Bachelor of Arts in Communications - Journalism

at Kaplan Group - Simmons University USA

By strengthening your visual intelligence, you'll cultivate the artistry you need to create compelling and impactful messages.

Our students are immersed in print, web, and multimedia design, applying their advanced skills to hands-on projects and internships. You'll hone your skills in modern design software while developing branding strategies, web sites, magazine layouts and more.

You'll incorporate other communications disciplines like media arts and journalism in their coursework. That versatility sets our students apart — employers know Simmons graduates understand the bigger picture and can contribute to any creative team from day one.

With highly competitive design skills, you'll find interesting and creative internships in places ranging from Boston Children's Hospital to State Street. Our students not only excel in the technical and creative areas, but additionally understand the meaning making practices that afford them a competitive edge.

Students in our Communications degree at Simmons University are progressive and innovative, whether they're working on a publication, shooting a video, designing a website, or crafting a clever tweet.

Why pursue a degree in Communications?
Communication is key in all aspects of life; it is how we interact, connect, and make impressions on each other and the world around us. The Communications degree at Simmons University focuses on how people use messages to generate meaning within and across contexts, cultures, channels, and media.

Generating and conveying meaning is central to the work we do in our Communications major, as is an emphasis on media convergence—the intersection and interaction of the multiple media disciplines.

Simmons University offers a Bachelor of Social Work (BSW) degree that provides exceptional training in social work and scholarship.

Our BSW students learn through classroom settings, multiple field placements, and innovative practices such as simulations where you will have the opportunity to practice and hone your skills. Students in our BSW degree program benefit from our nationally regarded School of Social Work (SSW) — including acclaimed BSW faculty, remarkable alumnae/i and Simmons University's ideal location in the Fenway and Longwood Medical Area.

In Simmons' Bachelor of Social Work degree program, we’ll prepare you to work with individuals, families, groups, organizations, and communities. You’ll learn the theories needed to understand human development, how society functions, and how policy impacts individuals and communities.

The intellectual domain of Africana Studies (AST) consists of four major areas:

• The study of African and European American relationships beginning in the 16th century.
• The study of African/African American community building, i.e., African Americans’ founding and organization of economic, educational, religious, and cultural institutions and related achievements of self-determination.
• Africanity and diaspora studies in the Americas, Africa, and Europe.

Africana women’s studies which seeks to study race, gender, and culture in ways that allow us to understand often interrelated diasporic experiences across the globe.
Each of these areas may be examined further by focusing upon specializations in the humanities (e.g., literature, film, journalism), social sciences (e.g., research, public policy, health care), physical sciences (e.g., environmental studies), interdisciplinary studies (e.g., women’s and gender studies, management, education) or in professional programs (nursing, teacher preparation, social work). An AST major or minor is appropriate for students with strong interests in studies of Americans of color; in the intersectional study of race, gender, and class in the humanities or social sciences; or in one or more subject areas indicated above. The department prepares students for the labor market and continued professional and graduate training by providing a solid foundation of critical, analytical, and technological skills. Pre-graduation internships are available for all interested students. Study abroad and modern language skills are highly recommended. Students interested in dual degree programs or self-designed majors should consult with program faculty to design an individualized program.

Our mathematics students are problem solvers who go on to great careers using the quantitative and analytical skills they developed at Simmons.

Do you like a challenge?
Our students learn to think about problems in a whole new way. You can combine one of our majors with an interest in economics, management, computer science, or another science. Many of our students use their biostatistics major to build careers in public health doing exciting things like designing clinical trials for new medications and treatments.

Our faculty is always on the forefront of using new teaching methods, including cooperative learning groups, computer laboratory investigations, writing-to-learn and flipped courses, as well as traditional instruction. Our students go on to successful careers and graduate study in fields like statistics, scientific programming, public health, "big data" and teaching.

You'll learn to craft intelligent and influential messages — even in 140 characters or less — and comprehensive public relations plans.

The Interdisciplinary Major in Public Relations and Marketing Communications is offered with the Business School and designed to provide grounding and experience in public relations and a firm understanding of the principles and implementation of marketing strategy. At its best, PR/MarCom education embodies intellectual traditions drawn from a wide range of social and hard sciences, as well as professional and liberal arts areas of concentrations. Students receive a BA in PR/MarCom.

A Bachelor of Arts in Writing trains you to write with insight, clarity, and creativity. It prepares you for a variety of career paths or further degree programs.

Students will develop appreciation for the art of writing and hone their own skills as writers. They  will be able to read closely, produce creative and critical written pieces driven by their own insights in conversation with the ideas of others, do research independently, reflect critically on their own writing, and talk intelligently about their insights in discussions or formal presentations.

Our students develop sophisticated understandings of writing through reading and producing essays, short stories, poems, and public humanities writings. Students learn to read with a writers’ eye by analyzing the craft of published authors.  They sharpen their critical skills and their writing technique by participating in peer workshops.  Guided by award-winning faculty who are poets, novelists, literary scholars, and cultural critics, Writing majors discover their own style and talent as thinkers and writers.

Writing majors learn to read with discernment and write with clarity and force. Such abilities enrich students’ personal lives while providing them with practical skills that serve them well in their professional lives. Writing majors discover their own voices, learn to collaborate and revise, develop skills of critical analysis and creative expression, and gain confidence in themselves as independent thinkers.

BS graduates in chemistry work in laboratories developing pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, energy resources, solutions to environmental problems, and other areas of modern industry. A chemistry bachelor’s degree is also excellent preparation for professional schools of medicine or dentistry, especially with the increasing dependence of medical research and practice on knowledge of living systems at the molecular level. With the M.S. or Ph.D., a scientist can take responsibility for planning research and supervising laboratories. Excellent career opportunities are found in private industry, in government laboratories, and on college and university faculties.

As a sociologist, you'll investigate society from a grounded and critical perspective.

Do you want to change the world? First you have to understand it
You'll study everything from crime to religion, developing a unique understanding of what motivates human behavior. Our Students are encouraged to study abroad and apply your substantial training to the real world. The culture at Simmons is focused on community service and activism, giving you ample opportunities to connect and grow within our community.

Our faculty encourages diverse learning styles, offering many options for personalized courses of study and independent learning. You'll benefit from a well rounded liberal arts education with classes in specialties like women's and gender studies, Africana studies and international relations.

With their technical and intellectual experience, our students find successful careers in community organizing, law, public policy, teaching, higher education and social work.

Organizations today demand responsive leaders, who can provide vision, are creative, can manage across the organization, and work ethically and effectively in a diverse workforce. This BSBA Program major prepares students to assume well paid entry-level jobs that draw upon skills learned across the Business curriculum. Students gain an understanding of managerial roles, activities, and functions of organizations. Business and Management graduates have found jobs in biotech, financial services, healthcare, and communications. Students can combine a major in Business and Management with a variety of liberal arts disciplines such as psychology, sociology, or data science to enhance knowledge and critical thinking skills and to provide a broader context in which to make a difference in the workplace.

What can you do with a bachelor’s degree in Business and Management?
All organizations need general managers and the Business and Management major gives you the fundamentals to meet job requirements across the economy plus Simmons’ special sauce with diversity, equity, and inclusion content and an intense focus on building individual level skills and confidence to reach your personal best.

The Business and Management major will deliver “how to” knowledge that will help you be a successful employee contributing to the organization’s mission on the business side right from the start, or as your career develops over time.

Our Bachelor’s degree in Business and Management offers flexibility in allowing you to select additional courses that can lead you to career tracks like People Management (HR), Operations Management, and social welfare advocacy. At the heart of it, general management capabilities that will build through this Business and Management major apply to most jobs and will serve you over a career lifetime.