Bachelor of Fine Arts, Major in Art with Concentration in Photography

at San Jose State University USA

Our graduate program mission statement is the graduate Program Educational Objectives (PEOs), which objectives are broad statements that describe the career and professional accomplishments that the program is preparing the graduates to achieve.

Program Educational Objectives
The graduate program’s educational objectives (PEOs) for Civil Engineering are to

• Prepare students for their professional careers and licensure by strengthening their knowledge in their specialization (depth) and extending their skills and knowledge base (breadth);
• Provide students advanced proficiencies for professional practice to enable them to advance in the licensing process and equip them for advancement in their career;
• Improve students’ research skills and prepare them for further graduate study;
• Provide students with experience and skills for multi-disciplinary and cross-CE disciplinary practice.

Four Graduate Program Outcomes (POs) are aligned with the PEOs and are assessed in individual graduate courses. By the end of the program, students should be able to

• Apply advanced concepts, theory and analysis for problem solving;
• Synthesize and integrate necessary engineering concepts into engineering solution process;
• Apply modern tools for computations, simulations, analysis and design;
• Communicate effectively.

American Studies concentration provides a San José State home for the study of U.S. cultures. Our courses, research, and events emphasize the cultural, political, and social aspects of the United States, past and present. In addition to our core faculty, we draw our instructors from departments throughout the university in order to integrate disciplines and themes.

In order to major in American Studies, students choose the American Studies concentration within the Humanities major. American Studies graduates master knowledge and skills helpful to careers in teaching, advanced study in law and public policy, or going directly into museum work or business. Employers and graduate schools value the critical thinking, analytical, and writing skills of a broad liberal arts education like American Studies.

In both the major and minor, the student will take our most popular course, the full year "Introduction to American Civilization" and then quickly graduate into small seminars like "American Popular Culture," "The American Dream," and "Nature and World Cultures." The student will cap the major off with a senior seminar on an advanced research topic. Recent seminars focused on "American Autobiography," "The Fantastic in Literature," and "Jailed Artists and Writers in the U.S."  For a transfer student from another college, there's an alternative option for completing the minor that is just as dynamic, completely based in our upper division coursework.

The Department of Justice Studies at San José State University, located in the heart of the Silicon Valley, is less than one hour drive from San Francisco, Oakland and Berkeley. The Department of Justice Studies was founded in 1930, and is the oldest degree-granting program in criminal justice in the United States. Over the last 80 years it has undergone significant transformations, but its longstanding reputation of academic excellence continues today, as the Justice Studies program expands to meet the challenges of a global society.

Faculty in our department are internationally renowned scholars whose research interests include mass-incarceration, urban policing, immigration control, prisoner reentry, juvenile justice, gender and race in crime and punishment, politics of reproduction, forensic science, crime in the Caribbean, and drug policies. We offer a unique interdisciplinary graduate curriculum drawing upon Criminology, Sociology, Political Science, Psychology, Law and History. Areas of teaching and research in the Department include criminal justice, law & society, human rights, policy evaluation, critical legal studies, punishment & society, feminist criminology, race theory, and history.

The M.S. Justice Studies program prepares graduates for careers in criminal justice administration, research and policy centers, public institutions, community organizations, and nonprofit agencies, as well as for doctoral programs and research positions in public agencies.

The BS Industrial and Systems Engineering program prepares engineers for a broad scope of systems analysis and design challenges that deal with improving the overall performance of an organization or system.

ISE's focus is on productivity improvement, with concern for the human aspects of work as well as with finding the right combination of resources to ensure that the organization performs at its best. Using the latest computer-based analytical and modeling technologies, ISE bridges the gap between management and operations, applying organizational development, continuous improvement, Total Quality Management, ergonomics and production systems expertise.

The goal of ISE is to assure that the organization's systems are efficient, productive, safe and will not lead to cumulative injury, and that they incorporate the right tools and equipment. An industrial and systems engineer may be employed in almost any type of industry, business or institution, from retail establishments to manufacturing plants to government agencies to hospitals. The program prepares students to enter the profession immediately or to go on to graduate school.

The goal of this concentration, offered by the Department of Physics and Astronomy, is to give the candidate a thorough grounding in physics, computer programming, and numerical methods. All candidates are required to complete a thesis including the defense (Plan A) or take an oral comprehensive examination as culminating experience (Plan B).

The BSAE curriculum is based on a strong core of mathematics, science, and engineering science and is designed to prepare students for professional careers in aerospace engineering fields, such as aircraft and space systems research, design, development, testing, and integration. It also provides excellent preparation for graduate study.

Modern laboratories, both physical and computational, support experimental work in aerodynamics, flight mechanics, dynamics, stability & control, aerospace structures, space systems engineering, aircraft design, and spacecraft design.

Opportunities exist annually to participate in national design-build-fly competitions (aircraft) under the guidance of industry experts as well as design-build-launch projects (spacecraft) under the guidance of NASA engineers. Students may join the student chapter of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), the national professional society for the advancement of aerospace technology. Top students in the AE Program are invited to join our local chapter of Sigma Gamma Tau, the aerospace engineering honor society.

The Painting, Drawing, and Prinmaking faculty at San Jose State University are actively involved in the contemporary art community and exhibit nationally and internationally. Faculty work ranges from realism to abstraction, from conceptual to environmental. Graduate students are encouraged to develop their own creative and expressive directions through work with the faculty, individual studio projects, gallery exhibitions, interaction with the professional art community in the San Francisco Bay Area, and the investigation of current issues and concepts as presented in the graduate seminars.

General studio/classroom space is available for painting and drawing and there are well-equipped support facilities such as wood and metal shops. Graduate printmakers have the use of four large studio/classrooms, as well as the intaglio and lithography press prep rooms. A papermaking lab is also available. Three intaglio presses and four lithography presses allow the printer to work in monoprint or in editions, on stones or aluminum plates. The screen printing studio has a large vacuum-exposure table for exposing plates and stencils. The photo darkroom, with graphic arts camera and enlargers, allows printmakers access to a variety of photo-printmaking processes for all printmaking media.

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 BA in Sociology, offered by the Department of Sociology and Interdisciplinary Social Sciences, educates students about social processes that create, maintain, and transform social institutions and social identities. Sociology provides a framework for understanding social behavior in groups, social change and inequality in society, and solutions to social problems. Analytical and research skills speak to the needs of a changing world. The degree offers students the widest flexibility in terms of future career choices.

The BS degree is a regimented degree plan for students who wish to develop a focused set of skills in research focused scientific and methodological training. The BS degree program, offered by the Department of Psychology, has more course requirements than the BA (i.e., fewer electives). Students should seek early and frequent advice from departmental advisors.