Advertising Core Marketing Electives Communications Media General Education

ADVERTISING CORE

Takes an applied, data driven, approach to marketing decisions such as measuring the effectiveness of promotions, pricing strategy, and market segmentation. Analytics refers to the ways in which businesses can use data to gain insights, make better decisions and obtain critical strategic advantage. Students will study marketing problems and learn how different types of data and methodologies can be used to solve these problems. Students will learn both descriptive and predictive techniques to help make marketing decisions. They will learn and apply statistical methodologies for analytics in order to make smart decisions for effective brand management. Techniques for decision-making are explored along with Web analytics, performance metrics and ROI.

This course is designed to develop an overall perspective of the advertising process and explores how it fits into society. This introductory course will include the history of advertising, advertising agencies and their current role in the ad world, advertising tools and methods used to communicate a unified message, the use of media and creativity, ethics and legal issues in advertising, advertising as a means of communication, advertising as an economic and social institution, and advertising as an influence on consumer-buying decisions and behavior. Looking at the impact of advertising within culture through a Roman Catholic lens will be explored as well.

Applied Market Research offers students an overview of market research techniques and primary and secondary research strategies informed by a Christian code of conduct. The course is designed to provide them with the principles, vocabulary, tools and practice necessary to identify a market demographic, write a research brief, develop and implement a research study, and analyze the findings.

This course teaches students to develop brand building ideas ranging from strategic to tactical and from rational to emotional. Students will learn to develop and examine ideas that differentiate brands, build sales and affect market share. The course will detail how to design comprehensive brand experiences and communications for real-world companies and customers. Class projects will require students to think about all aspects of the consumer experience. The class will teach how to produce comprehensive campaigns that develop strategic and creative brand experiences for customers. Ethical considerations faced by industry practitioners will be explored.

This course builds on the premise that Creative without strategy is called ‘art.’ Creative with strategy is called ‘advertising.’ The introductory course surveys the field of advertising campaigns within multiple mediums including Social, Mobile, Interactive, TV, Outdoor, Print and Emerging Technologies. It examines the advertisingprocess from the perspectives of creative, business and technology. It explores how ad campaigns can influence culture for the better or worse.

Students pursuing a Marketing & Advertising emphasis in business will complete a senior project spanning 3 quarters that serves as the cumulation of marketing & advertising courses. Students will complete real-world advertising project under faculty supervision.

MARKETING ELECTIVES (Optional)

A course designed for an aspiring entrepreneur to apply a proven process to generate leads for possible sales. Upon completion of the course, students will be prepared to assess marketing opportunities and target markets, as well as know how to integrate marketing and sales tactics/strategies to support business development. Students will implement a lead generation strategy for their individual venture or example business, and design a multipronged approach to reach the sphere of influence.

Students will explore the field of public relations from both journalistic and corporate points of view. Through discussion, case studies, and individual and group projects, they will develop an awareness of the important roles branding, PR, and publicity play in our society; learn the differences between news, opinion, advertising, and propaganda; discover basic strategies and tools for attracting publicity and dealing with press attention, and wrestle with the moral and ethical aspects of creating and maintaining a compelling, authentic public image.

A course designed for the entrepreneur, focusing on strategies to develop long-term business relationships. Students apply a proven process to increase sales and are prepared for likely selling scenarios and learn the most effective methods to handle them. Students learn different sales strategies and can determine which method works most effectively for him/her.

This course focuses on issues central to an enterprise’s long- and short-term competitive position. Students learn the importance of sound strategic thinking and apply this knowledge to classroom exercises.

This class is designed to help students develop drawing skills by translating what students observe about three-dimensional objects into lines and shapes on a two dimensional medium, while incorporating surface textures and varying line qualities into object and environment design concepts.

COMMUNICATIONS MEDIA

A theoretical and practical introduction to the human phenomenon of storytelling, what stories are, their central role in culture from ancient times to the present day, and how storytellers seek and communicate meaning. Particular attention will be paid to the significance of story in the Judeo-Christian tradition and story’s role within the Christian faith. Students will generate numerous story ideas, and with the help of their classmates and the instructor will evaluate those ideas in terms of audience appeal, theme and meaning.

This course introduces students to the diverse world of radio, television, news, cinema, internet, print and advertising. Students will learn how to critically experience such media and analyze its desired results. Students will also explore how media has developed and evolved through history and examine the current influences of media on society from a cultural, artistic and economic perspective. In addition, we will explore what the role of Christians in this new media environment can and should be, and how we can best utilize the opportunities available to us to become who we want to be.

This class will study some of the most important films in American cinema to understand the cultural context in which they were created, the role of the director in the filmmaking process, and the lasting legacy that the various films enjoy.

The course examines the legal relationships in the motion picture and television industries, as well as the legal relationships between artists and their personal managers. It covers the key legal principles that are involved in most media productions. This includes with trade unions, licensing, intellectual property and contract issues. In addition, this course explores ethical challenges students are likely to encounter working in entertainment and guides them through the development of a personal code of ethics that is informed by the life and teachings of Jesus Christ.

In this course students identify their specialized interest and value within the media industry, and through the creation of a comprehensive career strategy, use specialized knowledge, skills and experience to prepare themselves to be hired by media companies and promote themselves within the media industry. The class will also look at the unique world of freelancing and give students the tools necessary to venture into self-employment.

ELECTIVES (Pick at least 6)

Introduction to the elements and principles of design, composition design, color theory, color psychology, and basic typography. Practical guidance in color mixing and the visual impact of specific color combinations to support traditional and digital design work.

Study of fundamental drawing techniques used to represent three-dimensional objects on a two-dimensional plane and lay a strong foundation for all other drawing and design courses.

This course explores the influences and effects of major graphic design trends through the 20th and 21st centuries and how they impact today’s design.

A thorough breakdown of the process of creating from initial concepts to final design taught by professionals in the design industry.

This class focuses on applying industry-standard storyboarding and scripting techniques to Animation/Film production. Topics to be covered include the various purposes and formats of storyboards, the basic terminology and concepts used in storyboarding, and the application of storyboarding techniques to the creation of storyboards with or without a written script. Using Scripts, Sound Tracks, and Character Designs provided by the teacher, students create several Storyboards and presentation Animatics (movies of the Storyboard Panels that are timed to the Sound Tracks).

Introduction to digital image manipulation in Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator. A comprehensive exploration into various components of Photoshop including: layers, channels, filters, brushes, pen and other image creation and manipulation tools for the purpose of designing meaningful digital artwork.

This course focuses on the anatomy and form, context, and motion of typography as a powerful communication tool across a variety of physical and digital media.

Social Media Marketing is a broad term that refers to any online marketing effort initiated through social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn. This marketing discipline often combines social media management and paid digital marketing efforts (advertising). This course will explore the ever changing landscape of social media, understand the current social media ecosystem, examine best use case scenarios for businesses on each platform, understand how social media management (tactical) and social media advertising (strategic) is utilized by businesses on multiple platforms, and generate best practices through management and advertising. Each platform’s advertising options will be explored in depth. The course will also examine ethical issues currently caused by Social Media Platforms in society and apply a Catholic viewpoint to tackling these issues.

Students will learn how to effectively communicate visually through a brand to create several compelling and cohesive identities.

This course is an introduction to the creative process needed when designing and producing animation for the screen. Students will complete several projects designed to introduce them to the process necessary to take an idea from the conceptual phase, further develop and refine it, and then transform it into a tangible, animated element. Students will also further develop their understanding and use of Adobe After Effects, which is the primary tool of execution for this class.

A thorough breakdown of the process of creating from initial concepts to final design taught by professionals at one of the top design studios in San Diego.

General Education

THEOLOGY

Recent popes have emphasized the necessity of personal encounter with Jesus Christ. This exhortation raises questions, however, for individual Christian disciples. For JPCatholic students, specifically, this course considers how such an encounter can be fostered within a university community, and how it might be lived in an ongoing way. It therefore doubles as an introduction to university community and to Catholic theological study, and connects faith principles with lived experience so as to bolster faith and spur evangelization.

What is it to believe? Is it merely intellectual assent, or something more? Building out from the first section of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, this course systematically unpacks the rich and challenging Catholic doctrines contained in the early creeds of the Church, presenting students with a faith that invites assent of all their heart, mind, soul, and strength.

Our redemption was accomplished by a God who entered history. As a consequence, Catholics understand communion as something that occurs in a context of tradition. Faith is handed down over centuries by the successors of the apostles; we read and interpret Sacred Scripture according to long-established understandings and principles; our prayer to the Father through Jesus Christ in the Holy Spirit bears a striking resemblance to that of the first Christian communities. This course examines sacramental ritual and considers the perennial necessity of personal prayer, enabling students to better understand the power of this ancient faith. In its essential elements it never changes—which is precisely what allows it to change us.

It is all too easy to see one’s own desires as what really matters, and to live accordingly. With his Theology of the Body, however, Pope St. John Paul the Great offers a fresh perspective, one that dares to lift us above the confusion and malaise wrought by this era’s remarkable selfishness. This course affords students an opportunity to explore this theological treasure given to the Church by our university’s patron, and to better see how an individual human life can be lived not selfishly, but as a gift received from God and intended for others.

In this course the student explores the Scriptures, particularly the four Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John) to understand the person of Jesus Christ. This Scripture course serves as the starting point for JPCatholic University’s religion curriculum. While examining some of the basic literary and historical issues relating to Scripture study, the course also introduces students to the theological principles of Catholic biblical exegesis. The course also explores ways the study of Scripture enhances the life of prayer.

PHILOSOPHY

In this course students learn about the basic structures of sound reasoning, focusing largely on classic Aristotelian logic. The course serves to help students think and argue with clarity as well as to effectively analyze arguments of others. The course includes a careful analysis of the operations of the intellect, i.e., understanding, judgment, and reasoning, focusing on their products, i.e., term, proposition, and syllogism.

This course is a detailed study in the various understandings of nature, beginning from the mythology of the Enuma Elish as a primitive attempt at grasping the world, to the classical understanding found in Aristotle’s Physics and 141 Parts of Animals and their Medieval development in Thomas Aquinas’s The Principles of Nature, to foundational texts in modern natural sciences such as those of Descartes, Galileo and Newton, to discussions of evolution found in Darwin, and finally to near contemporary physicists such as Heisenberg. The contrast between the classical stress on substantial form and formal causality and the modern method of material causality and mathematical law will be brought to the forefront, as will the emphasis on technology as a mastery of nature in modern science and the question of teleology, whether nature acts for a purpose.

After providing an overview of the basic principles of the Philosophy of Nature, this course examines the nature of the human being, beginning from the Epic of Gilgamesh, continuing through the Classical period by means of Aristotle, the Middle Ages in St. Thomas Aquinas, the Renaissance via Blaise Pascal, and concluding in the modern period in Nietzsche, Freud and T. S. Eliot.

This is a course in the various understandings of metaphysics, or the nature of being as being, beginning from Plato’s Timaeus, continuing through the Classical period by means of Aristotle, and the Middle Ages in St. Thomas Aquinas. The course continues by covering several related questions, beginning with Natural Theology (discussing the traditional proofs for the existence of God, the Divine Attributes that can be understood using reason alone, the analogy of being, and the act of creation), continuing with the “problem of evil” and the question of free will

HUMANITIES

As this course engages apparently timeless literary works from the classical tradition, it situates them within specific historical contexts. This approach enables students to better appreciate the enduring power of story even as they recognize the complex relationship art to its surrounding culture. Masterworks of pagan antiquity (Homer and/or Virgil) give way to key texts of early Christendom (Augustine, Beowulf, and others) in order to further illuminate the impact of Christian theology and anthropology on artists and thinkers in myriad disciplines.

This course tracks the development in European art and thought during the transition from the High Middle Ages to the Renaissance. Special attention is paid at the outset to the tensions arising from, surrounding, and even bringing about this epochal shift, especially as evidenced in Dante’s Divine Comedy. When the course later shifts its focus to texts produced by Shakespeare and other authors in Renaissance England, students find these tensions now located in increasingly realistic and complex human figures and dramas. Through these explorations students come to see the distinctive groundwork being laid for what will later be recognized as the modern period.

This third course in our Cultural Foundations series tracks the rise of modernity against the backdrop of various 18th and 19th century upheavals. In order to best appreciate the dynamism and complexity of this period, students will immerse themselves in the literary form most characteristic of the 19th century: the novel. By applying order to an increasingly dissonant world, the great novels of the European tradition illuminate daily life amidst revolutionary change in a uniquely personal way, and they capture in their progress both the subtlest movements of human consciousness and the most profound transformations of human hearts.

This course studies a wide variety of global cultures by listening to indigenous voices expressing themselves in cultural products that include novels, films, music, poetry, essays, speeches, and journalism.

This course examines how media and business shape the attitudes, practices and beliefs of individuals and groups, and develops in students a rich understanding of the subtle and powerful cultural currents swirling around them, so that they can make valuable contributions to the development of future cultures. Students will consider critically how media and business shape them, learning to recognize the attitudes, assumptions, arguments and ideas promoted by media and business enterprises and products. They will develop a full, thoughtful and practical understanding of what cultures are and how they grow, and of the university’s mission to Impact Culture for Christ. They will gain an understanding of how Christians are perceived by the cultures around them, and appreciate how one gains the privilege of participation in the shaping of cultures. Finally, students will learn to articulate what of value they have to offer the cultures around them, and how they hope to make that contribution over the course of their lives and careers.

This course will emphasize the use of correct grammar, usage, spelling, punctuation, and mechanics. Students will be required to apply these skills to writing assignments.

This course will build on the skills learned in HUMA122 College Writing I.

(* Must take one of these two courses)

SCIENCE AND MATHEMATICS

This course provides students with concepts and strategies related to practical financial and personal decision-making. Taking a holistic approach, students will be given the tools to manage not just their personal finances, but their investments in time, service, etc. Topics will include budgeting, spending, hsaving, borrowing, investing, time management, tithing, and giving.

This course will familiarize students with fundamental scientific concepts and explore how the application of those concepts affects society and global economics. Topics include: the structure of the atom and its applications in biology and physics; circuits, Artificial Intelligence, and the Internet of Things; DNA, diseases, and vaccines. Each topic builds towards the question, "what does Catholic teaching tell us about how we as Christians live and participate in this rapidly changing world?"

BUSINESS

In today’s world there is a need for strategic thinking and business vision based on a different paradigm. Competition is not only between products and services, but also between business models. Students will learn about innovation-driven business strategies and methodologies to develop business designs to successfully compete in the new economy.

This course teaches the principles of project management that are commonly used to plan and measure projects in industry. It presents the project management mind-set, tools, and skills for successfully defining, planning, executing, monitoring, controlling, and reporting a project. Topics covered include: the project life cycle, fundamental PM processes, development of the project plan, interpersonal management skills, and managing changes during project execution. Case studies are from technology and media applications.

This course focuses on introducing the idea of “entrepreneurial marketing” and is aimed at students who plan to start a new venture or take a job as a marketing professional pursuing an innovative marketing approach. Students will study a full spectrum of marketing strategy and tactics that are especially suitable for entrepreneurial firms aiming for high growth and innovation yet faced by limited resources and uncertain industry dynamics. Students will work in teams on marketing plans for their own venture or for other high profile entrepreneurs or executives. The focus of this course is on hands-on experiences and practical relevance of innovative marketing concepts.

In this class students get a “big picture” look at the ingredients of a start-up firm and the process of creating one. The class details those ingredients, discusses the stories (good & bad) of people who have done it, and learn the process by going through it with a self-select team. Students learn: the business planning process, which maps how to move from an idea to an actual enterprise offering an actual product/service/apostolate; How to craft a compelling and clear business story that captures the true essence of your business; and finally acquire inquisitiveness as to how the world of business really works. The class deliverable is a complete Business Plan created by student teams along with a presentation of the plan.

This course teaches students to meet and resolve objections and conflicts that result from written and oral proposals and pitches. Emphasis is on resolving customer obstacles before addressing your own. Topics covered include: Wants vs. Needs; Win-Win Strategies; Best Alternatives to Agreement; Schedule vs. Quality vs. Cost; Progress vs. Perfection. The class progresses through carefully structured, progressively more complex negotiation exercises. Students learn how external and internal negotiation has become a way of life for effective managers in a constantly changing business environment.

This course is an introductory-level course for students. Its intent is to give an in-depth understanding of the differences between – and similarities of — leadership and management. The course focuses on the major traits of leaders and managers, and augments these with examples of great historic leaders, including George Custer and Jesus Christ. The course also studies the many leadership traits of Abraham Lincoln, and looks at how these can be applied in modern business to improve management techniques. As part of the learning process, students give summaries of Lincoln’s leadership lessons, using short, Power Point presentations.

This course will teach students how to write and speak effectively in business and other communication.


* Must take one of these two courses

Please note that course offerings and course descriptions are subject to change. Current Students: Please reference the relevant University Catalog to find the course listings and descriptions applicable to your cohort.