Bachelor of Arts in Community Development

at Kaplan Group - Arizona State University - Downtown Phoenix Campus USA

The BS in population health program integrates the fields of public health and health care delivery to teach students about the factors that impact health.

Students learn how social determinants of health, access to care and infrastructure influence the health of defined groups, as well as the roles of stakeholders and how to work across systems to improve health. Students benefit as the field of population health requires training in disciplines fundamental to the College of Health Solutions, including biomedical informatics, economics, social determinants of health, program and community assessment, program planning, and health care delivery.

The multidisciplinary program features experiential learning, including student engagement as citizen scientists, to better understand population health. Students can customize their learning by focusing on environmental health systems, food systems, mental health systems, compliance in the health care industry, health education programs, the design and improvement of population health systems, or health informatics.

Understanding the intersections between business and politics is more important than ever for managers and executives in the private, nonprofit and public sectors. The World Economic Forum's latest Future of Jobs Report and McKinsey Global Institute's Jobs of the Future report both have suggested that transdisciplinary, virtual collaboration and cross-cultural competence are extremely important job skills for the near future. Thunderbird's MGM program with a concentration in global affairs equips students with the knowledge base and hard skills needed to thrive in the growing job markets at the nexus of global business and international politics.

This concentration is designed for students who aspire to take on management and executive positions in government agencies such as the U.S. Department of Commerce, the State Department and the Treasury Department or similar roles in the government of a student's home country. The global affairs concentration also positions graduates for leadership roles in international organizations such as the World Bank or World Trade Organization and in major companies that require analysts to monitor policy trends, managers to oversee global supply chains and representatives to advance global business interests to governments, both domestic and foreign.

The core curriculum provides students with the intellectual tools to integrate their concentration areas, engage in transdisciplinary problem-solving and prepare for careers and graduate programs that increasingly cross disciplinary boundaries. An interdisciplinary studies student could choose to integrate concentrations like business and project management, psychology and social welfare, communication and justice studies, public administration and ethics, digital culture and computer gaming or many other unique combinations.

Interdisciplinary studies is an approach to answering questions, solving problems and addressing contemporary social issues from multiple perspectives. Interdisciplinary studies students take an active role in designing their educational plans and defining their career goals. The degree emphasizes written communication, versatility, self-assessment and critical thinking --- essential skills for today's dynamic world.

The School of Public Affairs offers a concentration in business as part of the BS in public service and public policy.

This concentration establishes a core business curriculum while allowing students the flexibility to pursue their passion, from entrepreneurial opportunities to working for a Fortune 500 company. Coursework teaches lasting business concepts.

The BA program in journalism and mass communication at ASU's Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication, widely regarded as one of the nation's premier journalism schools, is a highly professional, hands-on degree program that prepares students for careers in media and communications.

Through access to a world-class faculty of veteran and current journalists, and with prestigious internships and hands-on learning opportunities, undergraduate students learn the values and principles that have long formed the core of the journalism profession, and they master the highly specialized, practical skills needed to succeed in today's digital world.

Topics of study can include unique courses in digital media, broadcast news, innovation and entrepreneurship, audience engagement, public relations and Spanish-language news. The Cronkite School's full-immersion professional programs afford students the opportunity to gain experience in activities like hosting the evening news on AZ PBS and creating digital advertising campaigns.

The MS program in nutritional science prepares students to translate nutrition science into practical use for human health and wellness. Students immerse themselves in the latest nutrition topics and research partnered with accomplished faculty, developing practical understanding through internship experiences and their own guided research. Building on the scientific foundations of human nutrition, students learn strong writing and problem-solving skills, grow computer literacy, and increase interpretive expertise. Students are afforded research experiences grounded in the latest science that can match their own interests and goals.

Sports nutrition, a new track in the program, provides an option for students to select specialized courses in sports nutrition and exercise science and obtain hands-on training and research with sports dietitians and nutrition faculty who are experts in the field. Students in this track complete the same core nutrition graduate cour but take track-specific courses and electives that focus on sports nutrition, hydration, exercise physiology and other vital parts of the discipline. The culminating experience research is under the guidance of sports nutrition professors in the College of Health Solutions.

Biomedical informatics is a multidisciplinary field that involves the generation, acquisition, management and analysis of biomedical and health data and its translation into information and knowledge for improving individual and population health.

The BS program in biomedical informatics curriculum includes biomedical informatics, computer science, biology, chemistry, mathematics and statistics. Students learn approaches to acquiring data, data management and knowledge representation, modeling and machine learning and using these capabilities to address problems in the biomedical and health domains. Students have the opportunity to do research alongside faculty who are experts in bioinformatics, imaging informatics, clinical informatics and population health informatics.

Learn to understand complex public problems and develop and implement innovative policy solutions. Through coursework and real-world projects, you gain the analytic skills required to address society's most challenging problems.

The MPP program allows students to approach the study of public policy with a focus on public policy in the urban setting.

The program trains people to lead by making positive policy decisions, addressing the difficult questions associated with public policy, and managing the process of policy creation, approval, implementation and evaluation. Students also gain an understanding of policies addressing issues such as poverty, education, the environment and public safety. At the conclusion of the master's degree program, students are able to identify, analyze and interpret the challenges and dilemmas of public policies, especially those of urban areas. Students also are able to approach policy analysis with a variety of quantitative and qualitative methods and are prepared to develop innovative processes and tools to deal with changing realities of public policy and address issues on a global, regional and local scale.

The Master of Public Policy program with a concentration in urban policy provides knowledge and skills for students seeking or advancing careers in areas in which urban dynamics and local governance play an integral role in the policy process. This concentration's program emphasizes theories and research concerning urban policy analysis and economics as well as urban management, urban city government, public budgeting and finance in an urban context.

The MGM concentration in digital audience strategy is designed for students interested in augmenting their digital skills in the areas of marketing, design and product development. Through a collaborative sequence of courses offered in partnership with other ASU colleges, students can combine the global management skills found in graduates of the traditional Master of Global Management with digital expertise.

Strong quantitative and qualitative research methods provide the foundation of effective digital audience strategy, and graduates of the program master the ability to conduct research to identify and reach target audiences and to demonstrate returns on investments.

The research used to identify and reach target audiences through digital audience strategy includes traditional and emerging methods such as real-time website and social media audience analysis, social network analysis, search engine optimization analysis, surveys, focus groups and competitive analysis. Graduates master a range of methods to inform strategy for specific outcomes.

This concentration is perfect for students who are interested in expanding and refining their digital skills in the areas of marketing, design and product development to complement a strong core of global leadership and management skills. A Master of Global Management from Thunderbird with a concentration in digital audience strategy prepares graduates to take on leadership roles around the world in industries such as entertainment, journalism, public relations, marketing and many others.

Social services delivery is a fundamental building block of government affairs. Through this concentration, students explore the foundation and practices of social services and how social services can be designed, delivered and evaluated at local, state and federal levels.