The Field Experience and Seminar course is required for a major in criminal justice, sociology or human services and for the human service minor. It is normally taken in the senior year and requires 120 hours of placement time. It consists of closely-supervised experiential learning in which the student applies skills and knowledge specific to the major or minor. The course is held primarily on the Moodle platform, with one seminar meetings held via Zoom during the term. A great deal of application, synthesis, and reflection is required in this course, which also holds a written communication designation from the Engaged Citizen Curriculum.
The semester BEFORE you wish to enroll in Field Experience is the perfect time to begin to think about your experiential learning site. Be sure to meet with Denise Leifker, who is the lead faculty member in this course, in order to answer some of your questions, and be sure to review this page for helpful websites (such as the Facebook page for the department), for documents (which list many career ideas, which generally start as internship ideas), and for links to others at Simpson who can help (like Career Services).
Recent outstanding internships include the Iowa Department of Public Safety, Iowa Attorney General’s Office, Crisis Intervention Services, Blank Children’s Hospital, the Iowa Criminal and Juvenile Justice Division, Lutheran Services of Iowa, the Iowa Department of Human Services, Orchard Place, Polk County Juvenile Detention Center, the Iowa Board of Parole, the Federal Public Defender’s Office, and many local and state law enforcement agencies and prosecution agencies.
Recent site locations for Field Experience Courses
Please click on this link to get some ideas for your next field experience course.