Transforming Social Work Field Placements at Keuka College with InPlace

Keuka College streamlined social work field placement management with InPlace, boosting visibility, compliance, and accreditation readiness.

Field Placements at Keuka College

Like many Social Work programs, Keuka College faced mounting pressures: increasing student enrollment, expanding into a new online MSW program, growing compliance requirements, and a small administrative team responsible for managing field placements across multiple systems.

Their previous approach—spreadsheets, email folders, and Word documents—was time-consuming, reactive, and stressful, particularly during CSWE accreditation cycles. To support sustainable growth and modernize its process, Keuka College selected InPlace to centralize its placements ecosystem and streamline daily operations.

The Challenge

Keuka College’s placement team confronted several persistent obstacles:

Disorganized processes across disconnected tools
Growing program scale with limited staffing (280+ students managed by just three staff members)
Accreditation and reporting cycles require intensive manual effort
Lack of centralized communication or system visibility

We were using Word documents, email folders, Excel sheets… our information was all over the place. We were really looking for just this one central place… our systems felt outdated and cumbersome. InPlace made our lives a little bit easier.

Melissa Vangellow, LMSW, Director of Clinical Placements

The Solution: InPlace as the New Operations Hub

Keuka College implemented InPlace through a phased rollout, beginning with a pilot group before expanding program-wide. The onboarding process was guided and collaborative, with hands-on support and training that empowered the small team to adopt the system quickly and confidently.

Key implementation highlights:

Fully integrated onboarding for students
Agency partners could access information without needing “yet another login”
Faculty and staff gained structured tools for automated communication, paperwork tracking, and reporting
The system provided the flexibility to customize features to match Keuka’s evolving needs

The onboarding was really straightforward… we felt really confident using the system on our own, but [InPlace is] still there for us when we have questions.

Melissa Vangellow, LMSW, Director of Clinical Placements

Three Key Takeaways

1. A Single System for All Programs and Placements

InPlace provided the consistency, continuity, and ease of use Keuka needed—from BSW to MSW. “We ultimately felt like InPlace was what would work the best across all of our programs… and that has proven to be really awesome,” shared Melissa Vangellow. This consistency has become a recruiting advantage for students progressing from undergraduate to graduate study.

2. “Everything in One Place” Reduced Workload and Improved Daily Operations

Instead of searching through shared drives and documents, Keuka staff could start every day with 100% visibility into their work. “When I get to work in the morning, I open up InPlace, and that’s where all my information is. Instead of digging for documents in different folders, it’s all just right there.” This shift reclaimed hours each week while increasing organizational clarity and transparency.

3. Stronger Accreditation Readiness and Data Confidence

InPlace gave Keuka the data consistency and reporting structure needed to face accreditation cycles with confidence—not stress. “We knew that for the next accreditation cycle, we wanted to be a little bit more prepared… and having a system like InPlace allowed us to do that.”

Results at a Glance

From the first complete cycle using InPlace, Keuka College reported:

100% response rate for BSW final evaluations

Weeks saved during reporting and accreditation preparation

Improved CSWE reporting with accurate, easily accessible data

Operational Improvements

Centralized system that scaled easily with program growth
Real-time visibility into student progress and paperwork completion
- Greater accountability and communication efficiency through the use of email templates, bulk messaging, and the ability to track email opens.
Significant reduction in manual administrative work

“You can create email templates and blast them out with just a couple of clicks… that saves so much time and keeps everyone accountable.”

Flexibility and Customization

The team could modify forms, workflows, and data fields at any time
Changes could be made quickly—for example, adding fields like home address to improve field placement matching

“One of the wonderful things is how customizable InPlace is… that makes a big difference.”

Field Placement Success

InPlace enabled Keuka College to move from a fractured, reactive, manual placement process to a centralized, efficient operational model that supports both rapid growth and a higher standard of compliance and student support.

Their experience demonstrates how the right placement management platform can:

Save administrative time
Improve data reliability
Strengthen relationships with agency partners and students
Support accreditation cycles with confidence
Scale programs without expanding staff

Keuka College’s transformation highlights a modern, proven path forward for Social Work programs facing similar operational challenges.

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