Bachelor of Science - Mathematics for Education

at York University - School of Continuing Studies Canada

Flooding, terrorism, global warming and hurricanes are all disasters and emergencies that can be effectively managed – and, in some cases even mitigated – through good planning and response. The recent earthquake in Haiti, the H1N1 pandemic and memories of 9/11 are reminders of the pressing need for qualified and trained professionals in the field.

Disaster & Emergency Management is the discipline of dealing with and avoiding risks. In this exciting and rapidly expanding field you’ll explore key concepts, methodologies and technologies used by emergency management professionals while honing your analytical and critical skills. You'll also gain a comprehensive understanding of how emergency management intersects with other disciplines such as psychology and sociology. Discover strategies to help save lives and property, reduce damage and speed a community’s recovery from natural and human-induced disasters and emergencies.

You'll examine a diverse range of topics including:

• Business continuity planning
• Emergency management communications
• Disaster risk management
• Ethics
• Terrorism

In addition to this, you will learn to apply key concepts, methodologies and technologies used by emergency management professionals to complex real-life challenges.

This program prepares you to synthesize large amounts of complex information and make sound decisions in challenging and often difficult circumstances. As a graduate you will be equipped with the skills for a career in emergency preparedness, public safety or consultancy work for a range of opportunities from positions in federal and provincial governments to large multinational companies and non-governmental organizations like the Red Cross/Red Crescent, World Bank, Oxfam or UNICEF.

• Upon graduating, you'll join one of the fastest growing industries in North America.
• You have the option of continuing your education within the disaster and emergency field with York's Master of Disaster & Emergency Management degree — the only graduate program of its kind in Ontario and one of only two in Canada.
• You'll have the opportunity to join The International Association of Emergency Managers (IAEM), a non-profit educational organization dedicated to promoting the goals of saving lives and protecting property during emergencies and disasters.
• Take advantage of experiential learning opportunities and interact with leading professionals who will provide you with a deeper insight into the field. You'll have the option to complete a field experience that will help to foster a greater understanding of the complexities and realities emergency management professionals face.
• You are also encouraged to take advantage of the regular events held by the School of Disaster & Emergency Management. These include conferences and symposiums held throughout the school year to help you apply your education to real-life situations.

The study of English literature explores literary history for its relation to current culture, re-thinks the dynamics of the book as a visual medium and examines the fundamental changes to knowledge and language created within our gendered, post-colonial world.

We offer a full range of English literature courses from the medieval period to the present, with particular strengths in contemporary poetry, popular literature, Canadian, American, African, South Asia and Caribbean literatures. The program invites you to explore some of the world's greatest literary works while developing critical thinking, reading and writing skills. You can choose from courses in:

• Poetry
• Drama
• Fiction
• Satire
• Folklore
• Literary criticism
• Critical theory
• Gender studies
• Stylistics and poetics
• Comics and cartoons
• Science fiction
• Children's literature
• Travel writing

The English Department is the first and best place for considered and disciplined responses to the discourse and images that are shaped by the constantly changing technologies of a word-based world, and it is through the study of English literature that the critical skills necessary for understanding the past and the present are acquired.

Our goal is to provide you with a useful knowledge of literary works, both as art forms and as documents of human behaviour. By studying English literature, you will gain a vision of humanity as expressed in verbal art that crosses boundaries of time and place. Thanks to our location in the heart of the Greater Toronto Area, you can take advantage of the city's wide range of literary events including the Harbourfront Reading Series and Word on the Street.

Small classes (groups of only 25 Anglophone and Francophone students) provide an ideal setting for learning and mastering skills of translation.
Unique in Southern Ontario, our program addresses a significant shortage of English, French and Spanish translators in Canada. Our graduates work for the United Nations, the Government of Canada, law firms, publishing houses and more. They have also developed careers in editing, writing and teaching.
Stay ahead of the curve

Gain experience and earn course credits by participating in an internship with the provincial or federal government, the private sector, or with other organizations. As a Translation student, you’ll forge a strong professional network and will obtain a free membership to the Association of Translators and Interpreters of Ontario with access to all its services, job postings, workshops and networking opportunities.

York's Portuguese & Luso-Brazilian Studies program covers not only the Portuguese language but also the culture, history and literature of the entire Lusophone (Portuguese-speaking) world across all continents. Learn about and engage with a diversity of cultures – their art, literature, music, history and social and political landscapes through courses such as:

• Luso-Brazilian Cultures and Cinemas
• Cannibal Brazil: Cultural Encounters in Literature and Film
• Language in Context: Portuguese in the Greater Toronto Area
• Mapping Brazilian Identity Through Fiction: History, Race and Gender

The Portuguese language is the fourth most widely used language in the world, spoken daily by over 250 million people.

Its study will prepare you for work both nationally and internationally, offering you instant entry to Portugal, Brazil, Angola, Mozambique, Cape Verde, Guinea Bissau, São Tomé e Príncipe, East Timor as well as numerous Lusophone communities around the world - Canada, USA, Germany, France, Switzerland, Australia, South Africa, Venezuela, Luxemburg  - and the territories of Macau and Goa.

We are the only university in Canada that offers a course solely dedicated to the region of the Azores. The Culture and Literature of the Azores delves into the uniqueness of this North Atlantic archipelago, whose natives make up the majority of the Portuguese immigrants in Canada.
Our program offers many opportunities for you to move beyond academics, exploring experiential education opportunities, and engaging in cultural events that will enliven your learning.

Linguistics is concerned with discovering the organizing principles of human languages and applying these principles to the description of individual languages. Using systematic descriptions of language and language usage, linguists also investigate how language interacts with intellectual and cultural life. Linguistics has applications to teaching, speech-language pathology and the applied sciences of communication engineering and computer science.

York's focus is on sociolinguistics and as a result, the program can provide you with a social and cultural perspective on almost every aspect of the humanities and social sciences.

• Take advantage of our smaller class sizes and get to know your professors.
• Focus both on core aspects of linguistics (phonology, syntax, morphology, and semantics), as well as sociolinguistics, linguistic variation and change, discourse analysis, psycholinguistics, and language acquisition.
• The Department offers more than 20 different courses a year which investigate the relation between language and society and between language and thought.

An actuary is a professional concerned with: the design and administration of insurance policies, pension plans, government welfare plans and similar programs. The main responsibility of actuaries is to ensure that these programs operate on a sound financial basis. To do this, they use many areas of mathematics and statistics, as well as general principles of economics and finance.Actuarial Science is the area of mathematics that applies quantitative methods to assess risks in the insurance and finance industries. It became a formal discipline in the late 17th century, when the increased demand for such long-term insurance coverages as life insurances, annuities, and burials expense coverages emerged. Since then and for a long time, actuaries have been interested in studying the present monetary value of future obligations as well as the variability of these present values in the contexts of life and health insurance, property and casualty insurance, pension funds and social wealth-fare programs. Today actuaries are also being employed in the areas of enterprise risk management, and even in general finance and investment.

Global health challenges, such as chronic and communicable diseases, do not recognize borders. The health of the world’s population is intertwined with broader issues, including wealth disparity, environmental degradation, government policy and human rights. York’s Global Health degree examines these and other issues to prepare students for careers in global health locally, nationally and internationally.

All students, whether in the BA or BSc options, are exposed to the major issues that are at the forefront of global health through core courses, including:

• Global Health Governance and Leadership
• Global Health Policy, Power and Politics
• Health and Human Rights
• Determinants of Health: Local to Global
• Chronic Diseases and Care
• Communicable Diseases and Care
• Healthcare Planning for Communities
• Healthcare Ethics

Courses cover global health concerns including communicable diseases (such as HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, ebola, and malaria), chronic diseases (such as diabetes, heart disease, and cancer), age-related illnesses (such as dementia and Alzheimer’s disease), maternal and child health, mental illness, and the health consequences of trauma, violence, war and displacement. The global health program also focuses on the organization, financing and management of health service systems.

Challenge what is. Imagine what could be. Transform the Future. The Faculty of Environmental Studies provides a unique educational experience in an expanding field of study, research and employment.

Studying the environment has never been more important or complex. In order to make change, we need to recognize the impact we have on the world around us. Our program examines the interconnections of human life on our natural surroundings and explores the various perspectives, approaches and inequalities that exist in the world today.  An introductory first year allows you to expand your passion for environmental and social justice through a common core course approach. Then, specialize for your future career success in one of the following: Environmental Management; Urban & Regional Environments; Environmental Politics, Justice & the Arts.

Program Highlights
The Faculty of Environmental Studies (FES) defines "environment" as everything that surrounds us. Environmental studies is, therefore, not only about natural environments, but also about built, social, cultural, political and organizational environments as well as all of the relationships between them.

After completing a common first year, you will have the opportunity to focus on one of three Areas of Concentration:

• Environmental Management
• Urban & Regional Environments
• Environmental Politics, Justice & the Arts

Violations of human rights occur across a broad range of social, economic and cultural areas as well as within the civil and political order. Today we are faced with local and global issues that, in one way or another, impact all of us: denial of education or basic health rights; surveillance and suppression of speech; polarization of incomes or denial of economic security; atrocities of military occupation and war.

Students in York's innovative Human Rights & Equity Studies program explore the roots of human rights violations as they occur across a broad range of social, economic and cultural areas. You'll tackle local and global issues, that, in one way or another, impact us all:

• Denial of education or basic health rights;
• Surveillance and suppression of speech;
• Polarization of incomes or denial of economic security;
• Atrocities of military occupation and war.

York's program investigates rights and equity concerns through a range of disciplinary lenses. Courses drawn from units across York confront problems of basic rights involving physical, emotional and economic security, cultural autonomy and freedom of political expression, viewing rights in relation to the whole person.

• Gain multidisciplinary knowledge by exploring human rights and equity in a diverse array of fields, including sociology, anthropology, philosophy, political science, social work, economics, health, education and the arts.
• Core professors are experts in social and cultural rights and equity concerns related to health and healthcare, economic inequality and poverty, work and unemployment, and social and labour policy.

Combine an interdisciplinary exploration of urban life, its qualities and its discontents with the study of social geography — the discipline that has most closely examined the nature of city lives and city places.

You can orient your studies in a number of ways to suit your interests:

• Explore the modern city
• Study urban development in a global context
• Research the history and comparative study of cities
• Learn about planning and environmental issues.