Minors at Widener
By completing requirements for minors and certificate programs, students expand their undergraduate preparation and broaden their career options. Minors and certificates are offered by the College of Arts and Sciences, the School of Business Administration, and the School of Human Service Professions.
Minors and certificates can be combined with most undergraduate majors in the College of Arts and Sciences and School of Business Administration. The number of semester hours required ranges from 21 to 48.
Students who complete minors and certificates can present themselves to prospective employers or graduate schools as having more than one kind of competency. For example, a student majoring in government and politics may wish to minor in Spanish, German, French or Italian in order to become better prepared to work in a multi-cultural setting. An English major may wish to earn the management or personnel administration certificate to better prepare for work in a corporate setting. A biology student may wish to minor in anthropology, psychology, or sociology to enhance preparation for a career in health service.
The possible combinations are many; each student should choose the combination which best fits his or her interests and career plans. Students who are committed to a particular major, but who know they need preparation in another field, can have such preparation recognized by completion of a minor or certificate. The specific requirement for each minor and certificate program are detailed in the Widener Undergraduate Bulletin and some are available from links on this page.
Disciplinary Minors
Required courses in a disciplinary minor are generally in one academic field of study. Completion of a disciplinary minor means that the student has a secondary concentration in an established academic discipline. The disciplinary minors offered by the College of Arts and Sciences are:
Interdisciplinary Minors
The required courses in an interdisciplinary minor come from a number of different disciplines. The courses have been selected by faculty because they focus on a body of knowledge, but from several disciplinary perspectives. In some instances the major with the same title is similarly interdisciplinary. In other instances, an interdisciplinary minor has been developed to stand alone.
Certificate Programs
In general, certificate programs are interdisciplinary. They have an applied emphasis in that they are designed to sharpen skills relative to job performance. Most of the following certificate programs are offered by the Social Science Division:
  • Child and Family Services
  • Counseling Psychology
  • Gerontology
  • Management (offered by the School of Business Administration
  • Personnel Administration
  • Political Communication
  • Public Administration
  • Social Policy and Planning
Teacher Certification
Students at Widener seeking Secondary Education Certification do not major in education.  Rather, they select a major in Arts and Sciences and fulfill the teacher certification requirements separate from those of the major. Students seeking Elementary or Early Childhood Education Certification may do the same or they may pursue the Elementary Education or Early Childhood Education majors in the Center for Education in the School of Human Service Professions.   Widener offers the following programs leading to certification:
  • Early Childhood Education
  • Elementary Education
  • Secondary Education in the following disciplines:
    • Biology
    • Chemistry
    • Earth and Space Science
    • English
    • French
    • General Science
    • History
    • Mathematics
    • Physics
    • Social Studies
    • Spanish
  • Bilingual Education
  • Special Education
  • School Nurse
  • Home and School Visitor

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These pages are maintained by Larry Panek, Dean.
Email: panek@science.widener.edu