Bachelor of Arts in English

at State University of New York College at Brockport USA

The English major is designed for students who wish to pursue a passion for reading and writing, and for those who seek a versatile education as they prepare for careers in education, law, business administration, public relations, advertising, government, or any field where analytical excellence and effective use of the English language are essential. English majors choose between a literature or creative writing concentration (outlined below), where their course work is designed to develop analytical, research, and creative skills.

Preparing for Business, Law and Public Service: Literature courses which emphasize psychological, social and verbal analysis provide a solid basis for the type of critical thinking needed in professional positions, while courses in writing, business communication, journalism/ publication, etc. provide a solid basis in communication skills central to these areas.

Student Life: The Writers Forum connects students with significant contemporary writers and critics. The English Club offers a variety of activities, including the publication of a student-run literary journal. Sigma Tau Delta, an international honor society, recognizes significant academic accomplishment. Awards are available for student scholarship and outstanding literary-critical, fiction, poetry and non-fiction writing.

Study Abroad: A variety of study abroad programs are available and encouraged. Our students have spent semesters abroad everywhere from England and Australia to France and Spain. Contact the Center for Global Education and Engagement to explore these opportunities.

Student Learning Outcomes:

Upon completion of the program,

Creative Writing Track students will be able to:

• Analyze the relationship between literary form and meaning, taking into consideration literary techniques and devices.
• Construct arguments about literary works using historical contexts.
• Apply basic elements of creative writing craft, including such elements as control of form and figurative language.
• Identify reputable and relevant sources, and incorporate the words and ideas of others without misrepresentation and with appropriate documentation practices.
• Write in conformity with standard usage and grammar.

Literature Track students will be able to:

• Analyze the relationship between literary form and meaning, taking into consideration literary techniques and devices.
• Construct arguments about literary works using historical contexts.
• Argue with a command of the rhetorical strategies, terms, and major interpretive methods characteristic of academic writing in the Humanities.
• Identify reputable and relevant sources, and incorporate the words and ideas of others without misrepresentation and with appropriate documentation practices.
• Write in conformity with standard usage and grammar.

As the nations of the world become more interconnected and interdependent, proficiency in other languages is a vital skill that allows you to engage with the world in a more immediate and meaningful way. Spanish language and culture studies prepare you for future opportunities to compete and succeed in the global economy. Through interdisciplinary instruction and the development of intercultural understanding, our curriculum is designed to help you become proficient in Spanish and prepares you to reach your career aspirations in your chosen field of interest. We encourage our students to double major and to participate in study abroad programs in Spanish-speaking countries sponsored by the Center for Global Education and Engagement.

The Spanish major consists of 33 credits and enables students to acquire an advanced level of proficiency in the language. Literature and culture courses are designed to provide a historical, political and social overview of the Spanish-speaking world. All courses are taught in Spanish.

Recent Modern Languages and Cultures' graduates have gone on to highly competitive Master's and PhD programs in Higher Education Administration, TESOL, French Literature, and Counseling at recognized research universities. Others have joined the workforce as Bilingual, French, and Spanish elementary and high-school teachers in Rochester and around NY state, ESL teachers for adult learners, translators, interpreters for defense attorneys, social workers, law enforcement officers, and health professionals.

Student Learning Outcomes:

Upon completion of a baccalaureate degree in Spanish, graduates will be able to:

• Narrate and describe using a variety of time frames, extended discourse, and specialized vocabulary.
• Deliver oral presentations on a wide variety of topics, using a variety of strategies to tailor the presentation to the needs of their audience.
• Narrate and describe in all major time frames with good control of aspect and a range of general vocabulary in writing for personal and professional needs.
• Identify the main facts and many supporting details in conventional narrative and descriptive oral texts.
• Identify some of the essential points of argumentative texts in areas of special interest or knowledge.
• Explain key perspectives of  some Spanish-speaking cultures within a comparative framework and connect them to cultural products and practices.
• Interpret and synthesize ideas and critical issues from a wide range of historical and contemporary cultural artifacts.

Neuroscience is a growing interdisciplinary field that draws upon the knowledge-base from biology, chemistry, and psychology. You will learn how to effectively communicate and work with experts across all three fields as well as how to apply their varied approaches to problem-solving. Select from many upper-division courses to deepen your knowledge in what interests you the most about neuroscience.

SUNY Brockport is one of the first SUNY institutions to offer an undergraduate degree in neuroscience.

You will have the opportunity for hands-on instruction through lab and field courses as well as high-impact experiences through undergraduate research and internships.

What You’ll Learn

You will receive a solid foundation in biology, chemistry, and psychology in order to communicate and work with experts to uncover the how our brain and nervous system work.

Choose from our four management specializations — Management, Human Resource Management, Business Analytics, and Management Information Systems.

You will have numerous opportunities to work on class projects, case analyses, and business simulations to develop critical thinking and team building skills. Other opportunities include joining a student club, competing in our annual business plan competition, development of fundraising projects, and networking with local business professionals.

Our dedicated career counselors will help you secure internships in both for-profit or non-profit organizations

What You’ll Learn

Enhance your concentration-specific knowledge and skill sets on how to manage various business functions within an organization, recruit and retain talent, motivate employees, interpret and analyze business data, and improve business processes and information systems.

Geology majors must earn a minimum of 42 credits in required core courses and complete two semesters each of physics, calculus and chemistry. This major offers sound training in the study of the earth and its resources, and equips the student for pursuit of careers in geology leading to professional licensure, and for graduate studies in geochemistry, petroleum exploration, paleontology, hydrogeology, ground water, environmental geology, or sedimentology/stratigraphy.

Student Learning Outcomes

Upon completion of the program, students will be able to:

• Explain the manner with which variables and data, relevant for geology, are properly collected using discipline appropriate methodology (fieldwork, instrumentation, remote sensing, or derived products from models).
• Properly interpret geology data using discipline-accepted qualitative analysis.
• Properly interpret geology data using discipline-accepted quantitative analysis.
• Define a scientific question and develop a methodology for answering it.
• Locate, evaluate and interpret primary source scientific literature.
• Effectively express geology concepts and research results following the accepted written format for the discipline.
• Explain geology concepts and communicate research results following the accepted oral format for the discipline.

From asylum-seekers at our nation’s borders to concerns about police-community relations, and fears over active shooters, our local communities and nation rely upon law enforcement and human rights professionals to deal with society’s complex problems, many originating systematically from macro process of globalization and economic restructuring.

Our Community Justice majors will be instructed in cultural competency, anthropological research methodologies (including forensics), the principles of the criminal justice system and the complexities of ethics and justice.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ predictions, by 2026, one can expect the addition of new jobs in the following occupations: 800 new jobs for emergency management directors, 8,200 for police, fire and ambulance dispatchers, 53,400 for police and detectives, and 65,000 for lawyers. Certain occupations relevant to this new major are forecasted to experience faster than average growth (7%), such as the following: Arbitrators and Mediators at 10%, private detectives and investigators at 11%, and community and service managers at 18%.

Student Learning Outcomes:

Upon completion of this major, students should be able to do the following:

• To articulate the discursive and theoretical complexities concerning what is community and what is justice and how these two concepts intersect.
• To demonstrate cultural competency and knowledge of human biodiversity through time and across cultures.
• To develop effective arguments using sound cross-cultural critical thinking when evaluating issues related to social control, crime prevention, community development, punishment, adjudication and human rights.
• To collect, analyze and present data (in oral and written language), in accordance with related ethical standards.

SUNY Brockport has a long history of social work education in the Greater Rochester Metropolitan area and beyond.

The mission of the Master of Social Work Program at SUNY Brockport, State University of New York, is committed to the promotion of human rights, social, economic, and environmental justice, and the elimination of poverty and oppression. Through teaching, service, and scholarship, we strive to prepare competent, self-aware, ethical, and culturally humble integrated practice social workers, with diverse populations, advocating for the well-being of all people in our shared global community.

As a reflection of its mission, the overall goals of the Master of Social Work Program are to:

• Provide advanced social work education incorporating theoretical knowledge and critical thinking within an advanced integrated practice framework; emphasizing an ecological, strength-based, community collaborative, empowerment model of practice to promote social and economic justice.
• Educate social work practitioners who are ethical, critical thinkers engaged in ongoing inquiry and life-long learning.
• Develop practitioners who provide autonomous social work practice and leadership in health, human service, and other community organizations in diverse communities to assist high need or at-risk populations.
• Infuse a critical understanding of cultural humility and gender sensitive advanced practice in working with diverse groups, and to adapt social work knowledge and skills to meet the needs of disenfranchised and historically oppressed groups.
• Educate social work practitioners to use evidence and knowledge to improve the effectiveness of social work practice, policies, and programs.
• Promote the health and well-being of individuals, families, groups, organizations, and communities by advancing social justice in a changing environment and in a global society.

The program is fully accredited by the Council on Social Work Education (CSWE) and is registered with the New York State Education Department.

Curriculum

• The Advanced Standing, 36-credit program is offered to students who earned a Bachelor of Social Work within the past eight years from a CSWE accredited program.  This program can be completed full-time in three semesters or part-time in five semesters.
• The 60-credit program is offered to students who earned a bachelor's degree in a discipline outside of Social Work. The 60-credit program can be completed full-time in two years or part-time in three years.

Student Learning Outcomes

Upon completion of the program, students will be able to:

• Demonstrate Ethical and Professional Behavior
• Engage Diversity and Difference in Practice
• Advance Human Rights and Social, Economic and Environmental Justice
• Engage in Practice-Informed Research and Research-Informed Practice
• Engage in Policy Practice
• Engage with Individuals, Families, Groups, Organizations and Communities
• Assess Individuals, Families, Groups, Organizations and Communities
• Intervene with Individuals, Families, Groups, Organizations and Communities
• Evaluate Practice with Individuals, Families, Groups, Organizations and Communities

The English major is designed for students who wish to pursue a passion for reading and writing, and for those who seek a versatile education as they prepare for careers in education, law, business administration, public relations, advertising, government, or any field where analytical excellence and effective use of the English language are essential. English majors choose between a literature or creative writing concentration (outlined below), where their course work is designed to develop analytical, research, and creative skills.

Preparing for Business, Law and Public Service: Literature courses which emphasize psychological, social and verbal analysis provide a solid basis for the type of critical thinking needed in professional positions, while courses in writing, business communication, journalism/ publication, etc. provide a solid basis in communication skills central to these areas.

Student Life: The Writers Forum connects students with significant contemporary writers and critics. The English Club offers a variety of activities, including the publication of a student-run literary journal. Sigma Tau Delta, an international honor society, recognizes significant academic accomplishment. Awards are available for student scholarship and outstanding literary-critical, fiction, poetry and non-fiction writing.

Study Abroad: A variety of study abroad programs are available and encouraged. Our students have spent semesters abroad everywhere from England and Australia to France and Spain. Contact the Center for Global Education and Engagement to explore these opportunities.

Student Learning Outcomes:

Upon completion of the program,

Creative Writing Track students will be able to:

• Analyze the relationship between literary form and meaning, taking into consideration literary techniques and devices.
• Construct arguments about literary works using historical contexts.
• Apply basic elements of creative writing craft, including such elements as control of form and figurative language.
• Identify reputable and relevant sources, and incorporate the words and ideas of others without misrepresentation and with appropriate documentation practices.
• Write in conformity with standard usage and grammar.

Literature Track students will be able to:

• Analyze the relationship between literary form and meaning, taking into consideration literary techniques and devices.
• Construct arguments about literary works using historical contexts.
• Argue with a command of the rhetorical strategies, terms, and major interpretive methods characteristic of academic writing in the Humanities.
• Identify reputable and relevant sources, and incorporate the words and ideas of others without misrepresentation and with appropriate documentation practices.
• Write in conformity with standard usage and grammar.

Sociology explores how our lives, behaviors, and identities are shaped by our ties to others, from intimate spheres to global ones. Completing the Sociology major gives you the tools to understand the complex structures of the social world and how they interact. Sociology courses at Brockport include topics as diverse as sport, health, race and ethnicity, food, gender, education, and human rights.

At the core of sociology is what C. Wright Mills calls "The Sociological Imagination," the awareness that "neither the life of an individual nor the history of a society can be understood without understanding both." Rigorous research and creative concepts enable sociologists to, in Pierre Bourdieu's words, "think in a completely astonished and disconcerted way about things you thought you had always understood."

Both scientific and humanistic, sociology is a classic, liberal-arts discipline. Sociology students learn to examine both cultures and social structures, gaining significant insights into society, social change, and their own social identities. Research and analytical skills, combined with an emphases on effective communication and critical thinking, prepare sociology students for success in graduate school or careers in the social service, nonprofit, public-sector, and business fields.

Student Learning Outcomes:

Upon completion of the program, students will be able to:

• Apply sociological theories to understand social phenomena
• Explain how culture and social structure shape individual experiences and opportunities
• Rigorously analyze social science data
• Effectively communicate sociological concepts and empirical findings

Anthropologists study human behavior and thought in both the past and the present with the goal of improving our world. We holistically draw on sociocultural, archaeological, and biological approaches to engage with humanity’s current challenges: the outcomes of the humanity-environment relationship; human rights abuses and the need for social justice; and the complexities of human heritage and identities. Whether through ethnographic fieldwork, archaeological excavation, biological lab work, or visual and material cultural analysis, our students and faculty collaborate closely to learn and improve our knowledge of human variation. This is an invaluable resource for our students as they prepare for a more complex future.

The Anthropology Major consists of 24 required course credits plus 12 elective credits that allow students to augment their education with a dual major or minor in another field applicable to their goals and needs.

Student Learning Outcomes

Upon completion of the program, students will be able to:

• Knowledge base. Students gain an understanding of the broad knowledge base of human biocultural diversity through time and across cultures, as provided through archaeology, biological and cultural anthropology.
• Methods. Students gain knowledge and skills in the different anthropological research methods used in the sub-fields of archaeology, biological or cultural anthropology.
• Theory. Students learn to define and describe anthropological theory as used in current and past practice by anthropologists, in archaeology, biological and/or cultural anthropology.
• Critical Thinking. Students develop the ability to question, reflect and critique the data and arguments upon which evaluations of human diversity, behavior and change are made.
• Analysis. Students learn to apply theories and methods to explain or interpret anthropological problems, including cross-cultural patterns of social behavior, human evolution, and social change over time and space.
• Ethics. Students learn the appropriate procedures and protocols for obtaining informed consent or access permissions, in order to avoid harm or wrong to one’s human or non-human subjects and descendants.