This major prepares you to enter a variety of fields with a bachelor degree. It also provides an excellent foundation from which to continue educational preparation for a number of professions.
Many entry-level positions in private and public sector careers require the understanding of organizations and human relations provided by the Sociology major. The sociology program emphasizes research skills, knowledge about diversity, critical thinking and writing skills, all of which will enhance your value to employers. With assistance from your advisor and your career goals in mind, you will select one or two minors. This combination of broad knowledge about social organizations from the Sociology major together with a set of specific job skills and knowledge from the minor(s) will give you a competitive edge in securing employment and in making career changes as opportunities present themselves and the labor market demands change.
If you are preparing for graduate studies or professional school , you will find that the Sociology major, together with one or two carefully selected minor(s), provides competitive preparation for a number of areas of advanced study, such as social work, business, international relations, survey researcher, public relations, urban planning and more. If you are planning to undertake graduate studies in Sociology, you are encouraged to take both a major and a minor in Sociology. Or, if you are planning to apply to professional schools, such as law or medicine, you will find that the Sociology program, more than any other major, allows you extensive time within the four-year program to take courses strategically selected to best prepare you for the desired professional program.
Kapp Award Recipient
 The Sociology Department is proud to announce that Kathleen Holstege, one of our 2010 Sociology graduates, won the Kapp award for her senior research project, presented at the Michigan Academy of Science, Arts & Letters, in the Spring of 2010. Kathleen will be honored at the 2011 Michigan Academy's annual meeting next month and will have her paper published in the Academy's quarterly journal, The Michigan Academician.
The Kapp award is for the most outstanding piece of undergraduate research, across all categories and schools. Kathleen was competing with students from universities throughout Michigan and in all disciplines. In the past two years, sociology students have presented fifteen original research projects to the Academy, with six more presentations accepted for this year's conference next month.
Update: Since graduating Spring 2010, Kathleen has been working with at-risk adolescents in a therapeutic wilderness program in Central Virginia and will be simultaneously pursuing a Master's Degree in Social Work and a degree in Law.
Abstract
"The Varying Effects of Active and Passive Parental Involvement on Delinquency
By Kathleen Holstege, Lake Superior State University
Past studies have cited lack of parental involvement as the primary factor in juvenile delinquency, and have generally concluded that increased involvement is strongly negatively correlated with various delinquent acts. However, most research failed to distinguish between active and passive parental involvement. The current study examined data collected from two hundred and forty-one students at a high school in small western Michigan town in terms of various intensities of parental involvement, student relationships with their parents, and various delinquent acts. The findings suggest that it is not parental involvement alone that functions against delinquency; rather it is the parent-adolescent relationship as a whole. Specifically, communication between parent and adolescent operates as the primary mechanism through which delinquency is reduced. Updating the current public policies and opinions to include these findings will allow parents to take a proactive role in reducing the delinquency of their adolescent." |
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