Archives: Degree Programs
Elementary Education
Elementary and Special Education
Broadcast and Digital Journalism
Aim for new heights with a broadcast and digital journalism degree.
In newsrooms and broadcasting studios across New England and the nation, you’ll find graduates of Lyndon’s broadcast and digital journalism program. That’s because the Lyndon broadcast and digital journalism program is hands-on from day one, preparing you for a career in digital journalism and storytelling.
As a student, you’ll develop real news stories for real audiences — since 1979 residents in fourteen surrounding towns have been relying on our Emmy award-winning campus television broadcast News7 for local news. You’ll put your passion for breaking news, digital media, deadlines, and storytelling that makes a difference from the minute you enter the program. Expert faculty guide you to develop your skills and expertise as a broadcast journalism student and help you prepare for a successful career.
One of only thirty schools in the U.S. that produce a live daily broadcast, the broadcast and digital journalism program produces alumni who succeed. Our graduates have gone on to careers at ESPN, CBS, and other top media outlets and even have won Emmy awards. As a student in the program, you’ll have access to a wide alumni network to help you find internships, jobs, and provide perspective on and insight into the industry.
A REAL-WORLD LABORATORY
Our student-produced broadcasts and social media feeds tell the stories that matter to campus and our surrounding communities.
Hands-On Experience
One of only thirty live, daily, student-run broadcasts in the country, News7 gives you real-world experience as you develop your news gathering, writing, and broadcasting skills for local and online audiences every day. News7 practicum classes plus courses like Social Media in Journalism and Visual Production I and II will give you the foundation you need to launch a successful career in digital journalism.
Telling the Stories that Matter
Broadcast and digital journalism students research, write, and broadcast the stories that impact our campus community and the fourteen area towns that News7 serves. You’ll build your skills and your portfolio while sharing the stories that make a difference.
From TV Screens to Smart Phones
Today’s information landscape takes a range of forms. From our nightly broadcast to our website to our social media channels, Lyndon’s broadcast and digital journalism program shares the stories our communities care about in the formats our audiences are looking for.
SUCCESSFUL CAREERS START HERE
At NVU-Lyndon, you’ll not only work in our broadcasting studio in front of the camera and behind the scenes — you’ll also expand your skills, gain experience, and build your resume through internships on campus and in newsrooms around the region. As our more than eighty awards and long roster of alumni in newsrooms across the country demonstrate, Lyndon’s broadcast and digital journalism program prepares you for success.
Professional Development
In addition to News7, Lyndon students are involved in other campus media outlets, like the Lyndon Critic news site and the Lyndon radio station, WWLR, 91.5 FM. Students also gain professional experience by working at local media companies like Northeast Sports Network and Kingdom Access Television. Students also learn and build networks by participating in campus chapters of the Society of Professional Journalists and Alliance for Women in Media.
Award-Winning Broadcasts and Students
Since 2004, our students and daily News7 broadcast have garnered 80 regional and national awards, including being named a Top 25 Journalism program three years in a row and an Emmy as the nation’s best college newscast.
Lyndon Alumni Success
You’ll find alumni of Lyndon’s broadcast and digital journalism program in nearly every affiliate station in New England and upstate New York, as well as across the country — we have more than 30 alumni at ESPN alone! Our reputation for producing excellent broadcasters, editors, photojournalists, and reporters means that our graduates are in demand. And as a student, you’ll benefit from an extensive professional network of Lyndon graduates who are happy to help connect and advise you.
MEET OUR STUDENTS
Nick Anastasi ’19
As a reporter, Nick has covered fires, government meetings, police reports, the 2018 mid-term elections, and many other stories. “You become a part of the community. When I go to the grocery store, someone always stops me and says, ‘You’re on News7!’ To have an impact on other people’s lives is a treat, too.”
Emma Quinn ’19
“The broadcast and digital journalism alumni, in particular, are a very close group,” Emma says. “Being able to say I’m from NVU, they automatically know the quality of work I’m capable of doing. It gives me an extra foot in the door. The alumni know what it’s like to be at News7…They’re very open to helping others with their careers.”
Rachel Valentine ’21
Rachel plans a career in sports broadcasting, so she’s pursuing a minor in sport management. “The minor has tied in really well with my journalism major, and I think it will help me,” she says. “The biggest thing for me is that every opportunity at Lyndon, if you want to do it you can do it. If there’s something you’re interested in, professors will help you. They want to see you succeed.”
Early Childhood Education
Dance
Northern Vermont University is one of the best places to study the art of dance. In our program, you will practice in our remodeled dance studio and perform on stage at the Dibden Center for the Arts on campus. As a dance student, you’ll also blend your dance with theater, music, and design so you’ll get more out of your education. Works are often created with all four of these disciplines in the same room with creators wearing multiple hats. As a choreographer, you may also be the director, writer, or video designer. This multi-disciplinary approach will prepare you for a job in the type of dance that is happening in today’s modern world of performance arts.
As you navigate move through your degree program, you will receive training in traditional and classical techniques and apply this training in the creation of new works, never before seen.
Follow Your Direction
Is teaching the direction you want to follow? You can pursue Vermont licensure endorsement to teach dance in grades 7-12 through our education department. Additional career options for dance students include choreographer, studio manager, artistic director, dance/movement therapist, and event planner at arts councils, theaters, dance studios, camps, fitness centers, and other workplaces.
A Hands-On Learning
To help prepare you for your dance career, faculty won’t run your shows — you will. At NVU, students write, direct, and design their own pieces. You will also learn to contact professional venues, pitch your work, and perform on main stage theaters across Vermont. By coordinating every aspect of a theater production, you will enter the world of professional dance with a big advantage.
Your two senior capstone courses will prepare you for your career beyond NVU. In the first capstone, you will build your portfolio by single-handedly designing and completing a project in anyone, or a combination of, our concentrations. In the second, you will master important aspects of the theater profession — including audition preparation, resume and portfolio creation, interview skills, and self-promotion and branding.
Restorative Justice
Focus Your Criminal Justice Degree on Restorative Justice at NVU.
Campus-Based Program at NVU-Lyndon
NVU-Lyndon’s innovative and comprehensive concentration in restorative justice is one of the firsts of its kind in the nation. Restorative and transformative justice are growing movements in both the fields of criminal justice as well as education. You’ll graduate with hands-on experiential knowledge about implementing restorative justice practices in your professional career, whether in policing or corrections, in victims’ advocacy work, or in schools as counselors, educators, or community resource officers.
Hallmark features of this concentration include advanced courses on applied restorative justice methods, victimology, as well as the foundation of peace-making theories. You’ll learn the skills and techniques of conducting restorative conferences as well as leading mediation circles. In addition, our program has a strong partnerships with leading restorative justice professionals in the state of Vermont — many of our students have completed internships or gained employment with the St. Johnsbury Community and Restorative Justice Center and Orleans County Restorative Justice Center.
Within restorative justice practices, circles are used widely as a response to crime, within schools to address student misconduct and/or conflict, as well as to offer support for offenders returning to the community. This past year, students in our applied restorative justice practices course participated in a circle with an offender, drawing upon their theoretical foundation of restorative and transformative justice as well as practicing the skills and techniques learned in their courses. This concentration would be well utilized by criminal justice students as well as students pursuing degrees in the fields of psychology, human services, social work, and education.
Courses within this concentration include: Race, Class, Gender, and Crime; Victimology; Community and Restorative Justice; Applying Restorative Justice Practices; and Peace Making.
Hybrid Option for NVU-Johnson Students
Starting in fall 2019, students at our Johnson campus can earn a bachelor of science in criminal justice with a concentration in restorative justice through our hybrid program. Take your general education classes on the Johnson campus*; complete your criminal justice major classes online.
* Campus-based students can also take online general education classes.
Criminal Justice
Pursue a Degree or Minor in Criminal Justice at Northern Vermont University
Student-Centered, Career-Oriented Curriculum
The criminal justice program at NVU-Lyndon allows students interested in a range of careers or who plan to go on to graduate school, to earn a B.S. or A.S. in criminal justice.
Our student-centered curriculum is unique, flexible, and allows you to focus on the areas of criminal justice studies that appeal to your interests. We offer summer, winter, condensed, and online classes as well, to work with your schedule and to make it possible for you to finish your degree early.
A broad range of course offerings will allow you to critically examine the criminal justice system as a whole. You’ll study traditional criminal justice systems, such as law enforcement, corrections, courts, and juvenile justice systems. You’ll also have the chance to explore contemporary issues such as terrorism, media and crime, environmental justice, and women, girls, and crime. No matter what your focus, however, you’ll graduate well-prepared for a career or graduate studies.
Unique Course Offerings
Classes like Investigation Sciences, GIS Crime Mapping in Communities, Advanced GIS Techniques, as well as a course on program evaluation and policy analysis (Criminal Justice Administration) will help you develop the professional, marketable skills you need to stand out in the job market. Our program also offers special topics courses offered each year, giving you the opportunity to explore contemporary criminal justice issues not often examined in depth within CRJ programs, such as hate crimes, the war on drugs, gangs, and rural criminology.
STUDENT PROFILE
Cole Stillson ’19
Cole Stillson ’19 wasn’t sure what he wanted to major in when he started at NVU-Lyndon, but it didn’t take him long to decide
An introductory criminal justice course taught by assistant professor Brandon Stroup showed him the path he wanted to follow, and he began making career plans. “The first criminal justice class just clicked with me,” Cole says. “I see laws as the representation of how politics or the opinions of people in power are expressed in public. I really want to be involved in that.”
INTERNSHIPS, PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT, AND CAREERS
As a student in our criminal justice program, you’ll have countless opportunities to gain professional experience, learn from experts, build your resume, and expand your professional network.
Internships
Lyndon criminal justice program students have interned at:
- The Vermont Attorney General’s Office
- Northeast Correctional Facility
- The Vermont Corrections Academy
- Northeast Kingdom Youth Services
- The St. Johnsbury Community and Restorative Justice Center
- Local and State Police Departments
Networking and Professional Development
Students in the Criminal Justice Club participate in and help organize speaker series events, trips to the Border Patrol base in Newport, VT, participate in social trips to Montreal, and group study sessions. Students have also traveled and presented their independent student research alongside CRJ faculty members at the Northeastern Association of Criminal Justice Sciences annual meetings.
Careers for Criminal Justice Majors
Our alumni have gone on to careers in:
- Local and state police departments
- Correctional facilities
- Program/case workers in criminal justice and social work fields
- Federal law enforcement (Department of Homeland Security and FBI)
- Human trafficking investigations (both nationally and internationally), and graduate school
Associate of Science in Criminal Justice
NVU-Lyndon’s A.S. in criminal justice offers a flexible, student-centered curriculum that can be completed in a year and a half to two years. Summer, winter, condensed, and online class offerings enable you to complete your degree on your schedule.
View A.S. RequirementsConcentrations
Minors
Minor in Criminal Justice
As a criminal justice minor, you’ll gain a basic understanding about the field of criminal justice as you take classes in sociology, psychology, law and law enforcement, judicial process, criminology, corrections, ethics, and more.
View Requirements
Minor in Restorative Justice
A restorative justice minor provides you with a comprehensive theoretical background in the fields of peace-making and restorative justice as well as coursework involving the hands-on, experiential practices of applying restorative justice methodology. The restorative justice minor pairs well with majors in psychology, human services, social work, and education.
View Requirements
Pre-Law Minor
The pre-law minor, available at the Johnson and Lyndon campuses, will prepare students who plan to pursue a law degree. The minor covers criminal justice, political science, English and writing, and history. Some courses include: Criminal Law, U.S. Constitutional Law, and American Judicial Process.
View Johnson Requirements View Lyndon RequirementsCreative Writing
Elevate Your Thinking with a B.F.A. Degree in Creative Writing from Northern Vermont University
As a student in our creative writing program at NVU-Johnson, you’ll work with award-winning professors who share your passion for the well-turned phrase, the blinding insight, the masterful plot twist. We teach the craft of fiction, poetry, and prose through literature courses and writing workshops. Our small classes and individualized instruction help you find your voice and fine-tune your craft.
As an aspiring writer, you’ll find yourself in good company. You’ll learn from the poets and writers who visit campus for lectures and readings. The internationally known Vermont Studio Center, just minutes from campus, presents a regular reading series for the many resident and visiting writers hosted there every year.
You’ll graduate from NVU with a strong writing portfolio and solid publishing experience. Through internships with our nationally recognized Green Mountains Review literary journal and work on our undergraduate student literary journal, Pamplemousse, you’ll gain real-world publishing skills and experience.
Our creative, collaborative, and supportive community of writers will help you develop your voice and speak it.
Secondary Licensure
Students who earn a bachelor of arts degree in creative writing are eligible to pursue endorsement for secondary education teacher licensure. Learn more about licensure requirements here.
Computing
Follow your sense of purpose with an A.S. in computing from Northern Vermont University.
Students in the associate of science in computing program at NVU-Lyndon learn about computer systems and the way humans and computers interact from a scientific perspective. You’ll get instruction in networking, hardware, security, databases, and system development. Our students gain a solid understanding of the technological infrastructure that drives the modern world and discover all the opportunities computer science offers for creativity and innovation.
You will graduate with a foundation of knowledge and problem-solving and critical-thinking skills to give you a competitive advantage in your career search, whatever computing field you choose.