Interested in a career in the creative arts? Chaminade University will soon guide students looking to gain positions in visual communications and applied arts, with greater career focus and a clearer path to success.
Beginning in Fall 2027, Chaminade students will have the option to pursue the university’s first Bachelor of Arts in Applied Arts & Digital Media degree. The program is designed to prepare students for careers in creative design, technical media creation, graphic arts, and related fields.
Chaminade already boasts creative majors. This new degree program now consolidates existing course offerings and introduces new fields of study to better prepare students for the working world, in keeping with the university’s 2030 strategic plan of improving the relevance of degree programs and student outcomes post-graduation.
College of Arts & Science co-Dean Cheryl Edelson, Ph.D., said the new Applied Arts & Digital Media degree program is designed to maximize opportunities for students to gain hands-on experience, a task made easier by the university’s size relative to other institutions.
“We’re small enough that you’re going to get to use the video cameras,” Edelson said. “You’re going to get to do analog photography still, and we’ve got cameras.”
The program is also unique, she said, in its incorporation of English, writing, and other curricula which the faculty feels will better prepare students for what the workforce demands today.
The major is a mix of technical and applied skills training.
“We do have some graphic art classes in there, some digital,” Edelson said. “They’ll have to do some studio courses, but there’s also journalism built in.”
Junghwa Suh, D.Arch., Chaminade’s Associate Professor of Arts and Design, helped design the curriculum for the Applied Arts & Digital Media degree alongside Edelson and other colleagues. She said the program is best understood as a mix of artistic expression and design studies with training in practical communications skills.
“It is a combination of art, design, English, media, and communication,” she explained. “So, it’s a very interdisciplinary program. We are trying to introduce the practical application of a creative process, preparing students for careers in design, storytelling, or any kind of creative industries.”
As the online information portal for the program states, the major is designed to teach students “how to turn your creativity into work that connects, communicates, and makes an impact.”
“They are going to have hands-on projects, and they’re going to learn about aspects of graphic design, illustration, publishing, and advertising,” Suh added. “We wanted to see how we can bring in very practical aspects of those fields.”
Introductory courses include applied arts and an arts practicum course.
Other classwork covers colors for interior design, creative work portfolios, creative fiction and poetry writing, nature writing, and studio work for publications. Applied Arts & Digital Media students will also be afforded opportunities to acquire applied training in journalism, digital photography, and digital media management, among other subjects.
The coursework covers “visual design, visual media, creative writing, and writing to build skills in narrative development, technical production, and collaboration,” Suh explained. “Those are the main areas.”
Students can also broaden their horizons through several elective courses taken alongside the core curriculum. By graduation, students will find that their creative instincts are honed while, at the same time, they’re mastering the technical skills necessary to succeed in creative arts and digital media fields.
Suh said she’s excited for the launch of the new Applied Arts & Digital Media undergraduate major, saying it aligns precisely with the changes and evolutions in the creative industries underway today.
“We can allow students to really explore, to create their own niche with this tool set that we’re going to provide,” she said.
“Moving forward in our society,” Suh said, “I think we need more powerful, creative thinkers, and this program is nurturing those creative thinkers, designers out there.”
