Minors

Designed for non-business majors, the business minor equips students with a range of management skills that will be essential in whatever career they choose to pursue.  Students will learn the language of business, and improve their managerial decision-making, project management, organizational design, and marketing abilities.  Students will develop practical, concrete skills that will increase their appeal in the competitive job marketplace, and will have the opportunity to hone these skills through interaction with King’s top-notch business faculty.

It is not enough to just have knowledge of skills these days. People who understand how art, and the cultures in which they thrive, plays out in the larger society have a leg up on the competition. Beginning with a solid foundation in the historical record of Western Civilization, students in the Culture and the Arts minor study the cultural productions of world cultures and societies: architecture, sculpture, painting, literature, music, drama, religion, and philosophy.  Students learn how to navigate our postmodern world in order to better understand the storylines on which the present day operates.

The Economics minor builds upon the economic training all students receive as part of the common curriculum (Introduction to Economics, Microeconomics, and Economic Thought and Practice). Students take two additional courses, Macroeconomics and Intermediate Microeconomics (or Econometrics when offered), and one economics elective of their choice at the 300 or 400 level. Students with a minor in Economics develop analytical skills and learn how to apply the economic way of thinking to the complexities of the modern world, preparing students for a career in business, data management, government, non-profit, and public policy.

The Finance minor helps you develop competence in mathematics, analytical techniques, and financial modeling, which can support the pursuit of successful careers in the finance industry or provide a competitive advantage for careers in business.

The History minor provides students with an interdisciplinary introduction to the key questions and methods in understanding what events, peoples, and ideas brought humans to the contemporary world.

The International Affairs minor provides students with an interdisciplinary introduction to the key questions, ideas, and institutions that animate contemporary relations among peoples and states.

The International Business minor provides students with a broad-based understanding of key issues in international commerce, politics, and economic development, and offers students the chance to explore opportunities in the global marketplace.

As a hub for business, fashion, sports, book and entertainment journalism, New York is a perfect setting for students to study journalism and prepare for internships at magazines, newspapers, websites or TV networks.  Students learn about reporting and & writing as well as opinion, magazine, and advanced feature writing journalism.   Students also benefit from the presence of The John McCandlish Phillips Journalism Institute at King’s, which brings top journalists to campus for speeches and lectures.  Additionally, The Empire State Tribune, our campus newspaper, is an outlet for student journalists to publish their work and produce videos.

The Literature Minor emphasizes reading original works by great writers in the Western tradition.  Students who minor in Literature will encounter a broad range of imaginative works, including the epics of ancient Greece and Rome, the history of poetry in the English language, the plays of Shakespeare, and a sampling of classics from Europe and America.

As Christian scholars, literature teachers at King’s embrace a strategy of ethical reading that respects the insights of literary theory but affirms that texts can   convey meaning, takes history and social context into account, and helps students enter fully into the inventive worlds of great authors to gain insight into the human condition.

To study mass media is to examine our society’s conversation with itself. The Media minor develops a student’s skill at listening in on that exchange and understanding how it relates to our public and private choices in areas such as entertainment, newsgathering and life in our ever-changing democracy.  The minor offers students the opportunity to examine in some depth what the media are and how they shape our society.  Students interested in opportunities to hone production skills in film, television and social media are able to do so by taking media and film electives.

“Museums are not neutral.” – La Tanya Autry and Mike Murawski

To work in a museum today is to work in a strategic institution at the front lines of the battle over who controls how we view our past, inhabit our present, and plan for our future as a society and as individuals. Museums, their collections, and how their artifacts, art, and objects are displayed are highly contested sites and as such are well within the parameters of the strategic institutions central to the reformational approach of The King’s College mission statement.

The Philosophy minor builds upon the philosophical preparation of the core curriculum (Foundations of Philosophy and Ethics).  Students study the central ideas of the major philosophers, such as Plato and Aristotle in Ancient Philosophy; Augustine, Anselm and Aquinas in Medieval Philosophy; and Descartes and Locke in Modern Philosophy.  Students must also take one 300- or 400-level philosophy elective.  The philosophy minor prepares students to consider the nature of God, the nature of creatures, and the ways in which God superintends His creation.  Students are also challenged to understand the relationships that both God and creatures bear to moral goodness and evil.

The Politics Minor at The King’s College gives students a solid knowledge of politics, including politics outside the United States. Government is the regulation of public affairs, and politics is the means by which people determine whose views of government will prevail.  King’s is rooted in the tradition that urges Christians to engage the political realities of their time. The Politics Minor contributes to that end by requiring students to take courses in political philosophy, American political history, constitutional law, comparative government, and international relations. These requirements ensure that students pursuing the minor are introduced to the main “subfields” of academic political science. The minor is designed to serve as a possible springboard for graduate study in politics or for a career in public service or international affairs.

The Pre-Law Minor at The King’s College offers a competitive advantage to students who plan to attend law school.  Cultivating skills that will be useful in law school and beyond, the minor is open to any student, regardless of major. To prepare students to read legal materials, the minor requires students to take two courses in constitutional law: a survey course, and a more advanced course dealing with civil rights.  Because financial literacy is highly beneficial for attorneys, the minor also requires students to take Financial Accounting and provides an opportunity to take Legal Studies in Business.  Students pursuing the minor will be introduced to the careful evaluation of arguments—a vital skill for law school and legal advocacy—in Foundations of Philosophy, a core-curriculum course at King’s. Finally, the Pre-Law minor requires students to take at least one course in literature.

The minor in Technology, Innovation and Design (housed in the Business and Finance Program) provides students the opportunity to explore various facets of technology and its influence in contemporary culture while also pursuing some of the basic design and technology skills that employers are increasingly looking for. Its flexible structure allows for a mix of courses that cultivate a basic understanding of technology and entrepreneurship, the uses of technology in visual design and communication, coding, handling of digital information, and the philosophy, history, and theology of technology.

The Theology minor builds upon the biblical and theological training that all students receive as part of the common core (Introduction to the Literature of the Hebrew Scriptures, Christianity and Society, Introduction to New Testament, and Foundations of Judeo-Christian Thought). Through additional religion courses, this concentration helps students develop a lens through which to understand the modern world and equip graduates to discern God’s Kingdom in their workplace and communities.