Housed in the Sharon Lust School of Education, Augustana University will begin offering courses for a Master of Social Work (MSW) in Fall 2025 as part of its Harriet Emily Scott Social Work Program. The MSW program at Augustana is one of only two MSW programs in South Dakota. This comes after the university began offering a minor in social work in Fall 2023 and Bachelor of Social Work (BSW) in Fall 2024.
“People were very excited to see how many students we already have involved with it (the BSW) just officially starting as a major this year. We are graduating two students, and we have more than 20 students declared in the major,” said Dr. Bart W. Miles, program director of the MSW.
Miles began his journey at Augustana as the program director of the BSW. Now that the MSW is launching and the university is hiring additional faculty for social work, he is transitioning into the role of the director of the master’s degree program.
“It’s really grown pretty fast and the community is really interested,” said Miles. “I had to create a list of people who have reached out and asked, ‘When can I have an intern from your social work program?’”
Dating back to 1969, Augustana and Sioux Falls College (now the University of Sioux Falls) “pioneered the development of both social work and social work education” in the region with its Joint Social Work Program before graduating its last student in 2004-05. The demand for social workers in the state and a partnership with Sanford Health is what initiated the development of a social work program once again at Augustana.
“Sanford really wanted to bring more behavioral programs back to Augustana, so there was a Behavioral Health Academy created in the partnership between Augustana and Sanford,” explained Miles.
Due to the community needs and Sanford partnership, Augustana will offer three cognates as part of its MSW program. MSW students can specialize in integrated behavioral health, play therapy or addictions.
“Integrated behavioral health is one of the fastest growing areas in social work nationwide,” Miles said. “Most students who come into social work want to work with children and youth — one of the best clinical interventions you can use as a therapist in working with children, and addictions cut across almost any population in social work.”
While Augustana’s BSW is offered entirely face-to-face, the university’s MSW program will be offered in a hybrid format to serve working professionals in a variety of different fields or settings. Those who live outside a 50-mile radius of campus will be able to complete the program online.
Students who have earned a BSW from an accredited program will be able to enter the MSW program with Advanced Standing, which means they can complete the program in one year, which equates to 30 credit hours. Those who have earned bachelor's degrees in other areas can complete the MSW program in two years, which requires 59 credit hours.
Augustana is also offering a stand-alone certificate program in integrated behavioral health — a 4-course curriculum available for those beyond the master’s degree level; those who are already social workers, but want to work in the health care setting.
So, what makes Augustana’s program really stand out? The university’s social work programs incorporate the Circle of Courage Model — the Sharon Lust School of Education’s conceptual framework.
“We are the only institution in the state with a DE&I Office. I think that makes it very appealing for people who are drawn to the profession of social work,” said Miles.
The Future of the Field
In May of 2025, Lyric Oslund, of Harrisburg, South Dakota, will graduate from Augustana with a Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) in sociology and BSW. However, that wasn’t the case when she first came to Augustana as a student in 2020 — originally interested in biology, the pre-medicine track.
“My whole life, I’ve known I wanted to be in a helping profession,” said Oslund. “I just wasn’t sure what that looked like for me.”
It became much more clear, though, when a professor introduced her to Miles and the social work program.
“It kind of just fell into my lap,” Oslund explained. “I wasn’t well-versed in what social workers did. The intro class really opened my eyes and showed me how they can work in really any field.”
Interning at Lutheran Social Services (LSS) — working with domestic violence offenders in their re-entry program — Oslund has found she is most interested in working in corrections.
“I love connecting the coursework and my internship,” said Oslund. “I’m going to apply to be in the MSW program next fall. I also have an interest in teaching at some point in my career, so that’s another reason I want to get an MSW.”
Julia Hershman’s path to the MSW program looks a little different. The Sioux Falls resident is a non-traditional student who came to Augustana in the fall of 2022 to finish degrees she began 20 years prior. Hershman has already achieved what she came to do — earning a B.A. in both sociology and philosophy, as well as a minor in gender, sexuality & women’s studies in the spring of 2024.
“I really work well in bringing people together,” said Hershman, who is also certified as a community health worker. “I’m most interested in working around (people with) basic needs and addressing certain things like the social determinants of health.”
Now, after also being introduced to Miles and the social work program, she plans to complete the 2-year MSW program — back at her alma mater in Fall 2025.
“What excites me most about the Master of Social Work degree is the ability to support the people who I’ve been in community with, who struggle accessing the support they need,” said Hershman.
Hershman said when she was younger, she wanted to be an interpreter — fascinated with connections and communication. Today, she is accomplishing that goal in a different way: helping people understand things cross-culturally — to celebrate our differences rather than letting them divide us.
For more information about the Augustana MSW Program, visit augie.edu/MSW. To participate in an MSW Zoom information session on Thursday, Dec. 5, visit augie.edu/MSWInfo. For more information on the BSW at Augustana, visit augie.edu/BSW.