Application Based Courses

SOCI 306 Applying Sociology in the Community

This course is unique because, as a student, you are not only introduced to new sociological material, but have the opportunity to think through and apply what you’ve already learned in the past and what you’re learning in the present in a real-life application model via service learning. Service learning is a pedagogical tool wherein students learn course content while in their course and at the same time volunteer with a community agency. Through reflection activities and assignments, the student is able to develop a deeper understanding of the course material as they see it presented and functioning in their experienced volunteering. Thus, the community agency receives benefits through the volunteer support and the student receives benefit from stronger community ties and educational advantages.

Service learning has many positive benefits for students including, but not limited to:

• Personal and interpersonal development
• Networking opportunities with community organizations
• Leadership and communication skils
• Facilitating cultural and racial understanding
• Fostering a sense of responsibility and global citizenship
• Affording the opportunity for application of discipline-specific content

The main emphasis of this course is experiential learning and social advocacy. The goal is not just volunteering, or being a passive, warm body at your service learning site, but rather, actively observing, engaging, participating and reflecting sociologically in your site. And as C. Wright Mills would emphasize, use your sociological imagination.

Although we all should always be active and have a participatory approach in our learning, this course requires participation and active involvement outside the classroom and in the community. The course is designed to be mainly discussion based. Professors incorporate foundational theoretical and conceptual knowledge that the class, as a whole, can then discuss and create knowledge together through short lectures, in-class activities, and short videos to illustrate themes, theories, and concepts you might encounter in your service-learning site.

The main themes for this course are: Examine, Learn, Adapt, Grow.

• You will examine your social history and socialization process - your social environment, the social structures that contributed to shaping who you are - personality, behaviors, habits, skills, and dispositions that you possess as a result of socialization and your life experiences.
• You will learn foundational concepts and theories in class and learn a variety of skills in the context of your site.
• You will adapt to the social environment of your site, adapt to diverse people and ways of doing things.

Finally, you will grow as an individual, as a community member, as an advocate, as an academic and as a professional.

SOCI 307 Applying Sociology for Career Success

COURSE DESCRIPTION

Examines key sociological theories and concepts to situate work in the context of historical, hierarchal power relations that reproduce dominance. Uses sociology to help navigate job markets, career opportunities, and improve mobility in post-industrial world of work.

Units: (3).

COURSE OVERVIEW:

From Marx’s notions of alienation, Durkheim’s Division of Labor, and Weber’s bureaucracy to studies of factors correlated with workplace stress, the discipline of Sociology is concerned with how labor arrangements affect the individual and institutions from the family to the state. This course demonstrates how sociological concepts and theories are useful for students both in the transition from college to the world of work and in management of eventual career paths.

Note, this course is designed to help you make the transition from college to work or graduate school. But it is not a course that will assign you a job and tell you exactly what steps to follow. Rather, the aim is much broader—helping you to use and apply your sociological skills and knowledge to identify a fulfilling and appropriate career and to create a plan for a career ladder rather than simply a job. You will also be more equipped to revaluate that plan and make adjustments down the road. Everyone will be at different stages in this process. For some students, this will mean you simply spend a semester identifying what you don’t want to do. For others, you will create and enact a plan to enter your chosen career. Regardless, this class will require a lot of thought and work on your part. The more work you put in, the better your outcomes.

During the class, we discuss a range of concepts including, but not limited to: Goffman’s presentation of self, Weber’s bureaucracy, Bourdieu’s social and cultural capital, Granovetter’s notion of the strength of weak ties and networks, Yosso’s community wealth, as well as stratification. Sociological concepts are tools to make sense of the seemingly disparate facets of work that moderate individual access to power and privilege and affect the health of individuals, families, and communities. Special emphasis is focused on meanings of race, class, and gender as signifiers and how they influence power dynamics in work groups.

Students will learn how to employ sociological research methods to conduct research on trends, benefits, and values that differentiate careers and to examine the lived experience of different careers. The assignments require students’ application of sociological concepts and theories to develop personal strategies for entering the labor market and planning career mobility. Students will engage in reflexive exercises that prepare them for researching labor markets, career ladders, benefits, and work conditions. The course requires students to perform skill and value inventories that enhance their understanding of complementary roles in a diverse workforce while demonstrating how to align interests and values to particular organizations and career opportunities. Students will also begin to assess and build their own social networks. Students will also begin to build a portfolio that showcases their skills.

SOCI 485 Research Applications

The Department of Sociology offers students who demonstrate established records of strong academic achievement and who are majors within the department the unique opportunity of engaging in an individual research project through our Research Applications course (SOCI 485).  At the end of this research experience, students will have produced an evidence-based scholarly work that will typically include the following components:  1) a statement of the importance of the topic and an overall theoretical/conceptual framework to address that topic, 2) specific central research question(s), 3) a review of literature on what is known and what remains to be discovered about the research questions, 4) a discussion of data, methods, or other evidence sources, 5) an analysis, and 6) conclusions. As this is a research and writing intensive course, it is capped in size. This means that a smaller number of students can be enrolled in this course than in typical courses. As such, there is a process for enrolling in the course distinct from the typical course wherein a student can self-enroll.  

REQUIREMENTS  

To be eligible for Research Applications, students must have completed at least 60 units, including Introduction to Sociology (SOCI 101) and Research Methods (SOCI 302) prior to the semester in which they are enrolled in SOCI 485. (You must complete both SOCI 101 and SOCI 302 with at least a “C.”) Additionally, it is strongly preferred that students have either completed or be enrolled in Writing for Sociology Students (SOCI 308).  Lastly, you must have a Sociology GPA of at least 3.0. (Note: Exceptions can be made to the GPA regulation. Individuals close to this requirement who are interested in the course should contact the instructor.)  

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS  

Please click on our link if you have any questions regarding our SOCI 485: Research Applications course:  FAQs    

ENROLLMENT  

If you meet the above listed requirements, please follow the below steps to enroll in the course.  

Step 1: Contact the Department of Sociology at sociology@fullerton.edu  

In your email to the department, please include the following information:  

• Name  

• Campus-Wide Identification Number (CWID)  
• Phone Number  
• Current Sociology GPA (Found on your Titan Degree Audit)  
• Total completed units  
• Completed units of sociology courses  

• Semesters during which you completed SOCI 101 and SOCI 302  
• Semester during which you completed/are enrolled in SOCI 308  
• General description of your proposed topic of interest (or, if you’ve thought about it/them already, specific research question(s))  

• NOTE: This must apply the methodological approach and be related, at least broadly, to the subtopic designated for the semester in which you plan to enroll.  

Step 2: Issuance of department course permit  

If you meet all of the course requirements and there is room remaining in the course for the semester you plan to enroll, the department will provide you a permit to register for Research Applications. This permit will be emailed to you.  

Step 3: Professor will contact you  

SOCI 495 Internship

Sociology Internship, Sociology 495, is designed to provide students with supervised professional experience in a community agency. This program introduces interns to employment possibilities while they receive valuable field experience and build community contacts. A number of students are hired by their internship agencies after they graduate.

Why Intern?

The Los Angeles Times recently reported that college students who take internships are much more marketable in today's job market. An internship experience on one's resume is increasingly a requirement for today's college-educated young adult. Many employers of college graduates do not advertise to the public, but hire from within, meaning an intern or former intern at their organization. This is the case in business, in the human services sector, and in many other fields of employment.

Internships give you an opportunity to clarify your career direction, to land a job, obtain a valuable letter of recommendation for other employment or graduate school. Internships allow you to begin professional networking, so necessary for climbing a career ladder.

Internships give you an opportunity to clarify your career direction, to land a job, obtain a valuable letter of recommendation for other employment or graduate school. Internships allow you to begin professional networking, so necessary for climbing a career ladder.

Requirements

A 3.0 GPA is required for a Sociology Internship, since internships are not a requirement for graduation.

It is recommended that the student have completed at least 12 units of upper division coursework in Sociology, as the internship experience is enhanced by a knowledge of how societies work, and the social bases for interpersonal relationships.

In the Sociology Internship course, students must complete 120 hours of internship activity in a community agency or organization that offers professional supervision. Hours must be completed by the end of the 13th week of the semester, in order for the Internship Supervisor to have time to evaluate your internship activity.

Sociology 495 is an online course; there is a mandatory three-hour course meeting during the first week of the semester, and a required mid-semester evaluation appointment with Professor Grimes, the Internship Coordinator and professor for Sociology 495. There are two short papers and one longer paper in this class.

Enrollment

1. If you have a 3.0 GPA, enroll in Sociology 495, the Sociology Internship course.
2. Once you have enrolled in Sociology 495, locate an internship.

• Go to the Center for Internships and Community Engagement (CICE) website: www.fullerton.edu/cice. Follow the prompts for "Student", "Academic Internship", and "Find Academic Internship". Once you have your internship placement site, go back to this website and follow the prompts for "Student" and "Registration." Your internship must be in place by the first day of class so that you have time to complete all of your hours by the deadline. Under certain circumstances, students may complete up to 30 hours of internship activity before the semester begins. If you wish to do an early start with your internship, you must first meet with the Internship Coordinator.
• You may locate an internship site on your own, but the agency must register with CSUF's CICE for you to be able to work there. Agency registration can begin online, and takes one or two weeks to complete. Please see the Internship Coordinator for further information about agency registration with CICE. 
• Internship sites must offer professional (not administrative or clerical) supervision. You are not permitted to do clerical work unless it is agency intake activity or a part of working with the clientele of the agency. 
• Here is an example of an approved internship site:  Higher Ground internship

Sociology Internship information is available at the Sociology Department office (CP-900).

For further information about Sociology Internship (Soc 495) please contact:

Jessica Grimes, Internship Coordinator
E-Mail: jgrimes@fullerton.edu
Phone: (714) 686-1834 (call or text)

SOCI 496 Peer Mentorship

We often use sociological concepts, theories, and skills without consciously considering the ways the discipline applies to our everyday lives. The context of peer mentoring within higher education is a particularly strong context for better identifying, understanding, and applying learned sociological content because there is a continual transition of students graduating (leaving campus) and those enrolling (coming to campus). Accordingly, this class draws on sociological knowledge, including but not limited to, Goffman’s presentation of self, forms of capital (e.g., social, cultural, human, and financial), discussions of educational inequities and systematic stratification, intersectionality, Marx’s capitalism, and the hidden curriculum, to situate sociology majors for success within at CSUF and beyond. We will draw on these concepts and theoretical lenses as we learn and enact the skills of mentoring. Taken together, when leaving this course, your experience will better situate you for success within various contexts involving mentoring and advisory roles.

In short, upon completion of this course, student will be able to:

• Apply theory, research, and principles from sociology to the mentoring context.
• Practice effective interpersonal and professional skills with mentees and fellow mentors.
• Consider and respond appropriately to sociodemographic differences amongst mentees and their individual academic and personal needs.
• Show an ongoing understanding of self-positionality and reflexivity within the mentoring context.
• Explore department and campus resources for success as a sociology major and following graduation.
• Demonstrate strong synthesis and writing skills in mentoring notes and written assignments.
• Demonstrate strong oral communication during interactions with the faculty supervisor, fellow peer mentors, and peer mentees.

If you have questions or are interested in enrolling, please reach out to Dr. Devon Thacker Thomas at: dthackerthomas@fullerton.edu