Daemen College - Overview
Small and Career-focused
Daemen College is a private, non-sectarian liberal arts college located just outside bustling Buffalo, NY. With an undergraduate enrollment of about 2,000, Daemen students enjoy a student to faculty ratio of just 13:1. The wide variety of majors spans the arts and sciences, health and human services, pre-professional programs, and interdisciplinary studies. In addition, the school emphasizes the development of career-relevant competencies.
Liberal Arts Majors
Daemen's approach to the liberal arts includes both the theoretical and the practical. For example, some of the majors in the arts and sciences division -- English, French, Spanish, history and government, and biology -- offer options to become a teacher in the specialized subject.
Other majors at Daemen College from this division include art (including applied design/printmaking, drawing, illustration, graphic design, painting, and sculpture), mathematics, biochemistry, natural sciences, forensics, health science, political science, psychology, and philosophy and religious studies.
Pre-Professional Training
Two majors at Daemen provide options for pre-professional training. The history and government program offers a minor in pre-law, while the biochemistry program offers pre-professional specializations for students interested in dentistry, medicine, and veterinary medicine.
In 2011, Daemen introduced an innovative new art degree -- the Bachelor of Fine Arts in Animation, which will train students to employ art and technology to affect communication in all its forms: entertainment, information dispersal, performance, mass communication, international understanding and intercultural awareness.
Other career-focused degrees of note include the Bachelor of Arts in English specialization in communications and public relations, and the Bachelor of Arts in Psychology specialization in human services.
Health and Human Services Majors
The health and human services academic division also offers an array of majors that enable students to aim for specific careers. Business administration is well represented, with concentrations available in human resource management, international business, management information systems, marketing, and sport management. Accounting is also offered as a major.
Other majors within this division include education, nursing, physician assistant, athletic training, physical therapy, and social work.
Interdisciplinary Study
Daemen provides a unique interdisciplinary opportunity which allows students majoring in history and government, biology, or natural science to earn a specialization in environmental studies. This option is geared toward employment with non-governmental organizations, government agencies, consulting firms, or companies involved in research and development.
Health care studies, another interdisciplinary degree program, integrates physiological, psychological, sociological, behavioral, and business aspects of health and health care. Students choose specializations in community health, complementary and alternative health care practices, or health and fitness training.
Finally, students may pursue the individualized studies major by designing their own programs in conjunction with faculty mentors and the Committee on Interdisciplinary Studies.
Competency-Based Core Curriculum
Daemen College's challenging core curriculum develops its students' ability to think, adapt, and act in a multicultural environment. The curriculum focuses on 7 essential competencies -- critical thinking and creative problem solving, literacy in information and multimedia technology, communication skills, affective judgment, moral and ethical discernment, contextual competency, and civic responsibility. These competencies are fulfilled through coursework in quantitative literacy, research and presentation, English composition, and service learning.
Cooperative Opportunities
The Co-op Program, open to students of all academic disciplines, facilitates part-time internships throughout the academic year and during summer terms. Employers are located in western New York, Washington, D.C., and other locations. The cooperative experience is designed to support each student's personal and career goals.
Wide Ranging Study Abroad Options
Daemen provides a number of study abroad program options, including full academic year, fall or spring semester, 4 to 8 week summer programs, January term, and spring break. The college currently has programs in Florence, Italy; Seville, Spain; Athlone, Ireland; Mexico City and Guanajuato, Mexico; Nova Scotia, Quebec, and British Columbia, Canada; and Havana, Cuba.
Leadership Development
Students have numerous opportunities to develop their leadership skills. The LEADS Center for Student Leadership Development encourages students to participate in roles such as orientation leaders, admissions student representatives, admissions telecounselors, peer mentors, and learning center coaches. The center also offers an innovative series of personal development seminars for the student leader.
The college participates in the Woodhall Institute's college women's ethical leadership training program, which teaches young women leadership skills through workshops in ethics, public speaking, negotiation, interview skills, job-seeking strategies, financial literacy, advocacy, and identity and voice.
Leadership is also fostered through scholarship. Student research and creativity is celebrated every year by the college's Academic Festival, which features student and faculty presentations, exhibitions, and performances.
Varied Student Athletics
Student athletics add to the fun at Daemen College, and include men's basketball, women's basketball, men's soccer, women's soccer, men's golf, women's volleyball, men's and women's cross country, and cheerleading.