Starting and Ending Hours:

• We update a Field Calendar every year - please see our Thompson School website or the Public Facing Prism site for the link to the calendar. 

• Students may ask to do up to 32 hours before or between field semesters. The student must complete a form to ask to do this.

• Scheduling: Students are expected to work their field hours around their class schedule. Students are neither allowed to skip class (including the Field Integration Seminar class) to do field hours, nor are they allowed to skip field hours to do homework for other classes. Please utilize the Field Supervision Agreement to discuss and document expectations for the student's schedule.

Pre-Approved Hours:

These hours are considered pre-approved by the field office. Field Instructors are allowed to approve these hours.

• Self-Care Accountability Buddy time - 1 hour per week. (BSW Seniors and MSW students only.)

• Field Integration Seminar (FIS) time - this is the classroom component. The schedule is in the syllabus. If desired, please ask your student for a copy of the syllabus or see out Public Prism website.

These hours are considered pre-approved by the field office, with the contingency that the field instructor also approves.

• Interdisciplinary activities with University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa programs. We assist in coordinating these with other UHM units 1-3 times during the semester. Participation is highly encouraged for all students, regardless of the population they are working with. These events also often have volunteer opportunities for Field Instructors also! (We will email information as it becomes available.) 

• Trainings, webinars, workshops, and conferences offered by the community, The Thompson School, or UHM. 

Field Hours FAQs:

• Breaks and lunch hours - how these are counted or not are up to the discretion of the field site and field instructor.

• All meetings, research, and direct work done for the the field placement should count.

• Virtual? Hybrid? Allowing students to complete tasks away from the field site is also at the dicretion of the field site. As much as we want students immersed in the field site and its daily operations, we understand that many sites have adopted hybrid and virtual work environments. How these hours are distributed are at the field instructor's discretion.

• Commuting to and from the field site are not counted as field hours.

Note that the field office is able to see all hours entered entered by students before and after approval by the Field Instructor. The Field Coordinator/Liaison will review all hours in the system.