Bachelor of Arts in Community Development

at Shorelight Group - University of Massachusetts - Boston USA

The Political Science major allows students to study political institutions, processes, policies, and problems in a manner that is both practical and evaluative. Students will develop both factual and analytic knowledge permitting them to evaluate political phenomena at the local, national, international levels. Courses typically draw on current data, historical studies, and theoretical approaches in an effort to formulate standards for the appraisal of political life and the performance of political institutions. Scholarship in political science touches on virtually every aspect of our encounters with other people — not merely how societies are governed but also the consequences of political structures, processes, and beliefs for human welfare.

UMass Boston's MBA is a streamlined 12-course, AACSB-accredited, immersive business program. focused on equipping you with the knowledge and skills you need to succeed as a business leader. The program is designed for professionals who want to gain a deeper understanding of the ever-changing business world to advance their career, change careers, or start their own business. Explore foundational business theories, gain experience with emerging technologies, and develop your analytical skills.

Integrating aspects of electrical engineering and computer science, computer engineering focuses on the design, analysis, and application of computers, and on their applications as components of systems. Computer engineers work on projects ranging from microprocessors to supercomputers to circuit design, as well as related fields such as robotics.

The goal of the Criminology and Criminal Justice major is to provide social scientific grounding to issues of crime and criminal justice. Through classes, internships and projects, students explore the nature of criminal behavior, its causes, the role of punishment, and prison as a social institution. Students learn about the criminal justice system, including law enforcement, corrections, and the law. Classes focus on issues central to criminal justice policies and practices, including mental illness, substance use and abuse, racial and ethnic inequality, gender and immigration. Differences among societies and historical trends are also addressed.

A major focus of the criminal justice faculty is to help students connect theory and research with policy and practice in the “real world.” Using current events, their own research and observations, and critical study of criminal justice systems, students better understand broader trends and future options. For example, during classroom discussion and debate, students may consider the rapidly increasing prison population and high cost of incarceration and ask: Who is being incarcerated and why? Do prison alternatives work? How do incarceration policies affect families and communities?

In keeping with the mission of UMass Boston, the faculty and staff of the Biology Department are committed to providing the highest quality experiences for students. We offer a vibrant curriculum and extensive opportunities for mentoring and hands-on research experiences as a means of developing a deeper understanding of biology at the levels of molecules, cells, organisms, and the ecosystem. We stress the development of critical thinking and problem-solving skills both in the classroom and by undergraduate students conducting original research in faculty laboratories.

Students completing a degree in chemistry will:

• Learn the basic canon of chemistry, covering the five fundamental sub-fields as recommended by the American Chemical Society: inorganic chemistry, organic chemistry, analytical chemistry, physical chemistry, biochemistry.
• Conduct original chemical research and report their results orally and in writing to scientific audiences.
• Learn and apply the principles of scientific ethics with regard to use of sources, generating and reporting of data, and collaboration with colleagues.
• Develop an understanding of green chemistry and environmental responsibility.
• Upon graduation, be prepared to practice as a professional chemist, whether in further study or in the workforce.

UMass Boston's MS in Business Analytics (MSBA) is a 10 course, 30 credit degree program. To receive the MSBA, students must complete a minimum of 10 courses: Analytical Core, MSBA Electives, and the MSBA Capstone. One (1) prerequisite course must be satisfied or waived through prior relevant coursework, based on a review of transcripts.*

The MSBA program is designed to prepare students for utilizing analytical techniques, methods, and applications for data-driven practices in diverse organizations and enterprises of all sizes.

As businesses become more and more reliant on data-driven strategies, the needs and opportunities for graduates in Business Analytics have grown rapidly. Breakthroughs in data collection, storage, and analysis to uncover and capture business value have fueled this growth, and post-recession companies have recognized this potential and increasingly emphasize data-driven decision-making in their business strategies. The current annual rate of job growth in this area is approximately 11.8%, a rate that is only expected to accelerate in the future.

This program covers theories of powerful techniques and quantitative methods in Business Analytics and how they are applied in the real world. The program focuses on using current software tools to study effective techniques of problem formulation, developing solutions with mathematical and algorithmic techniques, and methods for implementing those solutions with technology.

The MSBA program offers students a choice of two specializations, Big Data Analytics and Supply Chain Analytics. Each includes a core of analytical courses, elective courses in that specialization, and a capstone course.

Big Data Analytics
The Big Data Analytics specialization focuses on data mining and analytical techniques, big data management, storage, and modeling. The objectives consist of enabling students to process big data in an effective and efficient way, discover knowledge patterns in big data, build predictive models, and use big data to answer business questions.

The field of Latin American and Iberian studies explores the languages, literatures, and histories of Spain, Portugal, Latin America and the Caribbean. Insight into these cultures trains students to think critically from different perspectives—an important skill in a world where communication and understanding across boundaries is essential. Latin American and Iberian studies graduates are prepared for careers in international affairs, government, education and many other fields.

Upon completion of the Major in Latin American and Iberian Studies, students will be able to:

• Communicate proficiently, using all four skills (i.e. speaking, listening, reading and writing), in academic, professional, and everyday settings in the language that is required by their selected track.1
• Conduct and disseminate academic research both orally and in writing in the language that is required by their selected track.
• Identify and analyze cultural representations of the languages, cultures and societies of the Latin American and Iberian world, both their own and those produced by others, in accordance with academic standards.
• Document data and formulate concrete research questions in order to conduct academic research at undergraduate level.
• Recognize and utilize appropriate methodologies in order to explicitly outline a research plan to conduct academic research at undergraduate level.
• Produce scholarly work in dialogue with academic fields such as anthropology, history, and geography at undergraduate level.
• Apply pre-professional translation skills to a variety of documents in both directions, Spanish to English and English to Spanish.2
• Assess a variety of theoretical approaches to Translation Studies in order to adopt adequate methodologies for the translation of a variety of documents.

UMass Boston's MBA is a streamlined 12-course, AACSB-accredited, immersive business program. focused on equipping you with the knowledge and skills you need to succeed as a business leader. The program is designed for professionals who want to gain a deeper understanding of the ever-changing business world to advance their career, change careers, or start their own business. Explore foundational business theories, gain experience with emerging technologies, and develop your analytical skills.

The Information Technology major offered through UMass Boston's College of Management is designed to offer pathways to highly-demanded careers in IT for both high school graduates and students of Massachusetts community colleges. Our small classes ensure personalized attention from IT faculty while our ties to the Greater Boston business and technical communities add an extra dimension of learning to our program of business information technology education. The IT major offers an “applications-path” format for students which includes a core of technical knowledge (nine courses), an area of specialization or track within IT (four or five courses, depending on track selection), three professional electives in an application or domain area (preferably outside of IT but within business), and two wrap-up courses (project management and IT capstone), in addition to general education requirements.

The IT major is project-based.  Every exercise assigned throughout the BSIT is designed to be of the kind that a student might encounter in his or her work: collaboration, competence, and outcomes assessment are the hallmark characteristics of the program.  Students will learn how to use IT to solve real-world problems within the context of a field in which they wish to work. Graduates will be familiar with, and be able to apply, the following core information technologies to solve business problems:

• Programming
• Networking
• Databases
• Web technologies

System Administration Track
The Information Technology (IT) major is a jointly offered program between the College of Management (CM) and the College of Science and Mathematics (CSM) at the University of Massachusetts Boston. The BSIT consists of a common core of ten courses, a track of four to six courses in a particular area of specialization (the system administration track requires four courses), a common capstone course, and three professional electives.