Practicum Spotlight: Sophia Ostlund

Sophia Ostlund, KU MSW Student

Practicum at The Sexual Trauma and Abuse Care Center

Sophia Ostlund is a Lawrence local who completed her undergraduate years at KU and is currently earning her Master of Social Work (MSW) with a macro focus, specifically in the MSW Advanced Standing Program. She is currently completing her practicum requirement with The Sexual Trauma and Abuse Care Center in Lawrence. 

"When I first got to KU, I really wanted to focus on social justice. ... But they didn’t have a social justice major at KU," Ostlund said. "A lot of people said if you’re into social justice, to try social work."

Ostlund shared her practicum experience and tips in a Q&A interview. 

Q&A with Sophia Ostlund

Where is your practicum and with what agency? 

My practicum is at The Sexual Trauma and Abuse Care Center in Lawrence, Kansas. ... I am their first macro student intern. They always have clinical social work students as their interns. ... The clinical students are based in therapy, so that’s specific work that I don’t do.

My day is different in the sense that I look at our budgets as a whole organization, looking at grants, grant narratives, and how to write a grant. ... I follow along with our advocacy team, work directly with our community engagement team, by going out to middle schools or college campuses to talk about topics of consent, safety in relationships, bodily autonomy, healthy relationships, and communication. 

What does a typical practicum day and schedule look like for you? 

Some days are more research-based and some days I am out in the community. We recently had a fundraiser and I was working with community establishments and putting up flyers.

Other days, I go to Lawrence schools as well as college campuses and I work directly with the rehabilitation center.

I shadow our community engagement team in local support groups, specifically at a rehabilitation center here in Lawrence. Recently, I have been working directly with our prevention specialist in city ordinance bystander intervention trainings that are required if an establishment needs to obtain or renew their liquor license.  

I have also been working directly with our prevention specialist in promoting and shadowing SafeBar Alliance trainings in local establishments. The SafeBar Alliance program is a program I have been helping with since I began my practicum here at this agency.

So, every day is different in terms of who I work with, but I am stationed at the front desk every time I go in. I go in three times a week, so no matter what I’m at the front desk, so I am always interacting with those that we do serve or answering questions.

How do you manage your schedule with your classes, extracurriculars, work, social life? 

Well, I work, I have my practicum, and I have classes every week. So, it is an extremely busy schedule.

I want to point out that I am usually not the best at balancing out my time, and I have a hard time setting boundaries. But that is something that I am aware of myself. ... And I'm learning to take a step back and know that I'm doing enough.

Which social work classes helped you in your practicum? 

My grant writing class. It was hard to see how it relates to the real world. But now I am in an organization where I see how you make the budget and write grant narratives, my experience and teacher for that class were awesome.

I definitely was hesitant in taking it. But I think having that experience and then going into my practicum with that, it’s less intimidating now working on grants, so I thought that class was most helpful for me.

Can you see yourself continuing at this placement or in this field after graduation? If not, what would you want to do instead?

I would love to continue at this practicum, but who knows what the future holds and if there will be opportunities for me to continue working with victim survivors of sexual violence or just in general.  

But, I also have so many other wishes and desires to go out and do in the world. I definitely want to be more advocacy and community and prevention efforts-based work. Whether that be prison abolition and anti-human trafficking work, or doing work at the Care Center, which is important and I would continue with that as well. 

What do you think is interesting about this area of social work? 

Specifically with sexual violence, I think it’s such a relevant topic and it impacts so many people, and I think there’s still so much to do. There are so many areas, sexual violence, human trafficking, prison abolition, which are very disregarded, even though it impacts so many people all over the world, not just in Kansas. I think that’s the area I want to work in. 

Advice on making the most of your practicum? 

Utilize all the resources you're given at your practicum and even outside your practicum, like your teachers or practicum liaisons.

When you are at your practicum it can be intimidating to talk to everyone and go to meetings, but I say go to everything, talk to everyone, because the relationships I’ve made at both of my practicums are extremely important to me.

I’ve learned so much, especially when you’re talking to people from different positions, just to see how an organization is run. ... I've become friends with a lot of people from my practicum and I think that’s really important.

This article is part of a Q&A series featuring KU students who are currently completing their practicum. Learn more about the school and Practicum Education at KU.