Undergraduate Academic Accelerator Pathway (2-Term) - Bachelor of Arts in English

at Shorelight Group - Cleveland State University USA

Studying marketing provides students with the basis to understand the art of developing, communicating, and delivering an offering that consumers find attractive. The goal of marketing is to persuade, earn, and keep customers, clients and partners through carefully articulating the value of your product or service. Studying marketing develops creativity, strategic problem solving, and a deep understanding of consumer behavior and motivation.

Special tracks within the Marketing Major include: consumer marketing, business-to-business marketing, international marketing, database marketing and digital marketing.

• 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.

This major is designed to give students the opportunity to engage in a multidisciplinary study of the variety of subjects concerned with international affairs. International Relations is the study of interactions among the various actors that participate in international politics, including states, international organizations, nongovernmental organizations, and multinational corporations. Career opportunities include employment in government, think tanks, global businesses, and nongovernmental organizations. An International Relations major also provides excellent preparation for graduate school in the field or in law.

Sociologists study human behavior in industrialized societies. Sometimes this behavior involves personal relationships, perhaps among teenagers or the elderly, sometimes the difficulties facing the urban poor or drug addicts, sometimes the development of modern nation-states and political conflict. Sociology open new windows--challenging conventional wisdom, dissolving myths about social reality, illuminating how the world is socially constructed and clarifying our options and choices.

Sociology students at Cleveland State University are taught to analyze modern social problems scientifically. In addition, they are taught how to do research about these issues using statistics, interviews and participant observation. Good research requires a grasp of the "sociological imagination"--the connections between historical, large-scale social forces and biography, the ways in which people live and understand their lives.

Majors in sociology develop the critical thinking and writing skills basic to a sound liberal arts education; they learn research skills and an understanding of the sociological perspective. This prepares them for a wide range of careers: some students use the degree as preparation for graduate work in one of the social sciences or law, others work in human resource management, social service, criminal justice, corporations or schools.

Mathematicians use theory, computational techniques, algorithms and computer technology to solve problems in various fields, including basic sciences, engineering, computer science, economics, business, finance, and social sciences. The study of mathematics is traditionally divided into pure (theoretical) mathematics, which involves discovering new mathematical principles and relationships, and applied mathematics, which develops mathematical techniques for solving practical problems. Statistics is a sub-field of applied mathematics that focuses on data analysis.

Criminologists conduct research on a variety of topics linked to criminal behavior, including how criminal activity is defined and measured, the causes of crime, the consequences of crime, and the impacts of criminal justice system intervention on individuals and society.

Students who choose to major or minor in Criminology will take courses that will help them strengthen their critical thinking skills and prepare them for fieldwork in corrections, policing, courts, and victim services.  A degree in Criminology is also a great choice for students who wish to gain a foundation that will prepare them for graduate studies or law school.

Students who are formally admitted to Cleveland State University may declare social work as their major at any time. Faculty members are available to provide advising for students in the area of academic achievement, professional development, and careers in social work.

Cleveland State University social work courses are offered during the three academic semesters (Fall, Spring, and Summer) with sections during the day, evening and online.

More than 300 social service agencies serving diverse populations in the Greater Cleveland area provide internship opportunities to CSU social work students.

The Design concentration provides students with a strong foundation for careers in Graphic Design and other creative fields. Design students begin their studies with introductory courses in Typography and Visual Technology, and continue into advanced courses and electives that include Web Design, Motion Graphics, 3D Modeling, Corporate Identity, Data Visualization, Information Design, Illustration, and Photography. The Design faculty collaborate with a wide range of organizations to bring real-world experiences into their courses and many Design students do internships with employers throughout the city of Cleveland.

The Art History concentration exposes students to a wide range of artistic forms and traditions and to a broad diversity of cultures and issues. Art History students begin with introductory survey courses in Western, Asian, and African Art, and continue with courses in these areas along with Modern, American, AfricanAmerican, and Islamic Art. Advanced seminars in Art History draw on the faculty’s research interests: recent topics include Jewish-American Artists, Medieval Artistic Materials and Processes of Making, and Center and Periphery in African Art. As well as preparing students for graduate study in Art History and related fields, the Art History program provides students with the skills that employers want in college graduates including critical thinking, problem solving, information gathering, and effective oral and written communication.

Virtually everywhere one finds evidence for human societies, both historically and geographically, one finds evidence of religion. Religions identify and describe transcendent forces said to give shape to the world and thus to humanity’s experience within it. By explaining the past and imagining what is to come in the future, religions identify the meaning and purpose of present experience, and even of existence itself, for the groups and individuals who adhere to them. Consequently, religions have been and remain fundamental to the way people construct cultures, organize societies, determine “truths,” define values, and imagine themselves in relation to others. Perhaps most remarkably, different religious cultures do all this with an incredible and frequently conflicting variety of beliefs and practices.