International Year program (1-Quarter) - Bachelor of Arts in Urban Planning and Sustainable Development

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.

Multidisciplinary Studies
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.

Geography is the science of place and space. Geographers ask where things are located on the surface of the Earth, why they are located where they are, how places differ from one another, and how people interact with the environment. Geography links the social sciences and natural sciences together, studying the relationships between human activity and natural systems.

The Geography/Social Studies major provides a breadth of knowledge in Geography, Environmental Studies, History, Economics, Anthropology, and Political Science. The major prepares students to explore a wide variety of career paths including planning, education, environmental agencies and NGOs, business, tourism, GIS, government service, transportation, and many more. This major meets Washington State requirements for a teaching endorsement and also prepares students to teach in non-traditional settings with or without the additional certification from Woodring College of Education.

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.

Biology- General Emphasis
Biology is the study of living organisms. As scientists, biologists have three goals: (1) understanding the structure and function of organisms, (2) generating and disseminating reliable data pertaining to biological systems, and (3) developing a deep understanding of the natural world that can inform solutions for the serious environmental, medical, and social concerns facing humanity.

Our goal as educators is to maintain intensive academic programs designed to stimulate curiosity, creativity and life-long critical thinking in students who pursue a liberal arts education in Biology.  All of the B.S. programs in Biology are designed for students who plan to pursue post-graduate study or professional careers in biology or teaching. We have designed these programs to enable students to develop an integrated conceptual foundation in biology, as well as critical thinking skills, quantitative problem-solving abilities, leadership and team-building skills, and scientific research skills.

The skills you will obtain in the Data Science program will enable you to obtain, process, organize, analyze, visualize and model the troves of data out there. Data science empowers you to solve important, challenging problems that are otherwise impractical or impossible to solve. It is interdisciplinary, drawing from the fields of computer science, mathematics, statistics, and information science, among many others.

Western's program provides the problem-solving and analytical background that ensures programmers and systems analysts can produce creative programming solutions. The program is composed of core classes organized around the study of design and analysis techniques used to write software in various application domains along with details about the internal workings of computers and networks. Elective classes in areas such as artificial intelligence, mobile device programming, robotics, graphics, web programming, bioinformatics, computer security, and video game programming allow students to explore areas of individual interest.

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/Political Science
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.

Biology is the study of living things and encompasses areas ranging from molecular biology to ecosystem ecology. This breadth is reflected in Western's curriculum and in faculty and student research.

Western’s Biology Department employs a high concentration of faculty who are actively engaged in both teaching and research. Students receive quality instruction from experts in the field who are committed to the education of the next generation. Modest class sizes enable faculty to facilitate small group discussions and student-centered learning activities in class. All upper level labs are taught by the faculty themselves, not graduate students.

This program is designed for students who want to make biology the focus of a liberal arts education and may not be directly interested in post-graduate study or professional careers in biology or teaching. The number of required courses has been kept low to permit you to add other areas of study and courses suited to your needs and interests.

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/Biology
Biological (or Physical) Anthropology, offered by Western’s departments of Anthropology and Biology, combines the study of Human Biology and Behavioral Science. It is the study of both present and past human variation as it relates to local ecologies and cultures.

This major is more flexible than the Biology/Anthropology B.S. but is also excellent preparation for the applied health careers and graduate programs in Biological or Physical Anthropology.

Biological anthropologists specialize in:

• Human or Primate Anatomy
• Genetics
• Disease Ecology
• Growth and Development
• Forensic Anthropology and Osteology
• Medical Anthropology
• Primate Behavior and Primatology

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.

Japanese with Teaching Endorsement Option
The department provides instruction in history and culture, as well as literary theory, with an end to enabling the student to gain access to the intellectual life in the culture. The department imparts skills to future world language teachers so that they may similarly enable high school students to begin the acquisition of world languages.

The department provides students the skills to learn firsthand about major world societies. The department believes that the best way to understand a culture directly is through its language. The modern languages offered in the department are spoken natively by nearly two billion people. The multifaceted programs of the department provide an opening to the world through language, literature, culture and civilization. It is a meeting place for true diversity.

The BA in Japanese leads to a BA degree without teacher certification. In order to receive a recommendation for state of Washington certification students must complete the “teacher certification” program which is offered by the Department of Secondary Education.

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
This degree will provide you with an understanding of fundamental economic concepts & the ability to apply economic analysis to problem solving, will prepare you for a career in a variety of fields, and can serve as a gateway to professional schools in law and business.

Economics is the study of the allocation of scarce resources over competing and alternative uses. The Department of Economics at Western offers the opportunity to focus your study in economics or to combine it with a number of complementary subjects.

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.

French
The study of French includes instruction in language, literature, linguistics, and culture. Students of French studies acquire the skills required to not only speak the language, but also to learn about and appreciate French 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.

The French studies program is designed to help students develop a solid grammar and vocabulary base that allows students to become effective communicators with an equal emphasis on cultural awareness. The department emphasizes the diversity and multicultural aspects of the Francophone (French speaking) world through civilization, culture, literature and sociolinguistic courses. Training includes both 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 BA in French leads to a BA degree without teacher certification. In order to receive a recommendation for state of Washington certification, students must complete the professional teacher certification program. Please see the Department of Secondary Education for program admission, completion, and teacher certification requirements.