The International Studies Certificate program at UPJ is designed to combine, related course work in areas of study, including foreign language, research tools, core courses, and courses allowing specialized study of a specific region of the world or cross-regional issues or problems. Students focus their study by selecting one of three possible tracks:*Industrialized Countries (Track 1), focusing on the politics, economics, and cultures of industrial democracies, and focusing on economic issues (international trade and finance, global economisc) or international/global relations (diplomacy, international politics, international organizations)*Developing Countries (Track 2), focusing on non-Western societies and issues of international economic and political development and how they interact with the complexities of specific non-Western cultures*Self-Designed Thematic Specialization (Track 3), focused toward the student's intended career direction. Ideally, students will pursue an issue specialization or corss-regional expertise, focusing for example on human rights, democratization, international environmental problems, international women's issues, etc. On occasion, students will choose language training as their theme and develop high-level competency in two or maybe three languages. Since there is considerable latitude under this option, the sequence of courses will have to be pre-approved after close consultation with the IS director. In preparation for this, the student will need to develop a well-defined, clearly stated objective followed by a program of study that can credibly meet that objective. That program will consist of a set of internally coherent courses at the introductory and advanced level. The student will also have to demonstrate his or her mastery of specific tools necessary to achieve the stated objective. Interested students may explore potential directions of study within the international studies certificate program by reviewing a sample tracking sheet that presents illustrations of how they might compose their course selections beginning in the sophomore year. Also, all students pursuing an International Studies Certificate are encouraged to build an appropriate study abroad experience into their curriculum, either during the academic year or during the summer months, and to participate in Model United Nations or Model European Union intercollegiate competitions.
