Master of Arts, Major in Biological Sciences

at San Jose State University USA

The Master of Arts in Art History and Visual Culture offers a broad education in art history, including preparation for a Ph.D. degree program. It also prepares students for a graduate library degree with specialization in art history, as well training for a variety of positions including community college professor, researcher, museum curator, arts administrator, conservator, and visual resources librarian. Our program is especially strong in modern and contemporary art, architecture and design, and the art of the Renaissance. We also feature a variety of special-topic courses such as Art and Architecture of Islam, History of Photography, German Art, and “Fashionology.” Students have the opportunity to study with experts in these fields and to work within a dynamic department that includes a strong M.F.A. program located in the heart of Silicon Valley.

Besides featuring a wide array of courses we host a number of activities during the academic year. These include the Art History and Visual Culture Colloquium, the Art History Association Symposium, the Tuesday Night Lecture Series and a range of exhibitions in the Thompson Gallery. The department website offers information about our courses, faculty, facilities, and events.

Economics is a general program, flexible enough to allow for a variety of student objectives. The BA program has over 21 units of open electives. These elective units give students the flexibility to supplement the thinking skills developed in economics with technical skills developed in such fields as finance, marketing, and public relations. A bachelor degree in economics serves as an excellent springboard to an MBA or law degree.

The department mission is to serve society, the public sector, and private industry by:

• Providing undergraduate and graduate civil engineering education that prepares students to apply engineering knowledge to the diverse issues of resources, infrastructure and the built environment;?
• Contributing to the development and codification of knowledge through faculty scholarship; and
• Meeting the needs of working professionals for continuing education.

The master’s program in Biological Sciences with a concentration in Ecology and Evolution, offered by the Department of Biological Sciences, offers students training in the pursuit of rigorous scientific investigation with an emphasis on ecological and evolutionary processes. Students in this degree program emphasize botany, entomology, zoology, or conservation biology through the choice of advisor, committee, course work, and thesis or project. Our graduates have an excellent grasp of the theory and application of ecological and evolutionary principles.

In addition, students with our degree will have gained experience in critical thinking, problem-solving, research methodology (e.g., experimental design, sampling techniques, and analysis), and both written and oral communication. Our alumni are successful applicants for doctoral degree programs and generally attain high-level academic and non-academic positions in both the private and public sectors.

Professional degree programs lead to careers in performance, composition, jazz studies, and music education including a fifth year credential program. We highlight core courses in our curriculum that include experience in performance, music systems (theory), technology and improvisation. Beyond the core courses, individual contracts or concentrations within the BA and BM degree address professional opportunities that include:

• Credentialed school instruction
• Private school instruction
• Vocalists or instrumentalists for the concert stage, opera, musical theater, jazz
• Composers and/or arrangers for film, television, multimedia
• Sound engineering and music technology
• Conductors in all performance areas
• Arts and education administration
• Writer/scholar in Music or Dance

This is a flexible program of general studies with minimum performance requirements that allows students to combine studies in music with other fields of interest. An entrance audition is required. All students must complete the core classes and then consult the Music Advisor to design a Capstone that includes elective coursework from at least three different areas. BA students wishing to participate in private lessons must also be enrolled in an ensemble.

The Bachelor of Science degree in Software Engineering (BSSE) goes beyond programming to include engineering methodologies and hands-on project experience. The program prepares students to become qualified engineers for IT leading companies in Silicon Valley and international engineering market by providing them with state-of-the-art engineering methods, emergent technologies, team work experience, and solutions so they are capable to address design, coding, validation, and measurement issues for the construction of large-scale computer systems and software applications in the real world.

Program Educational Objectives
The educational objectives of our program is to ensure that the graduates are fundamentally solid, practical, dependable, collaborative, and professional. Specifically, three to five years after graduation, the successful graduates will have

• Engaged in successful professional practices in their chosen discipline
• Demonstrated professional and personal leadership in their workspace and the society
• Demonstrated effective collaboration and communication in the work environment and beyond
• Utilized formal and informal learning opportunities to maintain and enhance technical excellence and professional growth

Student Learning Outcomes

To prepare the students for a successful professional and personal life, the BS Computer/Software Engineering program is designed to produce computer/software engineering graduates who have attained the following student learning outcomes at the time of graduation:

• An ability to identify, formulate, and solve complex engineering problems by applying principles of engineering, science, and mathematics
• An ability to apply engineering design to produce solutions that meet specified needs with consideration of public health, safety, and welfare, as well as global, cultural, social, environmental, and economic factors
• An ability to communicate effectively with a range of audiences
• An ability to recognize ethical and professional responsibilities in engineering situations and make informed judgments, which must consider the impact of engineering solutions in global, economic, environmental, and societal contexts
• An ability to function effectively on a team whose members together provide leadership, create a collaborative and inclusive environment, establish goals, plan tasks, and meet objectives
• An ability to develop and conduct appropriate experimentation, analyze and interpret data, and use engineering judgment to draw conclusions
• An ability to acquire and apply new knowledge as needed, using appropriate learning strategies.

In the Department of Kinesiology, Sport Studies approaches sport from a critical perspective that addresses issues of social identity, power, and agency, while recognizing the positive effects of sport and exercise participation and experiences.

Thus, students going through the Sport Studies curriculum will identify and analyze ways that sport and exercise can produce, reproduce, or contest social inequities to potentially affect positive social change at the individual, community, national, and global levels.

The purpose of this emphasis is to provide an interdisciplinary understanding of human movement. Through philosophical, historical, sociological, and psychological contexts, students will develop analytical, critical, and creative skills. These skills will prepare students for many professional programs and occupations.

The MA Linguistics program provides students with an interdisciplinary education in the scientific study of language. Courses in general linguistics develop the ability to analyze data, to propose and refine theories about how language works. Elective courses in computational linguistics serve students interested in speech technology and natural language processing. Other electives in sociolinguistics, multilingualism, and applied linguistics emphasize the role of language in society, including in education, and language variation and change. Graduates in linguistics offer a set of highly specialized skills to IT companies and to organizations whose work places a premium on communication with linguistically diverse audiences. Many graduates pursue careers with companies specializing in these areas. Other graduates pursue teaching careers in language and linguistics in domestic and overseas institutions. A smaller but significant number of linguistics graduates enter PhD programs for more advanced study.

The Master of Science program gives students the opportunity to further their knowledge in foundational and applied topics, preparing them for advanced industrial or research positions. Students are expected to complete six graduate level courses, two electives, and two semesters of project work. Full-time students generally take two years to complete the program. The program is available to students with a bachelor's degree in computer science or a related discipline. In order to ensure small class sizes and individual supervision of projects, the size of the program is limited and applications are competitive.

The Bachelor of Arts in Social Work (BASW) curriculum is based on a basic liberal arts foundation obtained through guided coursework from general education approved courses. This liberal arts foundation provides students the necessary knowledge and skills to engage in critical thinking about social problems and develop an understanding of the social structures of American society. Foundation social work courses meet the primary program goal of preparing students with the knowledge, skills, and values necessary for beginning social work practice. In addition to the core social work curriculum, electives are offered to expand interest in various areas such as child welfare, family welfare, alcoholism and the family, and social work with the aging. Unlike many of their counterparts in other disciplines, BASW graduates are required to undertake as part of their education extensive agency field internships to prepare them for practice upon graduation.

BASW graduates are employed in many different work settings under public and private agencies and programs that may include: family service agencies, children and youth services, juvenile justice agencies, elementary and/or secondary schools, ethnic oriented service agencies, residential treatment programs, substance abuse programs, domestic violence programs, homeless shelters, mental health services, aging services, nursing homes, hospices, hospitals, home care agencies, mental retardation/developmental disabilities services, vocational rehabilitation services, public health agencies, community action agencies, child and adult day care centers, income maintenance programs, and legal services agencies.