Associate in Arts - Law Enforcement

at De Anza College USA

The ways in which we communicate contribute significantly to the quality of our lives. Our Communication Studies Department faculty seek to create a stimulating and supportive learning environment and to meet the diverse and changing needs of our students, our department, and the college. We are here to help students gain greater knowledge and skill in Communication Studies as a means to developing their own potential. In our classrooms we celebrate our students diverse cultures, traditions, perspectives, voices, and goals. We are constantly updating our courses, exploring new ideas, and sharing information to foster our own professional growth and to provide the best possible opportunities to our students.

Our Goals:

• Value every student as an individual with his/her needs, goals and learning styles.
• Challenge our students with a spirit of inquiry, discovery, dialog and reflection.
• Create an environment where diverse cultures, abilities, and needs are respected and where differences offer productive opportunities for learning and personal fulfillment.
• Develop a dynamic curriculum that reflects both traditional and emerging schools of thought in our discipline.
• Provide every student with opportunities to simultaneously acquire knowledge and develop skill through practice.
• Help students become critical and independent thinkers and problem solvers by providing opportunities to work in self-regulated teams in order to develop small group collaboration skills, listening, deliberation, conflict management, argumentation, problem solving, and decision-making.
• Remain faithful to our task of promoting personal integrity.
• Provide opportunities for students to successfully use technology for research and developing presentations.
• Prepare students to use effective communication skills in their personal and professional lives.
• Raise consciousness of our global interdependence and responsibility.

The Journalism Department supports De Anza's core competencies in the following ways:

• Communication and expression: Students learn new rhetorical strategies and use their First Amendment rights to create and publish La Voz News, social media (@lavozdeanza) and videos.
• Information literacy: Students study and practice media literacy.
• Physical/mental wellness and personal responsibility: Students work cooperatively under deadline situations and take on leadership roles in a structured environment that prepares them for many media workplaces.
• Civic capacity for global, cultural, social and environmental justice: Students learn to: a) tell stories that show the diversity of De Anza College and the world, b) interpret cultural and environmental issues and c) present their ideas clearly.
• Critical thinking: Students analyze ideas, create and test models, solve problems and evaluate alternatives as they work hands-on to produce print, digital and video content.

The De Anza College Paralegal Studies Program was among the first paralegal studies programs to be initially approved by the State of California in 1984. Since then the program has continually provided a quality educational course of study that incorporates basic legal instruction along with practical training that graduates will need to successfully enter the work force. Our graduates are employed in private law offices, public agencies and corporate law offices.

The Paralegal Studies A.A. degree programs prepare students to work in the legal field as paralegals under the supervision of attorneys. Paralegal duties include performing factual and legal research, drafting legal documents and correspondence, interviewing clients and witnesses, assisting attorneys in pretrial work, including document discovery and analysis, and at trials and hearings, organizing and maintaining case files and coordinating the use of technology in legal work.

The A.A. degree in Private Security provides the foundational education required for an individual's career pathway into the private security field. The courses range from the concepts of criminal law, evidence, investigations and reporting to patrol procedures and criminology.

The program has a proud history: It has been offered at the college since De Anza was established in 1967. Today, our classes cover the latest advancements in methodology and technology.

Our instructors have extensive professional experience as judges, police officers, correction and probation officers as well as attorneys. Our graduates are working for public and private agencies throughout the Bay Area and beyond.

This A.A. degree offers studies in overseeing and maintaining Windows systems as part of a network enterprise. Students become proficient in running administrative processes on a Windows operating system. Focus is placed on organization, security, and upkeep decisions as part of a larger business environment. It offers training in programming, network management, UNIX and Perl to aid in understanding more complex networking problems that occur in business enterprises.

De Anza's Computer Information Systems (CIS) department has been a leading educational institution in Silicon Valley since the college was founded. Over the years it has developed a rich and diverse series of courses in many areas. Our courses meet the needs of both the transfer student and the industry professional. Students who take courses and earn degrees in the CIS department often go on to transfer to four-year universities in majors such as Computer Science, Engineering, Data Science and many other majors that required CIS courses.

The Business Programming A.A. degree program creates a programming savvy entrepreneur who can make decisions about finances and technology, and who understands how to run an enterprise from both the technology and business perspectives. This program teaches skills combined from business and programming that enable a more in-depth view into the technology necessary to run a business in the 21st century.

De Anza's Computer Information Systems (CIS) department has been a leading educational institution in Silicon Valley since the college was founded. Over the years it has developed a rich and diverse series of courses in many areas. Our courses meet the needs of both the transfer student and the industry professional. Students who take courses and earn degrees in the CIS department often go on to transfer to four-year universities in majors such as Computer Science, Engineering, Data Science and many other majors that required CIS courses.

The Real Estate program at De Anza is ideal for the individual seeking to enter the real estate profession, and for anyone who wants to learn more about real estate as a prospective homeowner or investor.

The Real Estate department offers courses covering such topics as Real Estate Principles, Real Estate Practices, Property Management, Finance, Investment and Legal Aspects.

The Intercultural Studies Department offers an interdisciplinary major leading to certificates, an A.A. degree, or transfer in Intercultural (Ethnic) Studies.  This major represents the joint commitment of the African America, Asian American and Asian, Chicanx/Latinx, Native American, and core Intercultural Studies areas, and provides a diverse curriculum whose educational objectives include the following:

• Develop a methodology emphasizing comparative analyses of the history, politics, social dynamics, and current  challenges and opportunities of historically marginalized communities of color;
• Develop the skills and capabilities to critically analyze information prevalent in the dominant  culture from the perspective of historically marginalized communities of color;
• Examine ethnicity theory, race relations theory, feminist theory, cross-cultural communications theory, peace/conflict/ reconciliation theory, healing and social transformation theory and practices, and explore the intersectional and multidimensional issues of racism, institutions, power as they relate to advocating for equity and social justice.

The major also examines the need for and role of multiracial alliances, economic class analysis, the role of healing in social change work, and provides expertise in areas that will allow students to develop the critical analysis, interpersonal capacities, and leadership and organizing skills to be responsive to the multidimensional needs of historically marginalized communities of color in the short term, and to also contribute to long-term systemic transformation for equity and social justice.

The Photography Department offers exceptional instruction in beginning, intermediate, and advanced photography.  The department maintains a fully operating wet darkroom and professionally equipped digital labs.  Visual communication and principles of image control and craft are essential components of all the photography classes.  Students develop the technical, critical and practical skills required to succeed in this constantly challenging and changing medium.  The photography department has one of the best-equipped and largest facilities in the Bay Area.  Students are given the opportunity to apply new skills to real and simulated situations found in photographic careers.
 
Photography students produce technically and aesthetically accomplished imagery.  Students have graduated De Anza to enter careers in advertising, editorial work, photo illustration, fashion, architecture, and product photography.  Fine art and documentary photography are integral parts of the program.

Designed primarily for students who plan on transferring to the University of California or California State University, the associate degree in Liberal Arts represents the completion of a broad area of study with an emphasis in one of the following four areas: Arts and Letters, Business and Computer Information Systems, Science, Math and Engineering and Social and Behavioral Sciences. The degree allows the student to develop a broad set of essential life/work competencies such as: communication, critical thinking, problem solving, quantitative reasoning and multicultural skills.