Planning the HDFS Life Span Human Services
Major
The HDFS Life Span Human Services Major is an ideal major for those
who are thinking of going into the helping professions. It allows students to become
knowledgeable about individual development across the lifespan, about families,
and about human service agencies and how they work. It gives students the
skills they need to be effective human services professionals, and students who
graduate with this degree can expect to get jobs in human service agencies. or to go on for further studies in areas like social work,
guidance counseling, other forms of counseling, or graduate programs that
prepare one to do research in academic settings.
The information below is intended to help you plan your course work
over the next two or three terms. (Be sure to check when this information was
last updated.) If you have a checklist for the major, or your degree audit, it
might be useful to refer to that while looking at this information. It would be
good idea to go over the information for each year, to
be sure you don't miss something.
Information on the Internship is at the bottom of the page.
Freshman
If you know, as a Freshman that this is a major that interests you,
you can begin right away to take the courses that are required, and try to get
them in order where that matters.
In addition to taking care of Gen. Eds. you should take some or all
of the following:
HDFS 129
HDFS 229, or 239, or 249 (you need two of
those; note, if you have already taken Psy
213: Developmental Psychology, it will count as
HDFS 229)
These course are
offered every term
STAT 200 (math) is required for the
major, and will also count as a General Quantification course.
This course is offered every term.
Sophomores
During your sophomore year you can finish taking the 200 level
courses required for the major. But you should also take the 300 level courses
that are required. You need to have taken all of them except HDFS 301 by the
end of your Sophomore year. HDFS 129 is a prerequisite
for all of these courses.
HDFS 311: Interventions;
beginning in the fall of 2007 we plan to offer this course every term.
HDFS 312W: Methodology,
is offered in both the fall and spring. . You must have taken STAT 200 and
received a grade of 'C' or better before you can take 312W. HDFS 312W is a prerequisite for all the 400-level courses.
HDFS 315: Family Development, is offered in the fall and in the spring. . It
fulfills a US course requirement, and we usually
offer it as a writing intensive course (HDFS 315Y) .
Once you have completed
HDFS 312W, you may begin to take 400-level courses.
Juniors and Seniors
In your Junior year you will take HDFS 301, and any of the other 300- level
courses you have missed, but you are now ready for the real meat of the major . Most of the upper level courses
for the major are offered only once a year , so be sure that you are
ready to take them, and plan in advance. ALL of the 400 level course have HDFS 312W
as a prerequisite.
Beginning in the academic year
2007-2008 we plan to offer HDFS 301 and HDFS 411 every term.
We offer the following
upper division courses in the fall .
HDFS 401: Project Planning and
Evaluation (prerequisite, HDFS 411)
HDFS
445: Adult Development and Ageing (prerequisite HDFS 249)
HDFS
433: Developmental Transition to Adulthood (prerequisite, HDFS 239)
HDFS 418: Family Relationships (prerequisite HDFS 315)
HDFS 414: Resolving problems in
human development and family studies
HDFS
455: Administration of Human Services
Programs
We offer the following upper division
courses in the spring.
HDFS
429: Advanced Child Development (prerequisite, HDFS 229)
HDFS
428: Infancy (prerequisite, HDFS 229)
The major requires you to take 6 credits of additional 300- and 400- level courses in HDFS . The 400-level
courses above will fulfill that requirement. You must also take 6 credits of
400-level courses that support the major. These may also be HDFS course. Remember,
however, that courses in other disciplines fulfill this requirement, so check
areas like Psych, Sociology, HPA, BBH, Criminal Justice, Counselor Ed, and
Nursing and Kineseology to see if there are courses
being offered that will help you meet your own goals while completing the
major.
THE INTERNSHIP
For this major you are required to do an internship. It has three
different parts, composed of different courses.
HDFS 401 is about program and project development and evaluation, and
includes an internship preparation component. It should be taken the fall
before you do your internship, ideally in the 7th semester, but no
earlier than the 6th. HDFS 411 is a prerequisite for HDFS 401. HDFS 401 is offered only in the
fall. In that way most students would do their internship in the spring. But life being what it is, look
ahead, talk to your advisor and figure out when you will have your course work
completed and be ready to do your internship, and take 401 the fall before
then.
HDFS 495C , the internship itself, is an 8
credit course. For each credit you are expected to put in 4 hours of work at
the site per week. (This comes to around 32 hours per week over a 15 week term.
Should you do the internship in the summer you will need to do more than 32
hours per week as you will have fewer than 15 weeks.) HDFS 402 is a professional
seminar designed to be taken while you are taking the internship; it is the
capstone course for the major. Normally students do the internship in
their 8th semester, but for those who are able to graduate early, it
will be the last semester.
Students may not enroll
for HDFS 402 and HDFS 495C unless they have successfully completed (a grade of
C or better) every course required for the major. Should a student have earned
a D, or an F, in any of these courses, that course must have been repeated, and
a grade of C been earned before the student may be enrolled for
internship.
As of 2007 we are offering the internship
only in the spring and summer.
For more information on the Internship check out the Academic Internships web page.
Disclaimer Clause: The above represents our intentions and present
plans, and you all know what happens to "the best laid plans of mice and
men." Therefore do not regard this as gospel. Check with your advisor, and
check back here frequently for news of changes.
This page was last updated on January 20,
2007
