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Master of Human Services Program (MHS)

 

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MHS CURRICULUM: An Overview

Academic Course Work

MHS students attend classes at Lincoln University's main campus every Saturday for four semesters and one summer session. Semesters are 15 weeks long; the summer semester is 8 weeks. Each semester focuses on a different generic human service competency, something any human service worker, as a professional, must be competent to do. The following five competencies form semester-long units of study called competency units (CU):
  • CU I: Self-directed Learning
  • CU II: Helping Relationships
  • CU III: Group Processes (summer session)
  • CU IV: Community Planning and Program Management
  • CU V: Organizational Development and Planned Change
The student progresses from one competency unit to the next--from personal assessment competencies to client-oriented competencies, to an organizational/management focus.

During each CU, the student attends academic classes in each of  four essential dimensions of human service competencies:

  1. Values (Ethics)
  2. Self/Others (Psychology)
  3. Systems Theory (Sociology)
  4. Skills (Communication, Intervention/Community Organization, Management and Research Skills)
When the competencies and dimensions are put together, they form a matrix of courses that make up the MHS curriculum. This curriculum provides the integration of concepts and practice which is the hallmark of the Lincoln University Master of Human Services Program.

Field Integration and Constructive Action Seminars

In addition to Saturday's academic classes, students attend a Field Integration Seminar held one evening each week near their agencies or homes. These seminars are the heart of the MHS Program curriculum. The primary purpose of the Field seminar is to enable students to integrate what they learn in their academic classes on Saturdays with what they have experienced on the job during the week. Weekly logs, individual presentations and professional experiences form the basis for discussion.

Field seminars also provide the context for the student to discuss the Constructive Action (CA) project that they implement at their jobs or in their communities. Each semester students prepare a CA which demonstrates their ability to synthesize what is learned in class and apply that to real problems in a human services professional setting. Typically the project is one which improves the services provided to clients, makes an administrative process more efficient, or investigates and evaluates an organizational structure. Emphasis is on problem solving using the Action Research model.

 


Additional curriculum information is available:

    Lincoln University of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, 1570 Old Baltimore Pike, P.O. Box 179, Lincoln University, PA 19352 (484) 365-8000
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