AcademicsSummer Courses

Civil Society & Community Studies

CSCS 130 – Community Newswriting
Newswriting of interest to individuals, families, and communities.

CSCS 500 – Global Health and Communities
Explores global health and well-being from a community perspective and through the holistic lens of human ecology. Respectful community-engagement, evidence-based practice, and making the local to global connection are key themes. Almost everything we do has an impact on our own health and that of our communities and the world. Prepares students for community-oriented global health engagement. Consider the nature of community and different types of communities, both locally and globally. Reflect on experiences in communities where you have lived or called home. Review the concept of health and well-being, and evidence-based practice. Learn basic principles of asset-based participatory community research and study, compare and contrast case examples from around the world.

CSCS 601 – Internship
Enables students with supervised internships to earn academic credit while engaged in a professional experience in community and nonprofit leadership related fields. Course intended for juniors and seniors in Community and Nonprofit Leadership.

Consumer Science

CNSR SCI 173 – Consuming Happiness
As the saying goes, money can’t buy happiness — but in modern America, we certainly try. This course will provide an overview of the study of happiness and well-being, examine how consumers engage in consumption in pursuit of happiness, as well as explore the emergence of the experience economy, and the intersection of money and well-being. Students will read academic and popular pieces on positive psychology, prosocial spending and explore the psychology of persuasion in the promises associated with this industry. In addition to integrating visual media, students will have the opportunity to experience first-hand whether the advice works in their own lives.

CNSR SCI 201 – Consumer Insights
Provides basic training in quantitative data analysis, with an emphasis on descriptive and inferential statistics with consumer research applications.

CNSR SCI 257 – Introduction to Retail
Foundational knowledge of the retail industry including the retail process, the evolution of the industry, key drivers and trends to provide a framework and set of concepts that will support the remainder of the core retail courses.

CNSR SCI 275 – Consumer Finance
An introduction to concepts and methods used in personal and family financial planning. Methods for planning and allocating resources to attain specific financial objectives are discussed. Topics include investments in real and financial assets, consumer credit issues, and insurance, pension, tax, and estate planning.

CNSR SCI 321 – Financial Life Skills After Grad
This is an applied personal finance course that provides students nearing graduation (juniors and seniors) the knowledge and tools needed to successfully manage personal finances after college. Topics include financial values and behaviors, credit and student loans, housing, transportation, financial services, retirement planning, investing, and spending and saving plans.

CNSR SCI 477 – The Consumer and the Market
Analysis of the consumer’s market, consumer’s behavior, and government policies affecting the consumer in the American economy.

CNSR SCI 567 – Product Development Strategies
Merchandise product development planning through market trend analysis, assortment planning & sourcing production.

CNSR SCI 601 – Consumer Science Internship
Enables students with supervised internships to earn academic credit while engaged in a professional experience in consumer science related fields. Course intended for juniors and seniors in Consumer Science.

CNSR SCI 603 – Retailing Internship
Enables students with supervised internships to earn academic credit while engaged in a professional experience in retailing related fields. Course intended for juniors and seniors in Retailing and Consumer Behavior.

Design Studies

DS 579 – Virtual Reality
Introduces students to the field of virtual reality and focuses on creating immersive, interactive virtual experiences. Survey topics include historical perspectives on virtual reality technology, computer graphics and 3D modeling, human perception and psychology, human computer interaction and user interface design. This course is designed for students with backgrounds in Computer Science, Engineering, Art, Architecture and Design. Students will work in interdisciplinary teams on projects, culminating in a final event that will be showcased to the public. While not an official uisite, the class will be technologically motivated; therefore students should be comfortable learning new software. The class will utilize publicly available game design software which provides tools and services for the creation of interactive content. While not necessary, students may find it helpful to have taken classes in programming and computer graphics (such COMP SCI 559: Computer Graphics) or in 3D mod.

DS 601 – Internship
Enables students with supervised internships to earn academic credit while engaged in a professional experience in design studies related fields. Course intended for juniors and seniors in Design Studies.

DS 626 – Interior Design V
Provides the opportunity to explore and refine interior design skills while responding to current events and the ever changing world around us. Follow the design process from research, programming, conceptual and schematic design, full design development and presentation. All aspects of designing an interiors project in detail will be addressed, including space planning, interior architectural articulation, furniture selection, finish selection, detailing of custom elements, rendering, website development for client presentation, and more.

Human Development & Family Studies

HDFS 174 – Cultural Diversity of Families
An introduction to racially and culturally diverse families with application to personal life. Focuses on structural factors impacting all families, such as demographic, economic, and historic trends, which illuminate the similarities and distinctions among and within racial and ethnic groups.

HDFS 362 – Development of Young Child
This course provides a basic foundation for understanding development from conception through middle childhood. Content includes theoretical foundations, research findings, and practical applications.

HDFS 363 – Development from Adolescence to Old Age
This course provides a basic foundation for understanding development from adolescence through old age. Content includes theoretical foundations, research findings, and practical applications.

HDFS 517 – Couple Relationships
Romantic relationships are universally desired, and individuals around the globe agree about what successful intimacy entails: we all want to be loved, supported, and cared for by partners we hold in high esteem. Nevertheless, intimate relationships can be difficult to form and maintain. This course covers a range of theoretical perspectives and methodologies to understand how it is that intimate relationships develop, thrive, or deteriorate over time. The course will also connect intimate relationship science to real life experiences.

HDFS 601 – Internship
Enables students with supervised internships to earn academic credit while engaged in a professional experience in human development and family studies related fields. Course intended for juniors and seniors in Human Development and Family Studies

Interdisciplinary Courses

INTER-HE 201 – Ecology of Human Happiness
This course explores the art and science of purposeful living by integrating academic knowledge with issues real and relevant to students’ lives including: identity and belonging; happiness, purpose and meaning; self-awareness and self-presentation; romantic, peer and family relationships; material culture, consumer behavior and financial well-being; and connections to community, culture, and society. From the microbes that inhabit our guts to political revolutions sparked by a tweet, human lives are embedded in an ecology of complex, interdependent systems. Using the lens of Human Ecology, you will address “big questions” like: How am I connected to others and to larger systems? What brings happiness and works for the “greater good” in human lives? An overarching goal of the course is to help you understand yourself as embedded in the web of ever-evolving interconnected networks, an “EcoYou.” Human Ecology is a systems approach to studying and understanding relationships between human.

INTER-HE 202 – SoHE Career & Leadership Development
Provides an introduction to leadership development, career development and career readiness competencies for students in the School of Human Ecology.

INTER-HE 770 – Community Opportunity Justice
Critical examination of school-community engagement and collaboration. Examines theory and practice of mutually beneficial collaboration in diverse education settings, including leadership issues in collaborative settings, and facilitators and inhibitors to effective collaboration.