Undergraduate Academic Accelerator Pathway (2-Term) - Bachelor of Science in Gender Studies

at Shorelight Group - The University of Utah USA

Students of English enter a world rich with intellectual possibilities. As an English major at the University of Utah, you will study literature, creative writing, and literary discourse and theories. The U’s English curriculum covers the vast range of literature written in English, from the 8th century AD until the present day. Students will explore theory, film, graphic novels, video games, digital humanities, popular culture, and have the chance to develop their skills as critical and creative writers. However, the skills you gain from an English degree are not limited to just studying literature—written and verbal communication skills are central to any career or subsequent degree that demands the ability to think, argue, write, and speak about complicated issues. In addition to expanding your intellect, your English degree ultimately provides an essential foundation for careers in law, business, government, education, finance, and media.

Do you have a passion for numbers, analysis, and theory? Consider majoring in mathematics. This degree provides students with excellent quantitative and analytical skills, and a math degree is the perfect stepping stone for a countless number of careers. Mathematics, with its origins in algebra and geometry, has continued to grow in numerous directions including probability, statistics, numerical analysis, decision making, cryptography, finance, and more. It is the foundation for much of science, engineering, and computing.

Civil engineering is about community service, development, and improvement. It involves the conception, planning, design, construction, and operation of facilities essential to modern life: without civil engineering, things like transit systems, offshore structures, and space satellites would not exist. Civil engineers are problem solvers, meeting the challenges of pollution, traffic congestion, drinking water and energy needs, urban redevelopment, and community planning. At the University of Utah, an integral part of studies in the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department is an emphasis on environmental engineering. In addition to core courses in engineering, students also take a range of math, science, and technical courses, as well as general interest electives. Through their coursework, students of the program learn how to apply physical, chemical, and biochemical processes to environmental problems, ultimately improving the quality of life across the globe.

The French program at the University of Utah is intended for students wishing to gain a deeper understanding of French and Francophone (French-speaking) cultures through the study of French language, literature, and society.  The program, housed within the Department of World Languages & Cultures, caters to individual student needs and fosters forward thinking and intellectual freedom. This freedom is reflected in program coursework: the program curriculum begins with intensive grammar and progresses through the cultural history of France and the more than 50 French-speaking nations in the world, covering topics such as French film, fashion, romance, art, nationhood, otherness, and identity. The U’s French program provides excellent preparation for pursuing graduate work and entering a variety of professions where critical reading, writing, and thinking skills are paramount.

Environmental and Sustainability Studies (ENVST) is a STEM interdisciplinary program that offers a major with several emphases to focus your study, as well as a minor. The curriculum explores ecological systems and the impact of human-environment interactions from the perspectives of the natural sciences, the social and health sciences, and the humanities. The U’s program strives to foster an understanding the multi-faceted issues of the environment and sustainability and finding solutions through systemic analysis, peer learning, and community engagement, social responsibility, leadership, and having a science-based focus on solutions and integrated problem solving.

Management skills apply to every organization and in every business discipline. The Management Major is designed to give students the skills they need to lead companies in all phases of development, from startup to maturity, and through challenging situations. Students develop competence in human resource management, quantitative and statistical decision making, production/operations management, and general management. In addition to core business major requirements, management students must complete courses in leadership and business ethics. Students then choose electives from areas such as Organizational Leadership, Sustainable Leadership, Managing Conflict, among others. The Management degree will prepare you for careers in not only business but nearly any field that requires excellent communication, organizational, and management abilities.

The Health, Society and Policy (HSP) Program addresses the multidimensional characteristics of human health. Health status may be related to factors beyond pathogens or illness: lifestyle, environmental exposures, socioeconomic status, cultural affiliation, poor communication, or access to health services can all contribute to an individual’s health. Students in this program are given the broad, interdisciplinary foundation for understanding health, allowing them to sensitively and effectively address health care issues in multidimensional contexts: for example, the geographic location, literacy, or socioeconomic status of an individual might impact their ability to access or obtain healthcare or eat a healthy diet. HSP students take courses from a variety of fields, including epidemiology, behavioral sciences, research methods and quantitative skills, administration, philosophy, and history. This coursework provides students with a coherent perspective on health care in its various social and administrative contexts. The culminating experience of the program is a capstone, delivered as an interdisciplinary series of seminars on a particular theme related to the major.

Sociology investigates the relationships between social order and social change in three interconnected areas along the scale of individual to global; our personal lives, the communities we live in, and the world as a whole. When examining personal lives, sociologists study deviant behavior, family dynamics, and individuals’ racial, ethnic, gender, and sexual identities. At the community level, sociologists study poverty, prejudice and discrimination, education, corporate and business behavior, the criminal justice system, housing and homelessness, the health care system, and social movements. Finally, at the global level, they review human population dynamics, societal conflict, cultural diversity, socially-induced environmental change, globalization, and modernization.

 The Sociology program consists of five core courses that serve as an introduction to sociological theory and application, research methods, and social statistics. The remainder of the curriculum is comprised of courses from four areas of sociology: Diversity, Globalization, Criminology, and Population and Health, as well as a selection of electives. By the program’s end, graduates have invaluable critical thinking skills and awareness of social issues that affect all areas of modern life. This set of knowledge and skills is necessary to find work in a variety of fields, and invaluable in our increasingly globalized and culturally diverse society.

Geological engineers use their backgrounds in engineering and earth science to provide solutions to engineering problems within the context of the natural world. For example, a geological engineer might study fluid flow and contaminant transport in groundwater, geo-mechanics (the behavior of earth materials), geo-engineering (designing with earth materials), and the discovery, development, and utilization of energy resources. The University of Utah’s Geological Sciences program teaches students to apply knowledge of mathematics, science, and engineering to design and conduct experiments, and analyze and interpret data. With accreditation by the Engineering Accreditation Commission of ABET, the Geological Science program ensures that students receive the broad education necessary to understand the impact of engineering solutions in a global and societal context. The curriculum includes courses in geological engineering concepts—mineralogy, petrology, structural geology, fluid dynamics, groundwater, and others—as well as classes in allied engineering and sciences fields, such as surveying, chemistry, physics, and math. This coursework ultimately prepares students to sit for the Fundamentals of Engineering Exam.

Linguists explore all things to do with language: Its structure and mechanics, how language and the mind interact, and the tie between language and socio-cultural factors. Linguistics is an ideal major for today’s university students.  It provides the intellectual satisfaction of learning how human language works, while at the same time developing the analytical skills necessary to be highly competitive on the job market.  Students in linguistics learn how to analyze languages and develop crucial skills for today’s job market: Reasoning, critical thinking, rigorous analysis, and written and verbal communication. Students may also simultaneously pursue a TESOL and/or Computational Linguistics certificate.