M2 Assignment: Exploring Academic Opportunities

This assignment will help you identify and explore courses, programs, and academic pathways that align with your personal, academic, and career goals. You will develop a foundational understanding of the academic opportunities available and begin mapping them to your degree plan.

Instructions:

Research Academic Opportunities:

Use the university catalog, online resources, or guidance from your mentor to identify similar degree programs at other accredited institutions to identify options that align with the core curriculum of the degree program you are pursuing at SUNY Empire. For example, if you are seeking to obtain a bachelor’s degree in Public Affairs, you would look for similar degree programs at other universities. This may be degrees in Public Administration, Public Affairs, Public Management, etc.

Create a Course List:

Based on your research in Part 1 (above), you should recognize similarities in the core curricula you found. This is equivalent to degree program foundations at SUNY Empire.

For each foundation of your chosen degree, select at least four courses that you believe are critical to achieving the goals of each foundation.

For each course, include the following details:

Course title and code

A brief description of the course content

Why you believe this course is relevant to the foundation

Develop an Academic Pathway:

Using your research, draft a preliminary academic pathway.

Organize your selected courses into a sequence, showing how they build upon each other to support your overall degree program goals.

Indicate how these courses fulfill degree requirements (e.g., program foundations, general education, electives, and concentration (if applicable).

You may submit this section in the form of a table/spreadsheet or narrative form. There is no set template.

Reflect on Your Choices:

Write a short reflection (250400 words) addressing the following questions:

What did you learn about the academic options available to you?

How do these courses and degree program foundations align with your vision statement and goals?

Are there any gaps or challenges you anticipate as you pursue this pathway?

Formatting and Submission:

Compile your course list, academic pathway, and reflection into a single document.

Use a professional tone and clear language, applying acceptable standards of college-level writing style, grammar, punctuation usage, and spelling.

Use 12-point Times New Roman font, double-spacing, and 1-inch margins.

Submit the assignment as a Word document or PDF here on Brightspace no later than the end of week 5.

Quality and relevance of the selected courses: 30%

Coherence and logical sequencing of the academic pathway: 30%

Depth of reflection and alignment with goals: 30%

Clarity, grammar, and adherence to formatting guidelines: 10%

Outcome:

By completing this assignment, you will have a clearer understanding of the academic opportunities that support your goals and a draft academic pathway to incorporate into your degree plan.