The Creative Writing major prepares students to become socially aware professional writers and creative professionals. Towards that end, the creative writing program provides students with the opportunity to engage with issues of environmental awareness and social justice through creative practice. Students also gain a depth and breadth of understanding of literature, enabling them to analyze and evaluate how their creative practice engages, revises, or contests literary traditions, genres, and forms. The purpose of combining literary studies and creative practice is to produce a unique form of aesthetic maturity. In their course of study, majors explore three writing genres, gain expertise in two, and create a polished creative portfolio in one while minors gain skill in two writing genres. By the end of the program, students will be able to create original, compelling creative work by achieving breadth and understanding of the techniques of creative craft and form across two genres.