This course provides students with historical and current information about populations in Puerto Rico and the country’s unique status as a territory of the United States, and the impact of colonialism on its residents. Students will learn about social work education and practice models in Puerto Rico and the role of social workers within various systems and nonprofit sectors. In addition, lectures, community visits, and agency visits will engage students directly with social work students, community leaders, and practitioners in public and private social services agencies.  

Critical to social work practice with Latinos in the states  

The course assists students in developing the following competencies:  

Core Competency 2: Engage Diversity and Difference in Practice. 

Social workers understand how diversity and difference characterize and shape the human experience and are critical to forming identity. The dimensions of diversity are understood as the intersectionality of multiple factors including but not limited to age, class, color, culture, disability and ability, ethnicity, gender, gender identity and expression, immigration status, marital status, political ideology, race, religion/spirituality, sex, sexual orientation, and tribal sovereign status. Social workers understand that, as a consequence of difference, a person’s life experiences may include oppression, poverty, marginalization, and alienation as well as privilege, power, and acclaim. Social workers also understand the forms and mechanisms of oppression and discrimination and recognize the extent to which a culture’s structures and values, including social, economic, political, and cultural exclusions, may oppress, marginalize, alienate, or create privilege and power. 

Competency 3: Advance Human Rights and Social, Economic, and Environmental Justice  

Social workers understand that every person, regardless of position in society, has fundamental human rights such as freedom, safety, privacy, an adequate standard of living, health care, and education. Social workers understand the global interconnections of oppression and human rights violations. They are knowledgeable about theories of human need, social justice, and strategies to promote social and economic justice and human rights. Social workers understand strategies designed to eliminate oppressive structural barriers to ensure that social goods, rights, and responsibilities are distributed equitably and that civil, political, environmental, economic, social, and cultural human rights are protected. 

Excursions 

Visits to sites of cultural relevance will be incorporated into the program itinerary to give students an introduction to the unique cultural landscape of Puerto Rico.  Planned excursions include El Tibes Indigenous Ceremonial Ground Museum and El Yunque rainforest and internationally renowned nonprofit Casa Pueblo. 

• InterAmerican University, 
• The Caño Martin Peña  (G8 tour)
• Tour of Viejo San Juan
• Casa Pueblo
• El Tibes Indigenous Ceremonial Grounds in Ponce
• El Yunque Rainforest
• Fajardo, Loiza and Caguas 
• Various community agencies

To view a draft syllabus for 2024, click here.