Communication - Strategic Communication Track, B.A.

Why study strategic communication at Whitworth?

• Serve in the community through service-learning opportunities to engage with people of different backgrounds and put learning into practice.
• Learn from inspiring and caring professors who are consistently named "most influential" by senior classes. Professors keep their office doors open and seek to foster one-on-one relationships with students.
• Acquire leadership and client relation skills by working for Beyond the Pines, Whitworth's student-run public relations agency. This full-service organization works with nonprofits throughout the region.
• Gain valuable hands-on experience through working in a range of professional organizations.
• Join The Whitworthian student-run newspaper and build your portfolio with news, opinion, feature and sports reporting on your campus community.
• Challenge your worldview through coursework in media literacy, cultural understanding and critical examination. As a strategic communication major, you'll interact with contemporary, real-world situations.
• Use communication as a tool to build bridges among people and communities from the local to the global level.
• Become who you're meant to be.

Ask our faculty

Our strategic communication grads make a difference (and get jobs)

The need for quality, ethical strategic communication is high. It plays a significant role in government, healthcare, education, community services and business. Our graduates possess the strong critical thinking, creative storytelling and overall communication skills that these fields require.

Recent job placements include:

• Maria Vigil, marketing coordinator, Alliance Machine Systems, Spokane
• Skyler Noble, marketing and communications coordinator, Spokane Public Library, Spokane
• Taylor Oddino, account executive, Desautel Hege (public relations agency), Spokane
• Madison Garner, freelance writer, Portland, Ore.
• Lauren Sfeir, web and marketing specialist, Gonzaga University, Spokane

Opportunities outside the classroom

• Join a student organization or department at Whitworth and promote their efforts through marketing and public relations.
• Practice your craft and compete for scholarships through department contests. The department holds an annual oratory contest and multiple writing contests.
• Become a Whitworth Radio staff member and learn how digital radio entertains and informs audiences beyond geographic boundaries.

Pack your bags!

Study the media for a month with communication studies professors in Germany or on the East Coast of the United States. The Media & Society in Germany program will allow you to build your digital storytelling skills in a cross-cultural setting and to examine the mass-media systems of Germany. The Media Impact in the Contemporary U.S. program will take you to New York City and Washington, D.C., where you will visit media companies and learn from executives and scholars about the key issues related to media’s current impact on society.

Tracks

Choose one of four tracks, based on your interests and career goals:

• Communication
• Journalism & Media Studies
• Speech Communication
• Strategic Communication

We also offer minors in communication, communication & culture, communication & technology, and visual communication.

What related majors can I explore?

• Journalism & Media Studies
• English
• Marketing
• Art: Graphic Design Track