Pathway
Social Work & Community Health
Helping people navigate hard situations, families, housing, addiction, schools, public health. Demanding work with a clear, direct connection between effort and outcome.
Majors
- Social Work (BSW/MSW)
- Public Health
- Human Services
- Sociology
- Community Health
Jobs people do
- Social worker
- Case manager
- Community health worker
- School social worker
- Substance use counselor
- Public health program coordinator
Watch out
The choices that quietly close a door here
Not knowing that clinical social work requires an MSW and licensure.
A BSW opens case management and community roles, but therapy and clinical practice require the master's plus supervised hours.
Instead Look for BSW programs with advanced standing into an MSW, it can cut a year off the graduate degree.
Skipping statistics because the work is about people.
Research methods is required in social work programs and public health is almost entirely quantitative.
Instead Take Statistics junior or senior year.
Course ladder
Grade by grade
Course names differ at every school, and graduation requirements differ by state. Take this list to your counselor so the two of you are working from the same page.
Grade 8
- Nothing specific, take a language if you canWorth doing
Grade 9
- English 9Load-bearing
- BiologyLoad-bearing
- World language, start itLoad-bearing
Spanish specifically. Bilingual social workers and community health workers are in demand everywhere and it changes who you can help.
Grade 10
- Algebra IILoad-bearing
- World language, year 2Load-bearing
- Psychology or Sociology, if offeredWorth doing
Grade 11
- AP PsychologyWorth doing
- StatisticsWorth doing
Public health is statistics. Social work programs require research methods.
- World language, year 3Worth doing
- Health science or human services pathway courseWorth doing
Grade 12
- Government or economicsWorth doing
Understanding policy and benefits systems is a daily part of the job.
- Internship or service-learning placementLoad-bearing
- AP StatisticsWorth doing
Outside class
Sustained volunteering with one organization
Food bank, shelter, tutoring program, crisis line. Two years at one place says far more than twenty one-day events.
From grade 9
Peer support or restorative justice program
Direct practice in the core skill: sitting with someone in a hard moment.
From grade 10
Get functionally bilingual
This is the highest-leverage single thing on this path. Practice outside class.
From grade 9
Youth advisory board for a local nonprofit or agency
Many organizations have them and most struggle to fill the seats. You'd be part of decisions, not just service.
From grade 10
Things to build
Map the actual services available to teenagers in your area
Mental health, food, housing, legal. Make it usable and share it. People will use it immediately.
From grade 10
Interview three people doing this work about burnout
It's the central challenge of the field. Better to understand it at 16 than at 26.
From grade 11
Is this actually a fit for you?
Ten minutes of questions, and Bearing turns this into a plan that starts from the grade you're in.
Take the survey