English Program

The Center for Teacher Education offers a comprehensive program of study that leads to licensure in Colorado. Our professors are experienced, knowledgeable, accessible and dedicated to the improvement of public education. At Colorado Mesa University, we pride ourselves on the personal touch. Faculty offer one-on-one guidance for course selection, field placements, student teaching and employment. Our mission is to develop educators as innovators; we are always looking to improve the quality of learning in our programs and K-12 schools. As a student, you will gradually accumulate over 200 hours of classroom experience before beginning student teaching. School districts throughout western Colorado provide opportunities to gain experience with children of all ages and backgrounds in a variety of school settings. The secondary licensure program provides teacher education candidates with broad content knowledge in English and prepares them as teachers for grades 7 through 12. A minimum of 75 credit hours of Essential Learning and content area coursework must be completed with a minimum GPA of 2.80 before a candidate may apply for admission to the Center for Teacher Education secondary licensure program. Please see the Teacher Education Admission Packet for further information on admissions criteria. EDUC 115 and EDUC 215, must be taken before applying to the program.

The skills a student develops as an English major, such as writing, editing, problem-solving, critical thinking, and analysis, are highly prized by employers in nearly every profession. The English program is proud of what it offers— cultural experiences, unique and interesting courses and instruction, committed faculty and support staff and a desire to provide the best liberal arts education possible. Many occupations require individuals who can write and speak well, solve problems, learn new information quickly, and work well with others on a team. This means that English graduates use their education in a wide variety of fields, and your future career may relate more to your personal career interests, work values, and transferable skills than anything specific to the content of your major. Who hires English majors? Book publishers, magazines, arts organizations, political offices, large corporations, radio/television stations, advertising agencies, social service agencies, chambers of commerce, research institutions, marketing consultants, newspapers, greeting card publishers, law firms, public interest organizations, consumer action groups, health organizations, educational institutions, literary agencies, theaters, printing firms, high tech firms, tutoring services, public and corporate libraries, government agencies and public relations firms.

The English minor should be of interest to students who want to broaden their backgrounds in the liberal arts as well as to those planning careers in which experience in literature and writing is useful, such as law, journalism, advertising, theatre, business, public service or graduate study in other academic subjects.

The Editing and Technical Communication certificate offers students a valuable and focused skill set that combines copy editing, expertise in producing technical documents, and common technology used in the field. Every occupation requires individuals who can write and speak well, solve problems, learn new information quickly, and work well with others on a team. More specifically, many fields and occupations require quantitative analysis, but they also need to produce correct, well-written and audience-appropriate documents. A certificate in Editing and Technical Communication prepares students to support and produce these documents. Who would hire someone with a certificate in Editing and Technical Communication? First, any organization that produces documents to read, from every conceivable kind of publisher to individuals and groups that produce online content. Second, technical fields—e.g. engineering, science, health sciences, computer software, etc.—are constantly producing documents and presentations, and these forms of communication need editors, writers and presenters.