A Conversation with MSW Admissions and Recruitment Coordinator Jacki Englehardt and Online Program Coordinator Mandy Weirich
The WVU School of Social Work is one of the premiere institutions in the state of West Virginia to gain an education in the field. The programs aim to give you a generalist understanding of the industry, advancing to intensive practices and technique, all the way to the highest level of research and theoretical knowledge.
We spoke with Jacki Englehardt, the MSW admissions and recruitment coordinator, Title IV-E coordinator and clinical instructor, as well as Mandy Weirich, MSW online program coordinator, gerontology program coordinator and service assistant professor. They discussed the school’s history, current program developments and their own professional paths that shaped their passion for social work.
Master's in Social Work (MSW) faculty Jacki Englehardt (left) and Mandy Weirich (right) at the 2025 Eberly College Commencement Ceremony.
Can you give a little history and background of the MSW program?
Mandy: Our Masters in Social Work program has been accredited since 1942 – one of the longest standing MSW programs in terms of accreditation. We have a very far reach in terms of our network of social workers in the state that have either come through as students, have come through continuing education that we've done here, or they have been taught by somebody that is a graduate of our program. We have a big footprint in the state of West Virginia.
While we officially launched our fully online MSW program in 2019, we had been offering online courses for years prior. At one point, we had a graduate certificate in gerontology and some public administration classes which were being taught online. We've always offered online classes in the MSW program, but the full degree program came online in 2019.
What are the key differences between the advanced standing program and the regular standing program, and are there particular academic or professional backgrounds that make a candidate better suited for one over the other?
Jacki: Our MSW program is a master's degree that somebody who does not have an undergraduate degree in social work can pursue. If you have earned a Bachelor of Social Work (BSW) within the past eight years from an accredited program, then you can enter as an advanced standing student. You only have to have 36 credits to get the degree because you have all the foundational professional social work forces from your undergraduate degree.
If none of that applies to you, you’re in regular standing. That’s anybody that has a non-social work bachelor's degree from a regionally accredited program. Typically, a lot of our students come from several different majors like psychology, sociology, child and family studies, communications, all the way to neurobiology! We have a lot of folks that come from a lot of different backgrounds.
In short, advanced standing is for folks that have a BSW degree, and they can move through the program faster, while regular standing takes 60 credits, and so it takes them about twice as long.
The MSW Online programs have traditionally followed a part‑time schedule, but we understand there’s a pilot for a full‑time option launching in summer 2026. Can you tell us more about that initiative?
Jacki: We are piloting a full-time program, which is a 12-month program for advanced standing students. This is the first time that we're offering it to online students, and we're doing it as a pilot just to see how it unfolds. We want to make sure that we are meeting all the competencies and benchmarks that our accreditor wants. We're excited about it! We really are.
What should prospective students know about the upcoming full-time pilot program?
Mandy: I think that they should know that if they're interested, they need to apply by February 1 because it will be highly competitive. The cohort will be smaller. That's because we like to do things well before we grow, right?
I would also let them know that we don't advise working full-time and attending the MSW online full-time. It would be very challenging to go to graduate school full-time and work full-time, but we've had students do it. It takes a lot of self-examining to whether being an online student is right for them and understanding the workload. It's a writing intensive degree. A full-time course load is intense but it’s worth it and it will pay off. It's a good way to go for a lot of people, but they have to do a lot of self-reflection before they jump into that.
Field work is a vital part of MSW programs, both for meeting degree requirements and gaining hands‑on experience. What does a field placement look like for online students?
Jacki: Any accredited MSW program has a practicum or field experience with it. In the online program, students complete either one or two placements. Advanced Standing students complete just one because they did one in their undergrad with their BSW.
That means for the Regular Standing students, there are two. To put it in perspective, think about getting a teaching degree. You do student teaching to get real experience. Social workers go out into field, and they have a structured placement with specific requirements. They have to have a supervisor that has an MSW with two years of experience. This is a competency-based program, so there are things that they must demonstrate by the time they finish the MSW program to graduate.
Students do their field work in all the usual places that social workers work. This may be in medical settings like inpatient/outpatient behavioral health settings or substance use disorder programs. They could work in schools, correctional facilities, law clinics, or even educational settings here on campus. For example, we have students do field placements at the Carruth Center, which is the student counseling center at WVU.
There's a lot of field placements where students are doing what we call micro-work, which is more direct practice work where you're working with clients. Then we also have the macro social work component of our curriculum, which is more policy work with a focus on the broader society, and we have students who do more of that type of work in the field. There’s a lot of different ways that field work can look. For online students, placements are arranged across the country. We have a lot of agreements, called memorandums of understanding, in West Virginia and beyond. We work with the student because they know their home community and may have an idea of a place that they want to work.
In our program at WVU, we have a field education team that takes care of those details. They get the legal department to do the memorandums of understanding and make sure that the agency knows what is required to supervise and host our MSW students. That is a big way we’re able to support our students.
One important point I want to make is that we also do employer-based placements. In our online program, oftentimes people are already working, that’s why they're choosing to do the part-time online program. Because they're already working in the field and they just want to continue their education, we can often arrange for employer-based field practicums. That’s not a given for other MSW programs and something that makes our program attractive nationwide.
We work closely with students to arrange placements at their current workplace whenever possible. This allows them to integrate the practicum into their existing role rather than having to carve out an additional 15–20 hours each week on top of their job and studies.
What drew you to social work?
Jacki: I came across the field of social work because I was working part-time as a home health aide while I was an undergrad. Just being in people's homes and helping to take care of elderly and people with disabilities and then realizing that, families can be challenging. You could ask yourself “Who would deal with that?” Well, that would be a social worker!
Mostly, I was drawn to social work in terms of holistic health in a healthcare setting. My first job was at Health Right, which is a free health clinic in Morgantown. I loved being a part of that interdisciplinary team that helps to provide supports to people so that they can be healthy. I always knew I wanted to move into administration of some sort, so I moved into nonprofit management. I was the director of Scots Run Settlement House for about 8 years. Eventually, I started teaching at the WVU School of Social Work as an adjunct professor and was interested in being a part of the faculty. There was a position for a Continuing Education Director, which no longer exists, but I did that for 12 years, and now I teach and am in charge of MSW recruitment!
Social work is such a flexible degree that the skills that you learn are transferable across settings. What drew me to social work is the many different things you can do. I love supporting other social workers to be able to continue doing the work they do. So, the job of continuing education was really my deep passion because I really enjoyed developing workshops and conferences and ways to help people stay on top of their skills. and deal with the changing environment. I mean, there's so many things now that when I went to school 30 years ago weren't as prominent. Helping to support other social workers do the work that they do has been something that's really important to me.
What drew me to social work is the many different things you can do. Social work is such a flexible degree that the skills that you learn are transferable across many disciplines. Jacki Englehardt
Mandy: Social Work is my third professional career. I started off blue collar in law enforcement, and then I was in the service industry and in retail. We had moved back to the state after my husband got out of the military and I left law enforcement and I became manager at our local Walgreens. We had two young children, and childcare was extremely difficult because my husband was in the state police and he had an inconsistent schedule. I was in retail and I had an inconsistent schedule. We were just really in an impossible situation like a lot of families today.
My mom found an ad in the paper that said that Adult Protective Services was hiring. She had worked at the department for 20 years, so I was familiar with the department. I earned my undergraduate degree in criminal justice, so I was able to get a temporary license in social work to work as an Adult Protective Service worker. After several years, I fell in love with the work I was doing. I was really helping people, intervening with clients that had no help in their homes. I had clients that I would show up on their doorstep and they were starving and hungry, and I mean that in the most literal sense. When you are responsible for getting food to someone in that condition, there’s no other feeling like it. It was a very fulfilling job. I love the work.
I came back to school to get my MSW, which is where I met Jacki. That opened doors to me in the community, actually through school projects. I was doing school projects in my community for my MSW. That landed me a job at the Randolph County Housing Authority in a coordinator position. I had been teaching at WVU as an adjunct, both online and in person, and applied to the Online Coordinator position when it came open.
I was always drawn to helping professions. I just kind of fell into it by accident and fell in love with it.
Are there any student success stories that stand out to you?
Mandy: I'm a success story! When I was 17 and going off to school, I wanted to be a history professor. For a while, it really did seem an impossible stretch to get to where I am. I think it's incredible. Aside from me, we have a lot of students doing amazing things.
Jacki: We have a student that graduated last May who is now doing marketing and communications in New Hampshire for a nonprofit that supports people in their recovery. She worked as a graduate assistant through our school and helped to do our social media and website. She was able to really couple what she had learned in the program, her work experience, and her interest in recovery services and use that in the agency she's working with.
Additionally, many of our students go on and start their own private practice or do therapy work.
One of our graduates works within Adventure West Virginia at the University. Many of our graduates become faculty members at other places. For example, we have a graduate of our MSW program who then went on to get his doctorate who is a faculty member at Concord. There’s also Craig Cline, who's the BSW director at Shepherd University. He was an MSW student in our program. If you look at the faculty at other schools of social work within West Virginia, I will guarantee you that there's at least one that has an MSW from our program.
Mandy: We have a lot of folks that come through that are in Child Protective Services, Youth Protective Services, or Adult Protective Services. They're looking to either promote or impact policy in some way. That's important work because they are really on the front lines dealing with big issues that affect very, very vulnerable people in our state.
Jacki: One of our grads started the foster care ombudsman program at the state level. She was a child welfare worker and then got her MSW. She took on that role, developed it, and then moved on. Another one of our people, Jennifer Wells, just got the Rising Star Award through Eberly. She did community organizing here in West Virginia and now works for a national group, Community Change, which advocates for policy change for low-income people, particularly people of color.
If you were to give one piece of advice to someone interested in an MSW, what would it be?
Mandy: Firstly, I recommend coming to one of our virtual information sessions. Beyond that, I tell them that an MSW opens doors to higher earning power. That can be empowering, but it’s also a very practical step for planning for growing your family or retirement. Additionally, a higher degree will open up many doors for you professionally. You're going to be more competent to help the people that you work with. We were saying that a lot of people who earn a degree often work in places that are not social work agencies. They're doing the work all over the place.
Jacki: Many of us are drawn to the field of social work because we want to be the helpers. We want to help be part of the solution on whatever level with whatever population. But one piece of advice, early on, is this: In order to be able to take care of others, you must take care of yourself. We have a very high degree of burnout in our field.
One of the things that I've done in my career is that I've been able to change jobs and to do different things, as I mentioned earlier. It starts with being honest and reflective with yourself, as well as taking advantage of the faculty advising or student supports in the MSW program to help build those healthy habits so that you can do this work long-term. Because if you just go all in and don't take care of yourself, you're going to burn out quickly and then you're not going to be able to help anybody. Being in the social work field is great and rewarding work, but it's challenging work and the occupational hazard is burnout. Finding the ways to have a life outside of social keeps you from burning out and ensures you’re helping as many people as possible, as well as yourself.
Learn More
Thank you again to Jacki Englehardt and Mandy Weirich for taking time out of their busy schedules to talk with us! If you are interested in the online MSW programs through the Eberly College of Arts and Science, connect with the School of Social Work’s recruitment team to learn more!