Minors
A Bryant education is founded on a curriculum that balances contemporary and traditional business and liberal arts courses. All business students must complete a liberal arts minor as part of their academic program; all Arts and Sciences students must complete a minor in business administration. Combining academic studies in this way allows students to develop a diverse knowledge base and provides a strong foundation for lifelong learning.
Actuarial Mathematics
The focus is on the application of actuarial mathematics to banking, investments, insurance, and pensions. Students learn advanced concepts in the mathematics of finance. Course work is required in statistics and actuarial mathematics and electives are chosen from finance, economics, and computer programming.
Africana/Black Studies
Africana/Black Studies is an interdisciplinary minor that gives students a critical opportunity to examine the global intellectual traditions and cultural contributions made by people of African descent. By considering African, African American, Afro-Latino/a, Afro-Brazilian, and Caribbean communities, students stretch their world view and develop effective communication and innovative problem-solving skills across racial lines. In addition, by wrestling with weighty and pervasive issues such as racism and the persistent presence of colonialism in the global economy and socio-cultural network, the minor prepares students to be rigorous thinkers and responsible, ethical professionals and citizens.
Applied Statistics
Many disciplines are dependent on the information provided by statistics. Through this course of study, students can deepen and extend their knowledge and skills in statistics and enhance their ability to solve more complex quantitative problems.
Biology
The biology minor provides students with a core understanding of biological principles, a basic foundation in chemistry, exposure to various bioscience specialties (anatomy, physiology, genetics, ecology, biotechnology, microbiology, and evolution), an awareness of the issues and challenges facing biologists in today's complex environments, and a capstone course focused on major research issues in biology. Five courses are required, with the opportunity to pursue a research interest if desired. The study of biology is essential for understanding the living world, for the protection of threatened life forms throughout the ecosphere, and for management and control of pathogens and parasites. The study of biology provides a foundation for areas in the biomedical, health care, agricultural, food science, biotechnology, bioengineering, and biophysics profession disciplines.
Biotechnology
Biotechnology is the commercial application of living organisms that involves the deliberate manipulation of DNA. Biotechnology broadly impacts markets in human health, agriculture, and the forensic sciences. In the required courses for the minor, students will learn basic chemistry, biology, and the technology of manipulating DNA through "hands-on" lab experiences. In the elective courses they will be exposed to applications of biotechnology in diverse markets and begin to appreciate the profound legal, social, economic, and ethical implications of this technology for our society.
Chinese
The Chinese Minor is designed to provide students with an advanced level of language proficiency in Standard Mandarin and a solid foundation for the development of cultural understanding and communication skills across a broad array of social contexts and business settings in China.
Communication
Students pursuing a communication minor work with a faculty advisor to develop a personalized, tailored course of study. In this way, they develop a coherent approach to the discipline that reflects their own interest in the field, with options ranging from interpersonal communication to writing and mass media.
Economics
Minoring in economics provides students with skills that can be applied to areas of business, law, and other liberal studies. Bryant's minor in economics follows two primary objectives: the interdisciplinary implications of economics and a core competency that integrates critical thinking, human capabilities, ethical sensibilities, and personal resourcefulness.
Environmental Science
Students who complement their studies with a minor in environmental science are prepared for positions in environmental engineering and consulting firms, where effective communication between scientists and business professionals is essential. The minor is also a good foundation for employment with manufacturers who must comply with changing environmental regulations.
Film Studies
Students pursuing a minor in Film Studies explore all facets of film and film making. Students will analyze and interpret film in its historical, cultural, aesthetic and theoretical contexts and produce films in Bryant's state of the art facilities.
French
The minor in French helps students develop their skills and knowledge of the French language and French/Francophone culture and literature.
History
Students may choose among four tracks of study: United States history, European history, world history, or a specialized course of study. The history minor emphasizes personal resourcefulness, the ethical dimensions of history, and the awareness of diversity and differences in the human experience.
International Affairs
The International Affairs minor develops the knowledge of economics, history, law, and politics, and the skills in communications and critical thinking necessary to understand, and succeed in, the modern world.
Italian
The Italian minor is designed to provide students with an advanced level of language proficiency and a strong understanding of the Italian culture.
Latin American and Latina/Latino Studies
The Latin American and Latina/Latino Studies Minor engages students in interdisciplinary study of Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking nations in the Americas and the Latina/Latino presence in the United States. Each participating student develops an individualized minor within the parameters established under the general requirements by drawing from a set of approved courses in literary and cultural studies, history, and languages. The primary objective of the minor is to foster greater understanding of the peoples and societies of the western hemisphere. Such understanding is crucial to participation in ongoing intra-hemispheric debates over issues such as immigration from Latin America to the United States, trade policy, and the nature of democracy.
Legal Studies
The legal studies minor is designed to encourage ethical thinking in legal problem solving. Studying law enhances analytical skills that are needed in professional life. Students can select courses that will prepare them for law school, give them information that will be valuable for a variety of careers in the United States and around the globe, or simply offer a better understanding of law and government.
Literary and Cultural Studies
The minor in Literary and cultural studies is designed to foster and sustain a cultural background based upon the mastery of those literary and cultural texts and methods that enter and inform the world of the modern citizen. Students design their minor in accordance with their own interests in consultation with their program advisor.
Math
The math minor challenges students to think analytically and introduce students to important mathematical ideas.
Political Science
Government policies regulate the business environment and affect citizens' private lives in areas such as health care and education. Political science is the study of government behavior and government-citizen interaction in public policymaking. Bryant?s curriculum includes American politics, comparative politics, international relations, and political philosophy.
Professional and Creative Writing
Students pursuing a minor in Professional and Creative Writing develop their writing skills in a variety of settings designed to provide a full exploration of genres. Options include feature writing for magazines and the web, newspaper journalism, and creative writing in poetry and fiction.
Psychology
The psychology minor fortifies students' preparation for any career by expanding their knowledge and understanding of people. Psychological inquiry helps students learn to critically analyze information about human behavior. The specialized skills of this field can be applicable to many others.
Sociology
Students develop a sophisticated sense of the ways in which individual behavior is the product of social experience. Such study helps students gain insight into their own society and culture and provides a critical understanding of the global community.
Sociology and Service Learning
Students who choose the service learning and leadership curriculum will combine service with learning in a variety of courses that continually challenge them to apply sociological theory and methods to unscripted, real world problems. By combining service to the community with rigorous classroom study, students develop an intuitive, practical understanding of sociology's perspective. Working in close partnership with leaders of service organizations and philanthropic foundations, students gain important skills enabling them to identify problems, communicate vision, and negotiate solutions in diverse settings. This course of study leads to a liberal arts minor in Sociology and Service Learning, or a B. A. in Sociology with an emphasis in Sociology and Service Learning.
Spanish
The minor in Spanish helps students develop their skills and knowledge of the Spanish language and Spanish culture and literature.
Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies
The Women, Gender, and Sexuality studies minor is an interdisciplinary program that introduces students to current research on women, gender, and sexuality. The minor explores the origins of women's studies, the shift to questions concerning the social construction of gender, and the emergence of scholarly investigations of sexual identities. Students will demonstrate an integrated understanding of these forms of analysis.
Business Administration
The Business Administration minor is required for all liberal arts majors and is designed to develop basic business knowledge and skills. This foundation allows students to begin a career directly following their undergraduate education, or to continue on to graduate school.
Computer Information Systems
Technology is an integral part of nearly every business profession. Business people everywhere rely on technology to complement and maximize their professional effectiveness. The CIS minor is designed to enable students to prepare for and leverage the ever-increasing role of information technology in the business world.
Entrepreneurship
The Entrepreneurship minor is designed to give students a working perspective for small to medium sized enterprises, including the development of new enterprises. This minor helps students cultivate an understanding of entrepreneurship and the traits of entrepreneurial leaders, including planning and execution skills, people and resource management, long-term strategies and shorter-term objectives, and financing.
Finance
Students have opportunities to develop the analytic and managerial tools needed for making sound financial decisions. Students in the finance minor select four courses, which include corporate financial management, investments, and the management of financial institutions. Courses in real estate finance, risk management, and international finance allow students to apply financial techniques to other business realms.
Global Supply Chain Management
The ability to manage complex global supply chains is key to success in the modern economy. Supply chain management involves coordinating and improving the flow and transformation of goods, services, information, and funds within companies and around the world, from raw materials to the final end user. The Global Supply Chain Management minor is designed to provide students with a working knowledge of supply chain management (SCM) as an integrative value-creating strategy for complex business-to-business networks designed to enhance global competitiveness.
Human Resource Management
Students pursuing a minor in Human Resource Management explore all of the different facets of managing people in organizational contexts. Students will explore all of the various Human Resource functions, including developing employee compensation, training policies, and managing people in a global setting.
International Business
Consistent with the University mission, the minor in International Business facilitates the cultivation of a global perspective in our students that helps them achieve their personal best in life and business. Through a combination of two required courses that are integrated across business functions and two electives that focus on the international aspects of specific business functions, students develop a broader and deeper understanding of the issues faced by companies engaged in international business. This enhances international awareness and technical skills for competing and leading in the global business environment.
Management
The increasing demand for management skills at all levels of various organizations proposes the creation of a management minor at Bryant University. The objective of the minor is to allow both business and liberal arts students to gain an understanding of complex managerial issues that corporations are facing today.
Marketing
The marketing minor gives students a business and management perspective that is market-oriented. As a key business function, marketing is dominant in virtually all commercial, government, and nonprofit settings. All business professionals, regardless of primary expertise, are frequently called upon to be mindful of and involved with the formulation of marketing strategy, tactics, and other exchange-related decisions. The marketing minor is explicitly designed to help students master key marketing issues and enable them to be successful in any management role, including sales, business communications, business-to-business, retail services, and research.
