Social Work Students Call For End to Mandatory Unpaid Internships
Daily Trojan • By Tomoki Chien • April 12, 2023
“Graduate students in the Dworak-Peck School of Social Work are petitioning the University to compensate them for unpaid internships required by the master’s in social work program, staging a walkout on Tuesday afternoon in support of the cause.
Internships, typically unpaid and intended to arm students with real-world experience, are required by all accredited schools of social work. First-year students at Dworak-Peck are expected to spend a minimum of 16 hours per week on their internships. Second-year students must spend 20.
‘We’re doing work that is comparable to salaried employees,’ said Katie Sheng, a graduate student studying social work. ‘Many of us, especially those that are doing … therapy or counseling services, are doing billable hours … Agencies are billing for those hours and profiting off of them.’”
