s lives. Social workers assist people by helping them cope with issues in their everyday lives, deal with their relationships, and solve personal and family problems.” - The National Association of Social Workers.

“Professional social workers are the nation’s largest group of mental health services providers. There are more clinically trained social workers—more than 200,000—than psychiatrists, psychologists, and psychiatric nurses combined.” - The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA).

The need for social workers is obvious. In keeping with the tenets of the program, the purposes of social work, constituent needs, and the regional characteristics of south central and western Kentucky, the mission of the MSW Program at WKU is to educate and prepare students for professional social work practice to meet the needs of increasingly diverse rural populations. The program is particularly dedicated to addressing the work force needs of agencies that serve Kentucky’s families and communities.  In addition, the program emphasizes professional and scholarly service to the community, the state, and the nation.

Our accredited program makes graduate social work education accessible for working professionals as well as recent college graduates throughout the western and southern regions of Kentucky. Graduates are prepared as integrated social work practitioners with the values, theoretical knowledge and skills to function at many levels of intervention: individual, family, group, organizations, and community.

The WKU MSW Program is committed to meeting the needs of families and children in rural Kentucky by educating highly knowledgeable, skilled, and ethical MSW graduates.