Master of Social Work

at California State University - Fresno USA

Contemplating a vibrant career in media, communications or journalism? Check out the MCJ Department. An exciting array of options awaits students, including advertising, broadcast journalism, film and media arts, digital journalism and public relations.

Graduates of the MCJ Department work for many of America’s leading print and digital news outlets, radio and television stations, broadcast and film production companies, advertising agencies, public relations firms, corporations, government agencies, and community-based organizations.

Broadcast journalism. Broadcast journalism students learn the importance of producing responsible news coverage while maintaining strong ethical standards. Our program’s core focuses on teaching the principles of storytelling through video, audio, and powerful writing. Our students learn through their experiences, which include producing content for television, radio, and digital platforms in English and Spanish. Broadcast journalism graduates are now reporters, producers, and anchors at local and national radio and television stations. Other alumni have embarked on careers at technology and social media companies including Google, Amazon, Facebook, and Banjo.

The Management Option develops skills, knowledge, attitudes, and abilities necessary for effective leadership in a wide variety of organizations. Graduates are prepared for entry-level leadership positions in today's rapidly-changing workplace through a dynamic curriculum combining theory, skill development, and practical experience, including internships in the student's area of interest. Courses develop those leadership abilities demanded by employers that include written, oral, analytical, and people skills. The option also provides a strong foundation for the M.B.A. Students may choose one of the following three tracks:

Organizational Leadership - Courses in this track prepare students for positions as project leaders, team leaders, and business managers. Courses emphasize leadership issues such as self-directed work teams, performance improvement, negotiating, vision and goal setting, and change management.

Production/Logistics Management (PLM) - This track provides students with a foundation for a variety of management career opportunities in manufacturing and distribution. With total quality management as a common basis, the PLM curriculum combines the two integrated disciplines of production/operations (transformation of resources into high quality products and services) and logistics (management of supply and distribution activities). Emphasis is placed on complementing the student's knowledge of PLM subject matter with hands-on, industrial experience gained through internship programs with local firms.

Special Management Applications - This track is designed for Management Option students who have a professional interest in a particular industry chosen by the student (agriculture, fashion merchandising, health science, industrial technology, recreation, theater, etc.) Students take business and organizational leadership courses and then, with approval of the department chair, select courses in their specific areas of interest.

The M.S. in Construction Management program provides the technical competencies, financial knowledge, and entrepreneurial skills that are essential to today’s leaders in the construction industry.

The program is designed for recent college graduates as well as working professionals with architecture, engineering, construction (AEC), business or related backgrounds.

It aims to prepare graduates to (a) fill upper management positions in the AEC industry; or (b) pursue Ph.D. studies in construction related fields, and eventually fill teaching and/or research positions in colleges and universities.

Sociology majors receive strong grounding in traditional and contemporary social theory, methods of conducting social research, and techniques of analyzing social data. Courses with a service-learning component provide students with an opportunity to engage in participant-observation studies, while the Social Research Laboratory (SRL) gives them a chance to participate in survey research. Encouraging student research is one of the hallmarks of sociology at Fresno State.

The program also offers advanced courses on topics ranging from medical sociology, religion, and family to popular culture, deviance, and social movements and social change.

The B.A. in Art History is designed to provide students with the communication skills, research techniques, and methods of critical inquiry that have become a vital part of contemporary life. Course offerings cover a wide range of topics in world art, encouraging students to become responsible citizens through an understanding of the aesthetic, cultural and ethical choices inherent in human development. Students successfully completing the B.A. in Art History are eligible to compete for admission to M.A. and Ph.D. programs and for entry-level positions in the art world and related fields.

Civil engineering includes the research, development, planning, design, construction, and maintenance associated with urban development, water supply, structures, energy generation and transmission, water treatment and disposal, and transportation systems. The civil engineer deals with the function and safety of such public facilities as buildings, bridges, dams, pipelines, powerplants, highways, and harbors, and is concerned with the protection of the public against natural hazards of earthquakes, floods, landslides, and fires.

Mission of Civil Engineering
The Civil Engineering Program at California State University, Fresno strives to provide the high-quality education required for students to fully develop their professional qualities and skills as civil engineers in diverse environments and to develop their personal potential to the greatest extent possible to serve society.

Because of increasing mobility in our modern world, it takes no time at all to travel to places where people speak a language other than English. If you visit or go to work in another country you will quickly learn the fallacy of the phrase, "Everyone speaks English there; don't worry!" Even in California, scarcely a day goes by that you do not hear people conversing in a language other than English, because the United States has a wealth of different heritage languages. Whether you travel overseas or stay in the United States, you will be more culturally sensitive if you are bilingual and bicultural. For example, agricultural, health, and music professionals benefit from knowing another language. It is never too late to acquire another culture and language.

The goal of the Department of Modern and Classical Languages and Literatures is to encourage multiculturalism and multilingualism in the Central Valley. That includes preparing students for communication in some of the important heritage languages of the area: German, Spanish, French, Italian, and Portuguese. These are also important languages of Mexico, Central and South America, and the European Union, so students are able to travel or work overseas with greater ease. The department also offers Greek and Latin, as well as Classical Studies and Humanities.

The department has programs for those who wish to be middle and high school teachers of French and Spanish. We offer courses to prepare those who wish to be bilingual/ cross-cultural teachers in elementary schools. We also offer courses in Italian, Portuguese, and other languages to the surrounding community. The department offers a major and a minor in French and Spanish, a minor in German, a minor in Humanities, and a minor in Classical Studies. We collaborate with the Department of Linguistics to offer the B.A. Option in Language Studies.

The Master of Arts program in History is designed to extend the competence of persons engaged in a wide variety of fields requiring a broad grasp of historical knowledge, techniques, and interpretation. Within this degree program, students may choose to complete either a traditional track or a teaching option. The traditional track, which offers both thesis and examination as possible culminating experiences, best satisfies the needs of those interested in public service, teaching at the community college level, or pursuing advanced graduate study in history. The teaching option best satisfies the needs of those interested in enhancing their teaching of history primarily at the secondary level.

The Graduate Certificate program is most suitable for those teachers who would like to update their professional credentials, those seeking supplemental certification, those seeking to prepare for the CSET, and/or those who would simply like to continue their study of history but who do not require an M.A.

English is a general major or minor designed to give proficiency in skills that traditionally have been among the most highly prized by society: an ability to read with comprehension and critical judgment; to communicate accurately and clearly both orally and in writing; to grasp difficult ideas and think logically; to do research and organize materials; to make ethical and moral judgments from an historical and humanistic framework; and to appreciate literature and the arts.

The Master of Arts program in English, Rhetoric and Writing Studies Option, serves several categories of students: those teaching high school and community college, those anticipating doctoral studies, those studying creative or expository writing, and those simply interested in extending and intensifying the knowledge acquired in their undergraduate studies.

The Master of Arts in Art provides the opportunity for highly motivated art and design students to pursue study at an advanced level and attain a level of accomplishment in the visual arts and design. The graduate program emphasizes self-direction and focus within a specific area. The program builds upon the equivalent of the undergraduate major in art at California State University, Fresno. The program provides specifically for certain areas of interest: art education, crafts, computer art, interior design, drawing, painting, ceramics, photography, sculpture, art history, and theory. With prior approval, programs with multiple concentrations may be arranged. For specific requirements, consult the departmental graduate program director. For general requirements, see Division of Graduate Studies.