Human Services

The Human Services (HS) major is designed to meet the educational needs of adults working in the human services field who currently do not have a Bachelor’s degree. The curriculum is competency based and designed to use active learning to enhance the current experiences and understandings students bring to the classroom, to provide culturally appropriate models and concepts that can be applied to students’ work environments, to enhance personal growth and well-being, and to develop a professionalism that allows students to become leaders in the human services community.

Graduates of this program are expected to:

1. Understand the scope and history of the human services field.
2. Acquire competencies required of human services professionals in interviewing skills, care coordination, crisis intervention, group facilitation, cultural competence, management, and service documentation.
3. Understand and apply ethical principles of the profession.
4. Develop professional writing skills, including the ability to write in APA format.
5. Understand and apply research principles to current professional reading, evaluation and other applied research needs of an agency.

Associate of Arts in Human Services provides a basic understanding of human service principles and prepares the student for entry level positions in human services. Associate of Arts Degree courses can be applied toward a Bachelor of Arts Degree. Students in the Campus Undergraduate Program who are interested in a Bachelor of Arts in Human Services may enroll in Degree Completion program after completing the requirements for the Associates of Arts degree. In this event, students must complete additional General University courses (GURs) to meet the Bachelor of Arts Degree requirement.

Students completing an Associates of Arts degree who are interested in a Bachelor of Arts in Business Administration and Management, Accounting, Human Services, or Health Services Administration may enroll in the Degree Completion Program after completing the requirements for the Associates of Arts degree. Students must reapply and meet admissions standards to be admitted into the Degree Completion Program. In this event, students must also meet the employment requirement and take additional General University courses (GURs) to meet the Bachelor of Arts degree requirements.

As you pursue your own path of study, our goals are for you to achieve the following competencies:

Creative Expression (CE): Demonstrates the ability to express one’s passion positively in one’s own voice or through one’s own talents and/or share one’s self or world in unique ways, and helps others to do the same.

Self Understanding (SU): Demonstrates the ability to identify, understand, and value one’s unique way of being in the world, as well as actively working towards reaching one’s full potential, and helps others to do the same.

Critical Thinking (CT): Demonstrates the ability to understand the fullness of things, including the abilities to consistently analyze, synthesize, and evaluate information and research, to understand and challenge assumptions, as well as to design, implement, and evaluate projects, and helps others to do the same.

Activism/Leadership (AL): Demonstrates the ability to create significant positive influences on others and/or one’s environment through practice, writing, speaking, or other change modalities.

Professionalism (P):  Demonstrates the ability to use professional skills and to live by the APA professional codes by displaying behaviorally that one values responsibility, public service, accountability, clear communications, respect, excellence, and compassion in one’s work.

Knowledge of the Discipline (KD): Demonstrates the ability to identify, interpret, and apply facts, terms, concepts, theories and processes germane to the field of Counseling Psychology.