HPU's Master of Social Work program combines culturally responsive education with specialized areas of study, hands-on community partnerships, and international learning opportunities.
Each October, World Mental Health Day puts the focus on the people who provide mental health care in communities across the country. More than 816,000 social workers work across the U.S., including nearly 139,000 who specialize in mental health and substance abuse, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. They work in hospitals, schools, clinics, veteran centers and community agencies. In Hawaiʻi, this work also calls for an understanding of Indigenous values, diverse cultural traditions and the relationship between people, community and place.
HPU’s Council on Social Work Education (CSWE)-accredited Master of Social Work (MSW) program prepares students to meet those needs through a distinctive combination of culturally responsive education, specialized areas of study, hands-on community partnerships and international learning opportunities.
“Our MSW program, and our social work department as a whole, is special. We have several unique features,” said Danielle Giroux, Ph.D., MSW, HPU’s MSW Program Director and Associate Professor of Social Work. “Those features include two areas of focus; Pacific and Original Nations Orientation (PONO) and Military and Veteran Affairs (MLVA), as well as a commitment to reciprocal, community-engaged learning.”
The program’s grounding in Native Hawaiian values is not limited to preparing students to practice in Hawaiʻi. Principles such as reciprocity, culturally responsive practice, community engagement and healing connected to place have relevance wherever social workers serve. Students are encouraged to understand how history, culture, relationships and local knowledge shape well-being, and to apply those lessons in their own communities.
That philosophy comes to life through CIRCELS, or Culturally Immersive Reciprocal Community-Engaged Learning and Service. Each semester, students and faculty engage with community partners, including ʻĀina Wellness Academy in Makiki Valley, a nonprofit dedicated to sustaining Native Hawaiian cultural practices. Participants prepare hoʻokupu, practice oli and care for the land, connecting classroom learning with the responsibilities of relationship, service and stewardship.
HPU’s work with ʻĀina Wellness Academy has also earned national recognition. On October 23, the Council on Social Work Education will present HPU with the Community Partnership Action Award at the 2026 CSWE Annual Conference in Atlanta. “The award is for our community partnership, particularly with the ʻĀina Wellness Academy,” Giroux said.
Students build on this foundation through one of two specialized areas of study.
The PONO focus weaves together Indigenous and Western approaches to social work while emphasizing reciprocal relationships. The MLVA focus prepares students to support active-duty service members, veterans and military families navigating concerns such as homelessness, substance use, deployment-related stress and trauma. Both the PONO and the MLVA concentrations are relatively uncommon offering among online MSW programs.
These areas of focus distinguish HPU among MSW programs nationally. According to a national directory of military social work programs, only nine other online MSW program offer an MLVA concentration. The PONO focus is even more rare, with only two other programs in the US claiming a formal focus or concentration in Indigenous Social Work.
“It is particularly relevant to our context here in Hawaiʻi because our state has every branch of the military, and about 30% of the population identifies as Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander” Giroux shared. The program is also designed to meet low-residency requirements that can support eligible veteran students seeking housing allowance benefits.
HPU’s online format is also designed for working adults and students who may live far from campus. Coursework is primarily asynchronous, with one required 90-minute live Zoom session required each week for each course. Students with a bachelor's degree in another field enter the 57-credit traditional track. Students with a recent bachelor's in social work can enter the 30-credit advanced standing track and finish in as few as 12 months.
Learning extends beyond the virtual classroom. Beginning in their second semester, students complete supervised practicums with social service organizations in their own communities, typically spending about 16 hours per week learning alongside an MSW practitioner. In their final two semesters, they complete the Hōʻike, a capstone project on a topic that matters to them personally and professionally.
The program’s reach is also international.
"We have a high number of both Indigenous and international faculty compared with other programs across the U.S.," Giroux said. “Additionally, through International Professional Experience (IPE), HPU faculty and students from multiple disciplines travel abroad to learn alongside faculty and students at host institutions. Past experiences have included Viet Nam, Cambodia and Japan, and another Japan experience is planned for August 2027. These exchanges create opportunities to compare approaches to social welfare, learn across cultures and deepen students’ understanding of global practice.”
The department maintains longstanding relationships with Japanese institutions, including the Japan College of Social Work in Tokyo, Hokusei Gakuen University, Seinan Gakuin University, Osaka Metropolitan University and Musashino University.
In 2025, Giroux and HPU Assistant Professor of Social Work Tracy Stewart, Ph.D., traveled to Japan, visiting the Japan College of Social Work, Hokusei Gakuen University and Sapporo University’s Urespa Club. Their visit also included Shiraoi, home of the Upopoy National Ainu Museum and Park. HPU has, in turn, welcomed Japanese faculty and students, including a visiting scholar from Seinan Gakuin University, reinforcing relationships that enrich teaching and learning on both sides of the Pacific.
Faculty scholarship further informs this work. This past summer, several HPU social work faculty presented on systemic approaches to interweaving Native Hawaiian values in higher education at the Native American and Indigenous Studies Association conference in Chile. The department has also published on the topic in the journal Global Social Welfare and presented on weaving Pacific Island Indigenous content into an online MSW curriculum at the 2024 CSWE Annual Conference.
The program also draws on an advisory board of alumni, practitioners and practicum instructors, which meets each semester to offer feedback on emerging practice needs and curricular directions. That connection to the field matters, because the need for social workers is growing. Employment is projected to grow 6% from 2025 to 2035, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. That is twice the average for all occupations, with about 69,100 openings projected each year! Mental health and substance abuse social workers are projected to grow fastest, at 10%.
“Our students learn from Native Hawaiian values, from our community partners and from each other, and they carry that into their practicums and their careers,” Giroux said. “Whether they serve here in Hawaiʻi or across the country, they graduate ready to meet people where they are, with skill, cultural humility and compassion.”
To apply and learn more about HPU's Master of Social Work, click here.
