BORICUA COLLEGE | BACHELOR OF SCIENCE DEGREE

Human Services Program

(HEGIS: 2101)
Minimum Required Credits: 132

The Human Services degree program of 132 credits is designed to prepare practitioners with the knowledge, skills and values of the “helping process” directed at individuals, families, groups, communities, and selected special populations, and social services support systems. The fundamental principle of practice is to enable individuals to move from external support to personal, self-support.

Goal: Graduates can demonstrate self-awareness mastery of the skills, values and knowledge of the human services profession.

Objectives:

  1. Demonstrate self-awareness and competency in the integrated use of generic intellectual skills to master basic principles and methods of human services for social problems.

  2. Demonstrate self-awareness and competency in the integrated use of generic affective skills and humanistic values in human services.

  3. Demonstrate self-awareness and competency in the practice of human services to individuals, groups, families and communities.

  4. Demonstrate self-awareness and competency in the application of integrated intellectual, affective and psychomotor skills to master selected principles of the social sciences related to human services.

  5. Demonstrate self-awareness and competency in the application of integrated intellectual, affective and psychomotor skills to master selected principles of the cultural humanities disciplines related to human services.

NOTE: The Human Services Program (B.S.) requires completion of a minimum of 132 credits of course work with a minimum 2.0 GPA, based on assessment rubrics, exams or other direct measures of student learning; and completion of the Generic Studies-Liberal Arts and Sciences Core Curriculum. 

A college course chart for a Bachelor of Science in Human Services Program, listing course modules, colloquium, experiential studies, theoretical studies, and cultural studies across fall, spring, and summer terms.

  • Using their affective skills, students will explore and demonstrate their personal motivations, needs and interests in pursuing the human services profession. They will be able to demonstrate awareness of and explore their perceptions of the various roles, functions, and possible conflicting values human service workers face in their professional settings.

  • Using their affective skills, students will be able to demonstrate basic group building strategies including contracting, developing group culture, work and termination processes.

  • Using their affective skills, students will be able to demonstrate competency in interpersonal relations with clients through the skills of observation, receiving and responding to verbal and non-verbal communication and through effective participation in a group process that is focused on the analysis of case studies and reports of life experiences.

  • Using their affective skills, students will be able to demonstrate their ability to synthesize the generic values, skills, knowledge and ethics of the helping process in the Human Services profession.

  • Using their affective skills, students will demonstrate their skills in helping clients on a one-to-one basis.

  • Using their affective skills, students will be able to learn and demonstrate their ability to explore and develop advanced skills in group formation, contracting, processing and termination of work.

Colloquium

Small group colloquia are designed to provide students with an opportunity to demonstrate their self-awareness and Mastery of the Affective Skills of receiving (listening and reading), responding (speaking and writing) and expressing their values, feelings and emotions in understanding the generic principles of the liberal arts and sciences.

Experiential Studies

These courses concentrate on the “psychomotor” dimension of learning and  compliments the cognitive and affective skills developed in individualized instruction and colloquium.  These sequences of courses evolve from perceptual enrichment through sensory awareness and physical development to instrumental and complex skills where the cognitive and affective dimensions integrate with the psychomotor.

  • To expose the intern to a variety of alternative systems for delivering human services; to provide them with knowledge about various Human Services agency systems: Health, Human Resources, Justice, Education, etc; to inform the students about available internship placement sites and their distinctive missions, goals and services; to facilitate the students’ decision-making process in selecting an internship site.

  • To observe, record and analyze the delivery of human services in simulated workshops; to become aware of the environment of the internship site; to demonstrate ability to accept supervision and establish relationships with agency personnel; to demonstrate punctuality, responsibility; and to communicate professional concepts in writing and orally.

  • To complete under supervision a minimum of 90 hours of internship in a suitable placement site, during the academic term; to demonstrate the ability to establish relationships with and understand a client’s needs; to develop ability to make referrals and advocate for individuals, families, groups, or communities.

  • Students will be able to integrate values, skills and knowledge into a method of service, and complete under supervision a minimum of 90 hours of internship in a suitable placement site that offers students the opportunity to apply techniques of service to individuals, groups family and community systems.

  • Students will be able to integrate values, skills and knowledge into a method of service, and complete under supervision a minimum of 90 hours of internship in a suitable placement site that offers students the opportunity to apply techniques of service to individuals, groups family and community systems.

Theoretical Studies (Electives)

  • Introduction to the principles of general psychology: the nature of psychology and its historical principles philosophical and neurobiological basis of psychology; sensory processes, perception, cognition and consciousness; learning, conditioning, memory; basic motives, emotions and affect; personality, social psychology, abnormal psychology and methods of therapy

  • Principles of development of the individual differences and their measurement; personality and social determinants of behavior; biological and psychological basis of learning and memory.

  • Introduces the concepts and methods used to study the nature and organization of human society: socialization, culture and social interaction.

  • Examines the basic institutions of society: the family, religion, education, the state and political order; social classes, stratification, bureaucracy, population and social change.

  • An introduction to the study of humankind through the perspective of general anthropology. Topics include: evolution; Homo Sapiens and their culture; language and culture; social stratification; sex, marriage and family; social organizations.

Cultural Studies (Electives)

The College believes that affirmation of students’ culture is essential to their learning process; Cultural Studies courses supplement as context for the learning processes of the previous four types of courses.

  • At the end of this course students will be able to demonstrate comprehension and knowledge of the economic, political, social, and cultural developments that created early civilizations. The course presents world history through an analysis of five (5) topics, including: 1) Human Origins and Human Cultures; 2) Settling Down: Rise of the Village Community and the City-State; 3) Empire and Imperialism; 4) Rise of World Religions; 5) Movement of Goods (Trade) and People (Migration).

  • At the end of this course students will be able to demonstrate comprehension and knowledge of the economic, political, social, and cultural developments that created contemporary civilizations. The course presents world history through an analysis of the following seven topics: 1) Nature of the Global Economy and Geopolitics in the 16th Century; 2) Economic Growth, Religion and Migration; 3) Industrial, Social and Political Revolutions in Europe and throughout the Americas; 4) Technological Innovations: Mass Production and Destruction; 5) the World at War (WWI and WWII) and the Rise of New Nations; 6) The Cold War and the Emergence of New Nations and the Third World; 7) Political, Religious, Economic and Cultural issues in the 21st Century.

    NOTE: Although World History I is not a prerequisite to taking World History II, it is advisable that students take World History I prior to taking World History II.

  • This is a survey course on the social, cultural, and political development of Western Civilization. Topics include: the ancient Near East; the civilization of the Greeks and Romans; European Civilization in the middle ages; the Age of Renaissance; the Age of Reformation; concept of the Nation-State and the search for order in the seventeenth century; the scientific revolution and the emergence of modern science.

  • An exploration of the history of art, beginning with prehistoric art and covering major periods and styles.

  • This course is a survey of English and American literature featuring both the classics and contemporary American writings in English, including by African American and Latino writers. The course will deal with English and American literary traditions such as the “gilded age”, African-American Renaissance, the American novel, Immigrant novel, magic reality, cultural identifications, celebrations and rituals, the role of the oral traditions and their transmission and transformation in written works, stylistic innovations in the use of language of Emily Dickinson, Robert Frost, Maya Angelou and Julia de Burgos, writers as individuals and as a members of a cultural community.

Independent Studies

  • By written approval of the Academic Administration based on a comprehensive study plan related to counseling practice, program management or project plan.

Individualized Instruction

The Individualized Instruction courses in the Generic Studies Core Curriculum program require students to demonstrate self-awareness and mastery in the use of critical, intellectual skills necessary for understanding the generic principles of the liberal arts and sciences. At Boricua College, the study of these mental processes is referred to as Cognitive Science.

  • By integrating the intellectual skills, students will be able to demonstrate understanding of the philosophical and historical foundations of the human services profession, and the principles, concepts and methods of general systems theory, as applied to the practice of human services.

  • By integrating the intellectual skills, students will be able to demonstrate competency in selected methods of data collection and their use in the practice and research of human service.

  • By integrating the intellectual skills, students will be able to demonstrate their skill in these three phases of the human service practice. Specifically, students will demonstrate (1) skills and behaviors necessary to create the Contract of Work between the human services worker and the client system (Individual/Group/Community); (2) the opening phases of Engaging the Client in the Helping Process; and (3) prepare the client system for Ending the Contract of Work.

  • By integrating the intellectual skills, students will demonstrate knowledge of several fundamental concepts of psychoanalytic dynamic theory and their application in human services: key structural elements of theory are discussed, as well as the dynamics such as resistance, anxiety, repression, transference and other impediments to healthy behavior.

  • By integrating the intellectual skills, students will be able to demonstrate knowledge of the forces that contribute to group formation: the different types of groups and their unique action patterns; how a group creates and maintains its own culture and develops the various types of members and leaders; and how it dissolves at the end of its work contract.

  • By integrating the intellectual skills, students will be able to demonstrate: knowledge of the concepts of community organization and selected techniques for increasing citizen participation in civic affairs; skill in the identification of political, cultural and ethnic motivators of community organization; and techniques for planning, communicating and executing community action.

  • By integrating the intellectual skills, students will be able to demonstrate knowledge of various helping methods and theories and synthesize them into a unique personal style of practice.

  • By integrating the intellectual skills, students will be able to demonstrate their understanding of the theoretical concepts, issues and techniques required in working with clients in the process of aging.