Bachelor of Arts in American Cultural Studies

at Study Group - Western Washington University USA

The International Year program is specially designed to prepare international students with the solid foundation needed to succeed in an undergraduate degree at Western Washington University.

You will learn in a supportive environment to develop your academic and English language skills, while adjusting to living and learning in the USA. After successfully completing the program with the required grades, you can continue your undergraduate degree with the confidence to engage and succeed.

Environmental Studies
Environmental Studies takes an interdisciplinary and holistic approach to understanding human-environment systems and environmental challenges.

Do you want to use your knowledge and skills to promote positive change in the environment? Do you want to understand the interactions and interdependencies between human and natural systems? Do you want an interdisciplinary education that reflects the complexity of society’s environmental challenges? Do you want to learn to communicate and integrate knowledge across areas of environmental expertise? Then Environmental Studies is the major for you.

The Environmental Studies major includes core classes in the natural sciences, social sciences, and humanities to prepare our students to integrate knowledge from multiple fields of study. Our students learn to analyze and interpret complex environmental data and communicate environmental information for diverse stakeholders. The Environmental Studies major equips students to succeed as environmental professionals through experiential learning and advanced coursework in each student’s choice of an emphasis.

The International Year program is specially designed to prepare international students with the solid foundation needed to succeed in an undergraduate degree at Western Washington University.

You will learn in a supportive environment to develop your academic and English language skills, while adjusting to living and learning in the USA. After successfully completing the program with the required grades, you can continue your undergraduate degree with the confidence to engage and succeed.

Environmental Science
Environmental Science draws on basic knowledge of the physical, chemical, biological, and quantitative aspects of natural systems. The knowledge of how natural systems work is applied to solving problems largely created by human activities. Often these problems are represented by disturbances in the functioning of natural systems as humans alter their own life-support systems — the air, the water and soil. The scale of disturbance ranges between molecular and cellular to individuals, populations, ecosystems, and regional and global levels.

Are you excited by how natural systems work? Do you want to solve the problems of the natural environment caused by human activities? Do you love to work outdoors? Do you love the sciences and scientific inquiry? Then Environmental Science is for you.

The International Year program is specially designed to prepare international students with the solid foundation needed to succeed in an undergraduate degree at Western Washington University.

You will learn in a supportive environment to develop your academic and English language skills, while adjusting to living and learning in the USA. After successfully completing the program with the required grades, you can continue your undergraduate degree with the confidence to engage and succeed.

Sociology — Elementary
Sociologists examine topics encompassing a vast array of human behavior: crime and punishment, the formation and dissolution of families, bureaucracy in organizations, conflicts between classes, and global inequalities. Sociology is distinctive in its focus on the way individuals’ lives are embedded within multiple social contexts that facilitate and constrain the range of possible actions. These contexts include generation, occupation, gender, religion, sexual orientation, family, health, nation, race and ethnicity, and many others.

This major satisfies the academic major requirement for teacher certification with an endorsement in elementary education and must be accompanied by the professional preparation program in elementary education. 

Sociology students develop an aptitude for critical thinking, improve their writing ability, and gain competence with statistical computing that will enhance their future career options. Sociology students also have the opportunity to participate in faculty-led study abroad programs.

A specialization in Sociology-Elementary major provides an excellent base of knowledge for individuals interested in becoming elementary level educators.

The study of Economics provides insights into decision-making, market outcomes and the functioning of the overall economy.  Political Science is concerned with the structure and function of both domestic and international political systems, and engaging questions associated with American politics, international politics, public policy and political theory.  

The combined Economics / Political Science major provides students with rigorous preparation in both economic theory and applications, and political processes at the national and international levels.  By combining coursework in Economics and Political Science, students gain an interdisciplinary perspective important to understanding both political and economic issues.  Students are trained in research methods used in Economics and Political Science, giving them interdisciplinary tools for problem solving and policy making.  Students in this program will gain insight into a variety of areas including trade, monetary systems, development, and the interplay between politics and economics within the U.S. and the international system.

Communication Studies examines the ways in which humans interact through the use of symbols: verbal, non-verbal, and visual. This examination includes the critical study of communication behavior among humans as well as providing practical experience in the crafting and presentation of messages.

Within our department we offer courses from various areas within the field: Intercultural Communication, Interpersonal Communication, Organizational Communication, Rhetoric, Media Studies, Communication Technology, and other special topics that arise addressing contemporary developments and faculty research.

The Communication Studies program at Western offers a broad approach for students allowing them to explore many facets of the discipline from the applied to the theoretical. The department has a portfolio application process to become a major that ensures students are capable and focused on the content so that the in-class experience is enriched.

The International Year program is specially designed to prepare international students with the solid foundation needed to succeed in an undergraduate degree at Western Washington University.

You will learn in a supportive environment to develop your academic and English language skills, while adjusting to living and learning in the USA. After successfully completing the program with the required grades, you can continue your undergraduate degree with the confidence to engage and succeed.

Anthropology—Biocultural

This program is the most flexible of the Biology/Anthropology combined majors and allows students to gain a broad interdisciplinary training relevant to many professions confronting the challenges of modern society.

Anthropology has three main goals: first, providing a deep understanding of humans, both past and present; second, analyzing and organizing the knowledge gained and making it accessible; and third, engaging in the practical application of anthropology to various areas of contemporary human behavior.

Anthropology is a social science. It shares techniques and methods with other behavioral sciences and also draws upon physical and biological sciences.

Anthropology is unique among the social and behavioral sciences. Anthropologists obtain data primarily from field research and comparative cross-cultural studies in time and space. Thus, anthropology provides theoretical and empirical bases for development of hypotheses about human behavior, and for testing the breadth and application of such hypotheses.

Multidisciplinary Studies is designed to integrate a student’s academic interest and skills. Students learn to be integrative thinkers who can see connections in seemingly disparate information, draw on a wide range of knowledge and skills to make decisions, and to communicate effectively with diverse audiences for a variety of purposes and in a variety of settings.

This degree is perfect for returning students and active military/veterans who are looking to complete a higher-level degree to obtain positions that require a minimum of a bachelor's degree. This program is also available to students on the Kitsap and Olympic Peninsulas with a variety of flexible face-to-face and online course options. Programming and curriculum may vary by location.

The International Year program is specially designed to prepare international students with the solid foundation needed to succeed in an undergraduate degree at Western Washington University.

You will learn in a supportive environment to develop your academic and English language skills, while adjusting to living and learning in the USA. After successfully completing the program with the required grades, you can continue your undergraduate degree with the confidence to engage and succeed.

Spanish
The study of Spanish includes instruction in language, literature, linguistics, and culture. Students of Spanish acquire the skills required to not only speak the language, but also to learn about and appreciate Hispanic societies, cultures, and artistic expressions. The guiding principle of the curriculum is that one of the best ways to understand a culture is directly through its language.

Western’s Modern and Classical Languages Department trains in two areas: language structure and literary analysis. Language structure is taught both holistically and analytically — with multimedia technology, study abroad, language skills courses, and linguistics courses. Literary analysis is an essential component to the curriculum, and the department provides instruction in history and culture, as well as literary theory.

The Spanish program at Western places a strong emphasis on building a solid grammar and vocabulary base, with an equal emphasis on cultural awareness through culture, film, literature, and linguistics courses.

The International Year program is specially designed to prepare international students with the solid foundation needed to succeed in an undergraduate degree at Western Washington University.

You will learn in a supportive environment to develop your academic and English language skills, while adjusting to living and learning in the USA. After successfully completing the program with the required grades, you can continue your undergraduate degree with the confidence to engage and succeed.

Music
Western's general Music program provides a liberal arts education with music as the major subject. It allows for individual preferences in intensifying studies in certain aspects of music and broadening the scope of academic pursuits. This program is designed for the student who may wish to complete minors or an additional major in another field in addition to completing a major in Music. Students in the Music program frequently complete studies in such fields as Theatre, Business, Mathematics, or one of the languages. The program consists of a basic core of study in Music Theory and History along with private instruction and ensemble performance.

The International Year program is specially designed to prepare international students with the solid foundation needed to succeed in an undergraduate degree at Western Washington University.

You will learn in a supportive environment to develop your academic and English language skills, while adjusting to living and learning in the USA. After successfully completing the program with the required grades, you can continue your undergraduate degree with the confidence to engage and succeed.

Economics/Mathematics
The study of Economics provides an understanding of economic concepts and the functioning of the economy, in conjunction with economic analysis in problem solving. Mathematics is the study of pattern, structure, and change. The integration of concepts from both Economics and Mathematics creates proficiencies in both fields and provides a foundation for graduates to be successful in advanced study in economics or business.

A degree in Economics and Mathematics from Western is excellent preparation for a career as an economist, or other various fields of study. Students gain critical theory skills through economics and mathematics courses, and have options to follow their pathway of interest with elective courses.