Telecommunication Studies at YSU is a dynamic, cutting edge baccalaureate program comprising about 125 majors and 12 full- and part-time faculty. We focus on the messages that bombard us every day — through advertising, television and film, news, the internet, magazines, friends, family and more. We study how to make those messages, how to package and distribute them, and how to profit from them.
You’ll learn to use sound, video and data effectively to be sent as “content” over distances by predominantly electronic systems. Too, you’ll have an understanding of how such systems are managed and operated. Said differently, you=ll sharpen professional skills in scriptwriting, audio production, on-camera performance, video production and editing, newswriting, producing, and more.
Our low student-to-faculty ratio allows you to have close personal contact with professors. In fact, because YSU isn’t a mega-university where you easily can get lost in the crowds, you’ll experience the “small college” intimacy and personalized treatment at a school which draws on the vast resources of Ohio’s state university system. That means you’ll take courses taught by fully-qualified faculty, not graduate students, and you’ll use facilities that are among the best anywhere!
You can count on getting help when you need it, too. Each of our professors serves as an academic advisor, so you will have access to good academic and career-oriented counseling in the planning of your program. Professors are particularly able to guide you in building a bridge form your college years to your career or graduate school.
The program in Telecommunication Studies leads to the Bachelor of Arts degree. That’s the renowned liberal arts curriculum that focuses on helping you build a foundation of knowledge and skill that makes you a well-educated person. The liberal arts degree “liberates” in the sense that graduates aren’t constrained to a particular line of work; instead, they have developed “transferable skills” that are useful and meaningful in a wide range of future life paths, whether in their careers or personal lives.
People without a college degree can sometimes get a starting job in the media. Lots of people can write interesting news stories, shoot nice videos, and DJ weddings or radio shows. But to advance to a position of responsibility requires much more. We aim to help you develop basic skills you’ll need to land a starting job in the career path of your choice. Some of our courses do this specifically, while other experiences such as internship give you on-the-job experiences. But our most important mandate is to help you grow intellectually so you can compete and contribute at the highest levels. Once you’ve begun to commit your life to learning and growing, as an education requires you to do, you’ll have little trouble getting a superior job. Said differently, educated people get jobs.
Educated people don’t find themselves trapped without options. Chances are you’ll have five different careers during your working life. That means what appeals to you right now might become dull or boring to you later on. And it means you can’t prepare now for the specific career you’ll have during your peak earning years because nobody on earth knows what that might be. In fact, three of your future careers don=t even exist right now.
So we shall help you to master as much knowledge and skill as possible. We help you develop good attitudes that will see you through new situations and tough times. And we help you ground everything in values that you have thoroughly explored and tested.
Your degree program will comprise several clusters of requirements:
- General Education, which helps you learn the core knowledge for a college education and to master the skills you’ll need to be effective in learning at advanced levels.
- Major and Minor, where you develop mastery of your main interest areas. Also, you study at levels far above that in any other course area.
- You’ll find two types of courses in your major. Some are regular classroom courses where you develop your intellectual knowledge and skill. Others are Aapplied@ or Astudio@ courses that help you master your media performance, production or business skills.
- Specialty Tracks are optional ways you might cluster required and elective courses within your major to develop a specific focus of study or a particular set of media skills.
- Electives, which are courses you elect to take because of their particular importance to your intellectual growth.
During your first two years you should focus on general education and the basic requirements in your major. During your junior and senior years you should finish your major, pick and satisfy a minor, and take high-level electives and an internship.
The Telecommunication Studies program is open to students of all academic backgrounds. Those with a particular facility in language and a sense of theatricality normally do well. Excellence is always the standard for achievement in this program because the world of media tends to reward only one’s best efforts. Other standards, like “the way it is at Middle University@ or Athe way TV stations do things,@ make it easy to offer excuses. It=s important also to surround yourself with people who themselves are trying their best. They will encourage you, and you them. Rumdums just try to get by, and they will not want you to do better than they themselves.
Step out of your comfort zone, take risks and try your very best to follow through. In the long run, your trained disposition to work to your highest level, and to expect the best from yourself and others around you, will create a lifetime of opportunity and rewards.