Bachelor of Arts in Economic Development

at Shorelight Group - Cleveland State University USA

Several traits distinguish the B.A. in Liberal Studies from majors in specialized disciplines:

• Broad-based liberal education across the natural sciences, social sciences, and humanities
• Academic (rather than technical or training) emphasis
• Maximum flexibility in choosing courses across the University curriculum (including technical electives)
• Breadth rather than specialized depth of intellectual experience
• Appropriateness for students who wish to take an active role in shaping their studies

Students majoring in Liberal Studies may create programs that suit their own academic, professional, or other personal goals. For example, some use this undergraduate degree as a foundation for graduate study in Business, Education, or Philosophy. Others use it to take specific prerequisites for professional training in Law, Medicine, or Physical Therapy. Still others pursue Liberal Studies to explore educational experiences for their inherent value and satisfaction.

The Studio Art concentration is a diverse and flexible program that allows students to follow their own individual interests while developing their creative and expressive capacities. Studio Art students begin their studies with Foundations courses in Drawing, Painting, Photography, Printmaking, and Sculpture, and continue into advanced electives in these areas along with Illustration, Visual Technology, and Digital Art. In addition to preparing students to be professional artists, the Studio Art program provides students with the skills that employers want in college graduates, including critical thinking, problem solving, and effective oral and written communication.

The Women’s & Gender Studies (WGS) program address a wide-ranging selection of issues, not only women’s issues, but issues related more broadly to gender and sexuality. WGS courses examine how categories of identity (e.g., sexuality, race, class, gender, age, ability, etc.) and structures of inequality are connected and should be examined and understood in relationship to one another. You will explore the diversity of women’s lives, their distinctive roles and contributions in society, and the social constructions of gender. You become aware of the diversity of our social experiences of gender as well as the systems of inequality in which we live.

Why study Women’s & Gender Studies?
Employers are looking for critical thinking, writing, presentation and problem-solving skills. A major or minor in Women’s and Gender studies gives you transferable skills for future job(s). Women’s and Gender Studies students may find employment in a variety of areas depending on their skills and experience. Some students find work
in the area of advocacy or social services-related positions, community development, business, and government. Others find work in education, health care, and/or law.

The mission of the Black Studies Program is to foster academic excellence and success for all students at Cleveland State University and to provide the greater Cleveland metropolitan area with opportunities to acquire knowledge and appreciation of the history and culture of people of African descent.

The Black Studies Program seeks to promote academic excellence, success for all students, and knowledge to foster multiracial, multiethnic, and multicultural partnerships within larger society. The Black Studies Program offers academic opportunities, activities, and services for the enrichment and education of Cleveland State University’s students, faculty, and staff, as well as the greater Cleveland metropolitan area.

• Spanish is the world's third most spoken language, after Mandarin Chinese and English, and ranks second in terms of native speakers.
• At the end of the 19th century, 60 million people spoke Spanish. Today, almost 500 million people worldwide speak Spanish!
• Spanish is the mother tongue of approximately 350 million people in 21 countries (Mexico: 98 million, Spain: 39 million, USA: 39 million, Argentina: 35 million, Colombia: 36 million, Venezuela: 22 million, Peru: 20 million…) It is also widely spoken in many more where it is not an official language.
• Hispanic consumers are the fastest-growing market segment in North America. Their population in the USA has grown by 60% in just one decade and their buying power is expected to exceed $926 million by 2007.
• Spanish is the second most used language in international communication, and an official language of the UN and its organisations.
• 29 million US residents above the age of 5 speak Spanish at home. That's approximately 1 of every 10 US residents, an enormous consumer and business-to-business market.
• "The world is rapidly becoming multilingual and Arabic and Spanish are both key languages of the future" said language researcher David Graddol, commenting on a recent report presented to the British Council.
• No one aware of the changing tides of business could fail to notice that we increasingly operate in global markets. Foreign language fluency is a significant asset for job seekers, as more and more companies trade internationally.
• The US Census Bureau reports that the nation's Hispanic population is expected to jump to 49.3 million from 38.2 million by 2015. The 39 million Hispanics currently living in the USA make up 12.5% of the total population. This population growth has increased demand for Spanish language media: radio, television, newspapers, magazines...
• Latin American countries are experiencing strong economic growth and becoming important global commercial partners. Newly created MERCOSUR and the existing free trade agreements between Hispanic countries and North America (ALADI, the Andean Community, CACM, NAFTA, G3), are expected to bring further growth to Latin American economies.
• Latin culture continues to have a global influence on architecture, art and literature. Who isn't familiar with Cervantes 'Don Quijote de la Mancha, the second most translated book after the Bible, which marked its 400th anniversary in 2005 with worldwide celebrations? Who hasn't heard that the most expensive painting ever sold is a Picasso?
• Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava continues to make his mark worldwide, with recent and current projects in Sweden, Ireland, Germany, the Olympic campus in Athens and the site of the world trade centre in New York, among others.
• Spanish language authors like Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Isabel Allende continue to lead global best seller lists and win international critical acclaim.

The School of Health Sciences offers an undergraduate degree program in Speech and Hearing for students who wish to enter the professions of speech-language pathology and/or audiology. These professions are concerned with the identification and treatment of communication disorders across the life span. Speech and Hearing are interrelated fields concerned with speech and language acquisition, and require knowledge of biology, psychology, sociology, and linguistics. Because of interdisciplinary connections, many students find it manageable to minor or double major in Linguistics or Psychology.

An integral aspect of the Speech and Hearing program is the Cleveland State University Speech & Hearing Clinic, an on-campus clinic providing assessment and intervention for individuals across the life span with speech-language-cognitive and audiological concerns.

Philosophy addresses fundamental questions about human knowledge and existence from constructive and critical perspectives. Students examine important historical and contemporary theories concerning ethics, social justice, reality and the nature and extent of knowledge. Logic is also central to philosophy, since the critical evaluation of the reasons given for ideas is as important as the study of the ideas themselves. For this reason, philosophy classes are well known for the presentation of philosophical problems and issues in a manner that stimulates questions, discussion, and a general appreciation for the pursuit of truth.

A philosophy major or minor is excellent preparation for fields such as law and business, which rely on skills of critical thinking, as well as for fields such as medicine and social work, where practitioners face ethical dilemmas in their work. Though useful in many careers, the study of philosophy can be expected to enrich a person's life beyond the rewards of the marketplace, through a deeper understanding of important beliefs and their foundations.

History is the essential foundation of knowledge. It provides the context for a liberal education, the tools to understand ourselves and our contemporary world, and the skills for an educated person to live a more fulfilled and gratifying life in a wide range of careers.

Because of these various functions, we study history for many reasons:

• To better understand our society and the times in which we live
• To better understand ourselves; to place our own society in historical perspective
• To balance present-mindedness with historical memory
• To acquire skills such as conducting research, communicating effectively through writing or oral communication, critical thinking, evaluating evidence, and problem-solving
• To understand the roles which individuals and groups have played in shaping their worlds
• For the enjoyment of examining societies very different or very similar to our own

This is possible because history at the university level is far more than a collection of facts, names, and dates. The emphasis is on accessing and analyzing information, the critical use of historical sources, learning to communicate the results, and the excitement which comes from exploring important ideas. To study history is to enter a time machine to explore the far reaches of the human experience from classical times to the present; from the lives of great thinkers and kings to that of average people; from dramatic moments such as the Civil War to the routine. The past becomes the universe, all corners of which can be explored.

The department offers coursework in European, U.S., African, Latin-American, and East Asian history and thematic foci on social and urban history and the History of the African Diaspora. The major program not only prepares students for teaching and for graduate study in history but many students have found history an appropriate preparatory foundation for careers in law, library science, international work, the foreign service, the ministry, business, government and archival and museum work.

The Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) in General Business provides students a breadth of knowledge in business concepts such as accounting, finance, operations, marketing, management, selling and entrepreneurship. This major is ideal for working professionals and business owners.

What do we know when we know a language? How do we learn it? What does language reveal about our culture and identity? These are the central questions explored by linguists. The goal is to gain a scientific understanding of the nature of language that can be applied in many areas, such as linguistics, anthropology, speech & hearing, language teaching, computational linguistics, and cognitive science. Linguists also systematically compare human language to animal communication systems. Linguistics majors will get a thorough training in the core areas of linguistics, such as Phonetics, Phonology, Morphology and Syntax; and learn how linguists find evidence for their hypotheses and what are the cutting edge topics in the field today.

The Linguistics program is an undergraduate interdisciplinary program of the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences, offering a MAJOR and a MINOR in Linguistics. The areas of Anthropology, English, and Speech & Hearing are well represented in the program, and students majoring in any of these fields would be able to “double count” many credits toward Linguistics and their other majors. The program also includes courses from Communication, Education, Modern Languages and Psychology.