The New York UniversitySilver School of Social Work provides social work education from undergraduate through doctoral levels.
About the school
Founded in 1960 as the NYU School of Social Work, the school was renamed the Silver School of Social Work in honor of NYU Alumni Constance and Martin Silver who, in 2007, pledged $50 million to the School of Social Work. At the time, it was the largest known donation to a school of social work in the history of the United States. Known for its strong tradition of clinical excellence and dedication to social justice, the highly-ranked school offers a comprehensive, rigorous education in professional social work, conferring Bachelors, MSW, PhD, and DSW degrees. In 2019 the school as a whole ranked 13th nationally. In addition, the school offers four dual Master's degree options: MSW/MA in Child Development with Sarah Lawrence College; MSW/JD with the NYU School of Law; MSW/Executive MPA with the NYU Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service; and MSW/MPH with the . The school has educational partnerships with over 600 public and non-profit agencies throughout New York metropolitan region, and offers students an unusual array of global learning opportunities in such locations as Shanghai, Puebla, Buenos Aires, Accra, Tel Aviv, Paris, and Glasgow. Students at the School of Social Work collectively provide more than one half-million hours of service each year through their field placements and volunteer work. The school's faculty conduct innovative research on a wide range of high impact scholarly questions advancing social work practice and policy, work with government and community-based agencies, and play key roles in major social work associations and journals. The school is home to several leading research institutes, including the , the , and the . In 2006, the school launched the , which encompasses a range of initiatives designed to develop and mentor palliative and end-of-life care social work leaders at all stages of their careers. It is named after the social worker most closely associated with the modern-day palliative care movement, Zelda Foster, who taught in the school's Post-Masters Certificate Program in PELC from its inception in until months before her death in July 2006 The school also serves as a major postgraduate training center for hundreds of practitioners in the greater New York metropolitan region.
Research facilities
In addition to its three research institutes listed above, NYU Silver is home to , composed of faculty, students and invested partners dedicated to understanding the transition to adulthood among vulnerable populations of youth and young adults, and learning how to make the transition more successful for more young people. The Silver School of Social Work benefits from its access to NYU's research resources. Bobst Library at NYU is one of the largest open-stack research libraries in the nation, as it houses more than 3.3 million volumes, 20 thousand journals, and over 3.5 million microforms. There is a social work subject specialist on the library faculty who select materials and works with NYU Silver faculty and graduate students. The school itself is also home to , a globally focused website providing the latest news and emerging scholarship in the social work profession.
Main campus
The school's main facilities are located in the heart of NYU's Washington Square campus in Greenwich Village. The school's educational, extracurricular, and social hub is housed in three historic townhouses bordering Washington Square Park where students can meet with faculty, take classes, and access NYU's network of student services and administrative offices.
Satellite campuses
NYU Silver's MSW program is also available on the campuses of St. Thomas Aquinas College in Rockland County, New York; and Sarah Lawrence College in Westchester County, New York. In addition, the school offers a two-year MSW program at Shanghai and New York, in which students do their first year of coursework and field learning at NYU Shanghai and the second at the Washington Square Campus.
Student organizations
The Graduate Student Association, or GSA, is the elected student organization for Master's students. It acts as a liaison between the students and the administration and faculty of the Silver School of Social Work. GSA invites graduate students to bring feedback about the program, suggest events and come to them for direction and assistance. Similarly, the school houses an Undergraduate Student Government Association and Doctoral Student Association for undergraduate and PhD social work students, respectively. Organizations such as the Pi Pi Chapter of the Phi AlphaHonor Society, the Students of Color Collective, Chinese Student Union, Pride and Practice, Gerontology Student Collective, Asian Pacific Islander / American Social Work Students for Change, Black Women's Social Work Coalition, Latinx Social Work Student Organization, and Social Workers for Women Worldwide are among the active student-run organizations within the school.
