Intercultural Communications

Catalog description

This course intersects culture and interpersonal communication. An extension of interpersonal communication, the course provides opportunities for the acquisition and enhancement of interpersonal communication skills specific to communicating across various cultural contexts. Students learn how culture provides individuals with different worldviews, beliefs, attitudes and values, and examines how this creates difficulties in the intercultural/multicultural communication process. This course is designed to cultivate, promote and increase appreciation, understanding, and communication competence with people outside one’s own immediate culture. SPCH 2010 3 lab credits Family Communications Building on communication principles, theories, and models, this course explores the role of communication in the family. Students will be required to examine and identify the communication patterns and styles in their own nuclear families of origin as well as their extended, created families. Students will explore how culture impacts the family communication process and how family communication interfaces with other environments in their lives. SUSTAINABILITY The mission of the Sustainability department is to provide students with knowledge to improve the quality of human lives, protect ecosystems and our relatives who live there, and thoughtfully manage natural resources. The Environmental Sustainability Certificate provides students with experience in sustainability that will influence future growth, study, and employment. SUST/PHIL 1030 3 credits Introduction to Sustainability This course introduces sustainability concepts such as the global commons, social contract theory, the political and social contexts of sustainability in contemporary discourse, and the role of systems thinking on individual, cultural, and social value construction. These concepts will provide students with a foundational understanding of the past, present and possible future of sustainability.