Bachelor of Science in Agricultural - Agricultural Business

at Arkansas State University USA

Students seeking admission into the Master of Science degree program in Statistics, must meet the admission requirements of Graduate Admissions and the specific program requirements. Students may not take 6000-level courses for credit until all undergraduate deficiencies have been removed.

The Department of Psychology and Counseling is committed to serving the university, the profession, and the public by contributing to excellence in  education, high professional standards for service delivery, and consumer advocacy. The department is also committed to research and scholarly activities to expand the academic knowledge base and to improve the quality of professional services.

The primary mission of the department is to teach basic principles underlying psychology as a behavioral science and to prepare graduate-level students to become psychological-counseling professional service providers.

The Plant and Soil Science area has a tradition of research and education in crop production, horticulture, soil management and precision agriculture technologies. We have an outstanding faculty who are developing management strategies for crop production, environmental protections, horticultural production, landscape management and maintenance, as well as preparing the future generation of land managers and agricultural professionals.

Emphasis Areas:

• Agronomy
• Environmental Horticulture

Prerequisites
Students majoring in Plant and Soil Science must complete specific courses as part of their general education coursework. This list of courses, as well as other curriculum and degree requirements, can be found in the most current Undergraduate Bulletin.

The mission of the Bachelor of Social Work Program at A-State is to educate generalist practitioners who will work to enhance intellectual growth, and to enrich lives through social justice and service specifically with rural populations. It employs a problem-solving process and relies on critical thinking.

Bachelors level social workers work with a variety of clients in many settings. The skills learned in the curriculum include interviewing skills, assessment skills, and intervention skills. The BSW qualifies the student to sit for the state exam at the Licensed Social Worker level. The state licensing law outlines the level of practice at this level. This is referred to as the Generalist Practice level.

Generalist practitioners work within an organizational structure in which they use appropriate supervision and assume a wide range of professional roles (DuBois & Miley, 1996). These roles include broker, enabler/counselor, mediator, educator, evaluator, case manager/coordinator and advocate/activist (Kirst-Ashman & Hull, 1999). Empowerment oriented social workers focus on clients’ strengths and adaptive skills as well as clients’ competencies and potential. They work collaboratively with their clients.

Empowerment joins personal power and political power so as to increase an individual’s ability to control his or her destiny and “...to alter systems, redistribute resources, open up opportunity structures, and reorganize society” (Hartman, 1990; Lee, 1994 cited in DuBois & Miley, 1999, p. 28).

The M.S. in Biology is a 33-34 hour program with a required thesis based on original research. Faculty with expertise in ecology, genetics, botany, entomology, herpetology, zoology, cell and molecular biology, reproductive biology, microbiology and other fields advise student research.  Individual faculty in the Biology Department should be consulted about their research programs.

Why should you apply to our graduate program

• The Arkansas Biosciences Institute is located on the A-State campus
• Our researchers take advantage of numerous field stations across the region, country, and the world
• A-State has well-equipped research laboratories and teaching laboratories where scientific activities focus on highly interactive research clusters
• The Ecotoxicology Research Facility is a multi-user US EPA certified test laboratory facilitating intercollegiate research and collaboration with other universities, state and federal agencies, industries and various interest groups.

The Department of Art at Arkansas State University will provide an educational environment that fosters the creation and understanding of art. Students in art develop insight, sensitivity, and perception toward all aspects of nature while building individual expressive responses. Aesthetic and functional values, creative ideas, and media skills are developed through instructional guidance and applied experience in the studio and classroom.

Learning Outside the Classroom
Some of the courses may involve field trips to Memphis Brooks Museum, The Arkansas Arts Center in Little Rock, or other regional art collections. Arkansas State University is an Accredited Institutional member of the National Association of Schools of Art and Design.

Why the BFA?
The Bachelor of Fine Arts degree programs are designed to prepare students for professional careers as a classroom art teacher, graphic designer, or studio artist. The BFA in Art (with emphasis in Studio Art or Art Education) is the initial professional degree, and it is the requisite degree for the student who plans to pursue a studio-oriented post-baccalaureate degree

Emphases
Students pursuing a BFA in Art choose between the following emphases:

• Studio Art
• Art Education

Prerequisites
Students enrolled in these programs must take specific courses to meet General Education requirements. Curriculum and degree requirements can be found in the most current Undergraduate Bulletin.

The Bachelors of Arts degree in Computer Science focuses on the basics of computer problem solving applicable to the business environment.  The program builds a strong foundation in programming, software development, algorithms, operating systems, networking, and database systems.  

In addition, a broad exposure to information technology in business provides an understanding of problem solving in a business environment.  Students will gain skills in several programming environments and software applications through laboratories and classroom assignments.  Electives are part of the program and allow students to explore various topics in artificial intelligence, distributed systems, graphics, compilers, and advanced programming.

Courses offered in philosophy are designed to provide students with the knowledge and logical skills to understand and critically evaluate the intellectual, moral, and religious choices they encounter.

The program for students majoring in philosophy seeks to provide the background necessary for those preparing for law school, seminary, and graduate school as well as for those who simply seek a liberal education as the foundation of a career in business or industry.

Classes will introduce you to some of the perennial questions we encounter: Free Will and Determinism;  What makes an action right or wrong;  Reason and Religion.

What Skills Will You Develop?
Philosophy will develop critical thinking and reasoning skills.  What is some of the evidence for this? Philosophy majors score higher on the Law School Admissions Test than any other area of the Liberal Arts.  Philosophy majors score higher than any other major on the verbal section of the Graduate Record Exam.

The public history emphasis focuses on teaching students to be historians who are strong academics but who also engage the greater public. Students are required to take 12 hours of history electives (global or US), 12 hours of public history, and 6 hours of thesis or internship. Accepted students who had not taken the Practice of History or an equivalent historical methods course as an undergraduate will have to take this course at a graduate level for additional credit hours. The Department of History will allow up to 6 credit hours from another institution. Graduates with a MA in public history often go on to pursue a PhD in public history or heritage studies, work at museums or heritage sites, or apply for careers in historic preservation or other public history-related professions.

The global history emphasis is for students who are interested in studying big questions, especially those pertaining to the processes, events, and people who have created an increasingly interconnected world. Students will engage with the works of important historians in the field, theory, and historiography while honing their ability to research and write as global historians themselves. This program is aimed at students who want to subsequently pursue global or non-US history PhD programs, who want to teach high school world history at an advanced level, who want to teach world history in community colleges, and who are interested in foreign service careers. Global history students are required to take Theory and Practice in Global History, Seminar in Global History, 9 hours of world history, 9 hours of history electives, and 6 hours of either thesis or additional history electives.

The Master of Music Degree in Performance is a 30-hour program with advanced study in instrumental, vocal, or keyboard performance, piano performance and pedagogy, or instrumental or choral conducting, culminating in a graduate recital.  Instruction is provided by faculty members who are recognized as outstanding performers in a wide variety of performance areas.  The Department of Music entrance examinations in music history, music theory, and ear training assist in planning each student’s exact course of study.

Concentration

• Composition
• Conducting
• Collaborative Piano
• Instrumental Performance
• Jazz Performance
• Piano Performance and Pedagogy
• Vocal Performance