International Year program (2-Quarter) - Bachelor of Arts in Education in Early Childhood Education

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.

Sociology/Social Studies
Sociologists examine subjects 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 focuses 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 among many others. Students study and examine these phenomena with a variety of scientific tools, including collecting and analyzing statistical data and conducting surveys, focus groups, and in-depth interviews.

A specialization in Sociology/Social Studies provides an excellent base of knowledge for individuals interested in becoming secondary-level social studies teachers. Completion of the Sociology/Social Studies BA leads to a teaching endorsement in social studies.

Computer science is an exciting, growing, challenging field that is critical to many aspects of everyday life. You can make an impact on the advancement of medicine, clean energy, entertainment, communication for the disabled, climate research, and automotive technologies to name a few. For some, the most motivational aspect of being a computer scientist is being involved in creating the next great technology that will help people the world over.

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.

Humanities: History of Culture
The humanities include the disciplines which study philosophy, religion, history, literature, and the arts. The BA in Humanities: History of Culture serves students who want to major in more than one Humanities discipline, using interdisciplinary methods of investigation.

The department supports study of cultural history on a global level, including Europe and the Americas, East Asia South Asia, sub-Saharan Africa, and predominantly Islamic areas. Its courses give attention to historical development and cross-cultural interaction, both in the past and in the modern period. Students learn to analyze individual works of the humanities and to relate them to social and cultural developments.  The department’s curriculum includes some courses called “Humanities” (HUMA) and others called “Religion” (REL).  

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/Environmental Studies
Economics is concerned with how people living in a world of scarcity make choices. These choices inevitably involve costs. Questions examined in environmental economics include efficient resource use, preservation of wilderness and biological diversity, local and regional air pollution, global climate change, and treatment of toxic substances. Students learn how to use economic principles to help understand the causes of environmental problems and to identify potential remedies.

Western’s combined major in Economics and Environmental Studies is available to students who have a strong interest in the economic aspects of environmental studies and natural resources. The curriculum is designed to provide a broad area of study in the economic choices involved in how humans interact with natural systems.

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.

Chinese Language and Culture with Teaching Endorsement Option
This major is designed to develop advanced proficiency in both Chinese language and culture with the goal of placing students in a competitive position in this increasingly globalized world. The rigorous curriculum of this major focuses on training students in the communicative skills and in cultural awareness that are essential for success in their career pursuits in business, education, public service, and technology related to China, Chinese people and Chinese language. This program also prepares students to become successful language teachers at the secondary education level.

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.

With an emphasis on high-level performance and pedagogy, students receive comprehensive instruction on their primary instrument, gain a variety of solo and ensemble experiences, and perform two recitals in addition to completing a core set of courses in music theory, aural skills, keyboarding, and music history.

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.

Energy Science and Technology
The goal of the Energy Science and Technology degree is to give students knowledge and analytic skills in the science and technology of today’s diverse energy systems and industries. The degree is designed to prepare graduates to become leaders in Washington’s emerging clean energy economy with an interdisciplinary education that emphasizes applied science and technology, complemented by energy policy and business practices, that industry experts have prioritized among Washington’s energy workforce needs.

Globally, access to modern energy services, including efficient usage, is essential to realize 20th century, let alone 21st century, living standards. A transition from inefficient use of fossil fuels to a clean, efficient energy system is key to managing urgent global risks such as climate change. Locally, demand is increasing for a trained energy workforce in Washington, due to an aging energy workforce and growth in emerging energy efficiency, grid modernization and energy storage industries in the state.

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.

General Science — Elementary
The Science, Mathematics and Technology Education Program (SMATE) is a visionary and practical program designed to enrich the training and education of K-12 pre-service teachers and, through them, their students. From a collaboration of the disciplines, Chemistry, Geology, Biology, Physics/ Astronomy, Mathematics, and Engineering, the Science, Mathematics and Technology Education Program offers an opportunity for teachers and future teachers to gain specific skills and broaden talents within their chosen discipline.

This program is designed to prepare future teachers at the elementary and middle school level with an emphasis in Science. 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 offered through 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.

Interdisciplinary Concentration: Law, Diversity & Justice Emphasis
The self-designed concentration process allows students to work with a faculty committee to articulate a sound rationale for their area of study and to develop a plan including courses, independent study projects, senior projects and, where applicable, internships and apprenticeships. Students are assisted in completing the concentration by faculty and other advisors and by the FAIR 303a, Concentration Seminar course. The Concentration Proposal rationale statement and accompanying Concentration course list form the plan of study for the Interdisciplinary Concentration major, after approval by the student’s Concentration Committee and filed in the Fairhaven College Records Office. As part of this plan of study, a minimum of three quarters of coursework, completing a minimum of 36 credits is required after the concentration filing quarter.

At the conclusion of the degree program, a senior project and a concentration summary and evaluation help each graduate to evaluate their own work and to look toward the future.

Concentrations have been developed in a wide range of areas not available through traditional majors. The Fairhaven College office can provide further information pertaining to the concentration, its possibilities and prospects, may be found in the Student Guide to Fairhaven College.