{"id":11543,"date":"2019-12-06T23:33:56","date_gmt":"2019-12-07T07:33:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/?p=11543"},"modified":"2019-12-06T23:33:56","modified_gmt":"2019-12-07T07:33:56","slug":"after-months-of-preparation-western-launched-several-new-program-options-in-2019","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/after-months-of-preparation-western-launched-several-new-program-options-in-2019\/","title":{"rendered":"After months of preparation, Western launched several new program options in 2019."},"content":{"rendered":"

Sage Kiernan-Sherrow<\/strong>\u00a0 |\u00a0 News Editor<\/span><\/p>\n

This year, many new majors and minors — as well as degree options — have been added to Western\u2019s official catalog, and future additional options are underway. Three additions in particular have opened up new pathways for student success: a master\u2019s in Organizational Leadership, an Applied Baccalaureate in Liberal Sciences and the new major of English Studies. The following will offer descriptions about each program and detail the benefits related to obtaining a degree through these new options.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

M.A. in Organizational Leadership<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

As an interdisciplinary program unaffiliated with any one academic department featuring instructors from a variety of related fields, obtaining a master\u2019s in Organizational Leadership would benefit \u201c<\/span>anyone who wants to enhance their leadership skills and be prepared to effectively lead in any type of setting,\u201d as stated by psychology professor David Foster. Continuing, he said that the program \u201cis designed to help people build the behavior, cognitive and social competence necessary to be an effective leader,\u201d developing qualities sought after by human resources.<\/span><\/p>\n

After first developing the organizational leadership minor with fellow professors Nick Baccus, of communication studies and Paul Disney of business, the three collaborated to design the master\u2019s degree program which co-adhered with President Rex Fuller\u2019s plan to \u201cexpand WOU’s graduate offerings by developing programs that would be appealing for people living in Salem,\u201d said Foster. While taking courses based at the WOU:Salem campus targeted towards working adults, students have the ability to gain Operational Leadership and Executive Leadership certificates, furthering their workforce qualifications.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c(Businesses) need programs like ours to help their people develop the competencies they need to be effective leaders,\u201d said Foster. For more information about this program, students can follow the link to the graduate program\u2019s page through Western\u2019s webpage.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Applied Baccalaureate in Liberal Sciences<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Also offered at Western\u2019s Salem campus, the Applied Baccalaureate in Liberal Sciences degree was created to provide further education to adults who have already acquired an Associate of Applied Science degree. It\u2019s designed to give working adults the advantages of a four-year degree without them having to repeat coursework, letting them build upon their previous education. Students will \u201ccomplete foundations courses, dive into the arts, humanities, social and natural sciences, explore interests, and tie it all together in small seminars with fellow students,\u201d stated a video published by wouTV titled \u201cWOU:Salem: What\u2019s Next.\u201d The video also describes the program as essentially an \u201cupside-down degree,\u201d\u00a0 giving students who have already mastered specific trades the ability to take broader educational classes.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

English Studies Major\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Nine years in the making, the English studies major features a core of linguistics, literature and writing classes and offers students a way to virtually design their own program, while limiting the amount of credits needed to graduate.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe<\/span> saw a pattern \u2026 that the average English major was graduating with 211 credits. That\u2019s a lot \u2026 we were really creating barriers for our students\u201d stated Katherine Schmidt, an English professor and the director of the Writing Center at Western.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The English Studies program is now made of mostly classes counting as upper division credits and has gotten rid of the two-year language requirement consisting of 24 credits. The program also boasts a common core curriculum of 41 credits, allowing for students to take more electives specific to their interests.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cInstead of being a mile wide and an inch deep, we\u2019re encouraging students to go a mile deep and an inch wide \u2026 to do what (they) love and to spend most of (their) time doing that,\u201d said Schmidt, providing an example of a student writing historical fiction taking history classes relevant to their craft. Although, of course, students still have to justify the course\u2019s complementary connection to the program.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In the future, the program is planning on reinstating a publishing class, and providing a Professional Writing Certificate, which will launch next year. The Professional Writing Certificate is 20 credits and is targeted towards \u201cpeople who already have their degrees,\u201d stated Schmidt.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cStudents have shown a desire to specialize in professional writing and we want to give that opportunity to them,\u201d said Schmidt, citing the full grant-writing class offered Winter Term as evidence.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Classes for the certificate will be based at WOU:Salem, and is \u201ccomplementary to an Organizational Leadership degree,\u201d said Schmidt.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Contact the author at howlnews@wou.edu<\/a><\/span><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sage Kiernan-Sherrow\u00a0 |\u00a0 News Editor This year, many new majors and minors — as well as degree options — have been added to Western\u2019s official catalog, and future additional options are underway. Three additions in particular have opened up new pathways for student success: a master\u2019s in Organizational Leadership, an Applied Baccalaureate in Liberal Sciences […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1094,"featured_media":10024,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11543","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"modified_by":"The Western Howl","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11543","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1094"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11543"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11543\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10024"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11543"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11543"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11543"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}