54 APRIL/MAY 2016AMP /
EDUCATION
certification so that when they graduate they are credentialed
in this application. In fall 2016, ASU will offer interactive
advertising, as well. They will also learn how to measure and
monitor social media.
The handful of students Im advising really like it, Hall said.
But, she said she doesnt worry that they will produce more students
than there are jobs in this special-ty. I get at least one email or
phone call a week from a local organization saying, We need help!
We dont have enough students to meet the need.
Yet. Well be promoting the major over the next year so students
can understand what kind of jobs they can have, she said. The
demand is out there.
4. INNOVATION & ENTREPRENEURSHIP University of Central
Arkansas
When it comes to the market, supply and demand, the University
of Central Arkansas in Conway has a new major in its College of
Business: innovation and entrepreneurship. Michael Hargis is the
dean who has been in-volved in its launch.
With any degree program, you dont want to just create it because
youre inter-ested in the topic, said Hargis. He said that facts
dictated their course: small businesses and startups play a
significant role in eco-nomic growth, and innovation and creativity
are important abilities in the business world given its pace of
change and expansion of business models.
This is UCAs fourth year with its inno-vation and
entrepreneurship program and it has more than 60 majors.
We are preparing students for two dif-
Any time we get an idea [for a new major], we think, Do we need
this? Are there jobs out there?
Jeff Woods, dean, College of Arts and Humanities, Arkansas Tech
University
ferent paths, said Hargis. One is to walk out the door and start
their own business whether a retail store or coffee shop but the
reality is that many college students dont have access to capital,
networks or infrastructure, so the other path is placing students
in small and large businesses that realize the benefit of a
creative, smart work-force.
He said UCA has entrepreneurship grad-uates in different job
titles and business focuses, including what he referred to as
intrapreneurship, which means to apply entrepreneurial values
internally to grow and advance businesses, or business units within
organizations.
Our degree program tries to create pipe-lines and platforms to
succeed. In fact, our students are frequently in business-plan
competitions across the state, he said.
UCAs new major is like an incubator pro-gram, as students are
very focused on busi-ness creativity and innovation. They learn to
recognize the difference between an idea and business demands, they
identify prob-lems and solutions, and they develop new
products.
In fact, its possible that throughout their coursework, theyre
working toward a sin-gle, entrepreneurial end.
This major gives students early exposure to the need-based
business. They use the subsequent classes in the major to build out
their business plans, and they build a portfo-lio as they work
their way through the pro-gram with plans and prototypes, said
Har-gis. The capstone class is a business-plan class to integrate
everything from the idea to finance, teamwork and management.
There is an art to creativity and innova-tion, Hargis said. You
can get better at it.
3. SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGEMENT Arkansas State University
Arkansas State University in Jonesboro is expanding its bachelor
of science in strategic communication with an emphasis in social
media management. Media and communi-cation professor Holly Kathleen
Hall helped design this added option.
This is a huge job-growth area, she said. ASU professors asked
themselves what curriculum would meet the needs of what the
industry was telling the school it was lacking.
When I started at A-State eight years ago, my former dean
encouraged me to de-velop a class in social media, which rolled out
about four or five years ago, she said. We started to get a lot of
calls from local businesses saying they needed help in this area.
We listened.
While she doesnt yet have official num-bers for the brand new
program, Hall said she has a handful of students she advises who
are enrolled in it. Many students in stra-tegic communication
choose more than one area of emphasis, and may also be enrolled in
public relations and advertising courses.
Weve been getting requests from ad and PR agencies, nonprofits,
retail outlets, you name it, she said of the major and its
students. One of the great things about this is that they can major
in this and then they can find an industry theyd really like to
pro-mote via social media.
The focal class is social media in strategic communication,
which teaches the strategic planning process, how to design
platforms and how to write for social media specifical-ly. They
plan a social media campaign for a real client. Students must also
earn Hootsuite
