The Social Work program reached students across Texas and beyond during last year’s first iteration of the online program.

The mission of social work, to assist vulnerable communities, is fulfilled in countless places, from hospitals to domestic violence shelters to food pantries, and everywhere in between. 

Texas Tech University’s Social Work program has earned favor in the Lubbock community for its success in training undergraduates and graduates to live out this mission through various internships and partnerships. And last year, the Master of Social Work (MSW) program expanded its reach with the first year of its online offering, which saw 16 students across Texas and in Colorado take the next step toward advancing their knowledge.

The MSW program educates through an advanced generalist curriculum that prepares students for all types of environments, whether they have a clinical focus, are advocating for policies or desire to work elsewhere. 

“We want them to be prepared in a very deep way for all of those systems, because when all of them are working together, we have much better results for the individuals we serve, rather than only having one lens,” said Cayce Watson, MSW Online director and associate professor of practice.

The concept for the program materialized as the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projected social workers’ overall employment to grow 7% from 2023 to 2033, nearly double the 4% mark projected for total employment across the country over that period. 

Andrew Rose, MSW director, saw those predictions and figured the timing was correct to grow the program from its average on-campus enrollment of 30 students a year to something bigger, not just in Lubbock but beyond.

With both the undergraduate and graduate programs accredited by the Council on Social Work Education, Social Work leadership had a strong foundation on which to build the online option. They sought to open doors for people who can’t get to campus through an asynchronous model, allowing students to progress on their own time.

“The goal is for students to have the richness of a Texas Tech campus experience, with the flexibility of async, but still the relationships and mentoring they would get from faculty,” Watson said.

They had support from Arthur Durband, chair of the Department of Sociology, Anthropology and Social Work, Tosha Dupras, dean of the College of Arts & Sciences, and from Brian Still, vice provost for Texas Tech Online in formulating the online program through a step-by-step process. 

Texas Tech Online also provided the resources necessary to maintain a supportive framework for students and faculty in the on-campus master’s program as the online program was built out.

Rose brought in Watson, based in Tennessee, in late 2023 to work on the program nine months before the first classes were offered to ensure the infrastructure was in place to offer the highest quality online MSW program possible. 

“I feel like we've been able to do it in a very methodical and strategic way that has allowed us to lay down a lot of groundwork and foundation with the resources we were offered and able to attain,” Rose said.

The first cohort of students were all on the advanced admission track, having earned their bachelor’s degrees in social work and needing to complete one year of full-time study and log 500 hours of practicum experience to graduate from the program. They worked with community partners in Lubbock, north Texas, New Mexico and Colorado, with most carrying a caseload of 20 clients each month.

Veronica Molina, online field education director and assistant professor of practice, spearheaded the coordination of students and entities for completing internship hours. 

Through these symbiotic partnerships, especially ones in rural areas such as Uvalde, Texas, students improved their skills and served places that otherwise don’t have great access to social workers. 

Rose said it’s hard to overstate the program’s rural effectiveness in that people don’t have to relocate to access the education necessary to help their neighbors.

“Dr. Molina is working really hard to try to establish that these students are proficient and they’re going to be able to do some excellent work,” he added. “Once they're done with our program, if they choose to stick around where they are and make a big impact, it's going to have a big trickle-down effect on the people who live in these rural communities.” 

The program has admitted 50 more students heading into the 2025-2026 academic year, a galvanizing figure as Texas Tech looks to contribute to the growing market for social workers.

The momentum the program is experiencing is downstream of the model the on-campus program has instituted. 

Watson noted the excitement faculty displayed in the online option’s early days and has since seen a continuous effort to encourage connection not only among students but faculty and staff as well. 

The entire Social Work faculty meets monthly, as does the online team in separate meetings. Several on-campus instructors teach online. On-campus and online faculty collaborate on key projects such as developing new electives, and both faculty and students from across the program participate in student organizations and summer courses.

There’s a burgeoning sense of belonging and family Watson hopes is reflected in students’ experiences. 

This past summer, Social Work offered electives on clinical intervention, psychopathology, social entrepreneurship, trauma and more, in an effort to expand beyond teaching core content. They will next look into courses on medical social work and substance use disorders.

The online program isn’t overlooked; in fact, leadership recognize it as a method to break down barriers to education. Watson herself went back to school in her 40s to earn her doctorate in the field while working full-time and raising two children, and she says that achievement would’ve been out of reach had an online learning option been unavailable. 

Regardless of motivation, the online model provides a path to fulfilling goals. 

“It just offers that opportunity to be able to say, ‘I can pursue my professional aspirations with a school that will teach me well and help me level up my family, but also fit my life,” said Watson. 

When she first joined Texas Tech, she was charmed by the From Here, It’s Possible.™ motto she saw in various places. But to watch students live out the university’s promise was entirely different and inspiring. 

Over one year, she witnessed students grow their capabilities and self-confidence as they continued to learn and put into practice the skills needed to drastically change lives for the better.

“A lot of our students come to social work because they’ve faced challenges themselves or seen gaps in their communities, and they want to be that light for someone else,” Watson said. “It’s really meaningful work for us as faculty to be able to meet them where they are and help them pursue that opportunity.”