Overview

We offer a balance of humanistic and scientific instruction in communication skills people need to function effectively in teaching, business, law, nonprofit organizations, public service and administration, public relations, government, and management. Outside the workplace, these skills will also enhance students' ability to be active in civic engagement and community service.

Our program degree in Communication, available at California State University, Fresno requires a comprehensive understanding of the breadth and depth of our discipline, as well as its major theoretical frameworks and research methodologies. Both the major and minor are grounded in the fundamental communication contexts including public, interpersonal, group, organizational, instructional, and intercultural communication. Additionally applied contexts in business communication, gerontology communication, technology, and leadership are available. Students investigate problems in diverse cultural settings, which make the San Joaquin Valley - with its tremendous ethnic diversity - an ideal location for study.

The Communication Skills for Professionals Certificate program recognizes development in such areas as presentational speaking, problem solving and decision making, leadership, and interpersonal communication.

What You Can Learn

• Various theories of interpersonal communication

• Communication in group thinking and problem solving

• The use of persuasion as a social tool for resolving controversy and opinions from the perspectives of both the persuader and the persuaded

• The nature of communication and its relationship to learning and instruction