What can you do with an Ethnic Studies degree?
Aside from the intellectual stimulation and personal growth offered by this minor, students in all of our colleges and majors can benefit from a minor in Ethnic Studies.
Today’s workforce and the global reach of many businesses and professions necessitate increased cross-cultural understanding and an appreciation for how factors such as race and nationality impact citizens around the world.
College of Arts and Sciences
All of the contributing majors in the College of Arts and Sciences have been profoundly influenced by the international work in Ethnic Studies over the past 50 years since its inception.
Just a few careers for CAS graduates that would be enhanced by an Ethnic Studies minor include:Â Public Policy, City Planning, Law, Mass Communication and Broadcast Journalism, Clinical Psychology, Social Work, Secondary Education, and Higher Education including Professorships and Academic/Student Support Services.
Wonsook Kim College of Fine Arts
Majors in art, music, theatre and dance are enhanced by the minor in Ethnic Studies because it gives artists, designers, practitioners, educators and historians a wider understanding of the contexts of multiculturalism and the global influences in modern and contemporary art.
College of Business
Students in the College of Business can benefit from a minor in Ethnic Studies by learning more in depth about the diversity of the workforce in the United States, the historical reasons for its stratification by race and class, and the international cultures with which they will be expected to interact.
Majors in Human Resource Management, Organizational Leadership, General Marketing, Integrated Marketing Communication, International Business, and Business Teacher Education may be particularly interested.
College of Education
A minor in Ethnic Studies is vital for any future teacher. Most elementary and secondary schools are witnessing increasingly diverse student bodies. They need teachers who understand the interaction between a student’s personal history as influenced by race, ethnicity, indigeneity, and/or nationality and that same student’s learning style, educational opportunities and challenges, and his or her parental and community support networks.
Mennonite College of Nursing
Nursing careers inherently bring the nursing student into contact with people from all walks of life. Patients in hospitals and doctors’ offices, elder care facilities and rehabilitation centers come from a variety of racial and ethnic backgrounds and might also have been born and raised in other countries. This minor can help future nurses to understand “where my patient is coming from.” It can improve communication and provide the solid foundation of empathy that leads to truly caring for another.
College of Applied Science and Technology
This minor will be particularly attractive to students in Criminal Justice Sciences given the diverse workforce in the fields affiliated with it and the diversity of persons interacting with the court system, Family and Consumer Sciences where providing food, nutrition, and human & family development are a focus, Health Sciences which impact a highly diverse population, Military Science with its students’ interaction with world populations and responsiveness to disasters in the US, and Agriculture, a globally integrated enterprise.