Knowledge Bank

Despite principles set forth by the Council of Social Work Education (CSWE), there remain students who graduate feeling unprepared for their careers. Social work student organizations can provide supplemental experiences that further shape understanding and implementation of the profession’s core values and engender involvement in future social workers. Consequently, it is essential for students to participate in these organizations and necessary for research to define the factors that facilitate and restrict involvement. This study identified factors of involvement using a 37-item online survey that was completed by 482 undergraduate social work students, representing 15 of the 26 CSWE accredited BSW programs in Ohio. Social work students in this sample self-identified the most common obstacles to involvement as lack of time, scheduling conflicts, and unawareness of activities and the most common facilitative factors as exposure to experiences in social work, building one’s resume, and meeting people who share a common interest. Multiple logistic regression analyses indicated that having a social work student as a mentor and being an active member in other organizations most often predicted an active member in social work organizations. The strongest indicator of a non-member was the type of institution—public institution students were less likely to participate than private institution students. Social work programs should consider further emphasizing the benefits of campus involvement, as well as student mentorship programs. Social work programs at public institutions might also consider identifying more effective avenues of connecting students, perhaps through smaller cohorts. These results will better equip social work programs to engage social work students in student organization activities that promote the profession’s core values.