By: Brittney Payette
Cameron offers master’s degrees in Business, Psychology and Education.
Department of Business Chair and Assistant Dean Dr. Krystal Brue said that within the business
department, there are two master’s degrees offered — a Master of Business Administration (MBA) and a
Master of Science in Organizational Leadership (MSOL).
Brue said the MBA offered at Cameron is designed for working professionals or recent graduates who
want a competitive advantage.
“This degree provides students with course content in a variety of business disciplines, including
finance, accounting, marketing and management,” she said. “MBA students benefit from connecting
concepts to current business issues and expanding their business knowledge, exposure, and expertise.”
Brue said the MSOL is a versatile degree that is especially helpful for those who want to start or
continue working in government agencies or nonprofits.
“CU’s MSOL has helped students find the value and marketability of a degree that focuses on
leadership and management from a business perspective,” she said. “(Also,) Our graduates have
mentioned that they like how MBA and MSOL faculty care about student learning.”
Professor and Interim Chair of the Psychology Department, Dr. Mary Dzindolet, said that the
Psychology Department at Cameron offers two master’s degrees: the Master of Science in Behavioral
Sciences (MSBS) and the Master of Arts in Mental Health (MAMH).
The MSBS has one track, the general psychology track. The MAMH has two tracks: the counseling
track and the marriage and family track.
Dzindolet said that one of the requirements for admission into one of the master’s programs is to have
a bachelor’s degree.
“We want to encourage people — don’t feel like you have to be a Psychology major to earn one of
these degrees,” she said.
Dzindolet said there are some classes that are required for all of the master’s programs in the
Psychology Department such as Psychopathology, Human Development, Research Methods, etc.
She said that the MAMH counseling track gives the students all the academic requirements to become
a licensed professional counselor in Oklahoma, and the MAMH Marital and Family Counseling track
provides students with all the academic requirements to become a Licensed Marital and Family Counselor
in Oklahoma.
“The counseling track also has an embedded certificate for Alcohol and Drug Counseling (LADC),”
she said. “That certificate gives someone all of the academic requirements to become a LADC in the state
of Oklahoma.”
The MSBS General Psychology track has 11 courses.
“You can finish it full-time in two summers, a fall and a spring (semester),” she said. “It’s real fast.”
Cameron also has the Psychology Clinic, where students can get clinical experience seeing actual
patients. The therapy provided there is completely free for the community. The Oklahoma Board of
Behavioral Health requires that students receive 300 hours of clinical experience.
“Our CPC is a huge advantage for Cameron students,” Dzindolet said. “We have that CPC where you
know you’re going to have good people giving you good training … There are no words to say how
powerful that is.”
She said that both the educational and clinical experience that students receive from Cameron will help
them be prepared to see clients alone.
“You have the tools to be a great therapist or counselor,” she said. “It’s up to you to continue
developing, but we give you the best foundation you can have, and a lot of that is from the CPC.”
Dzindolet said that jobs in the mental health sector are desperately needed.
“One of the missions of the Department of Psychology is to improve the mental health of the people in
the community,” she said. “Opening the CPC meant that people in the community who can’t afford
mental healthcare have a place to go for free, and that’s huge.
Department of Education Chair Stacie Garrett said that Cameron’s Education Department has three
master’s degrees: Master of Education in Education, Master of Education in Reading, and Master of
Science in Educational Leadership.
“We understand that finances and the cost of graduate school is typically the number one concern and
barrier that keeps people from being able to fulfill that graduate level of learning,” she said. “There are
incentives. For example, there is a teach grant that is out there that can offer up a significant amount of
money for reimbursement. There are some microcredentials scholarships embedded into courses and we
do have some graduate tuition waivers to help offset the cost.”
There are some similarities and differences between the masters degrees offered by the Education
Department.
“The Masters of Education in Reading requires that the person has a 3.0 undergrad GPA and holds a
valid teaching certificate,” Garrett said. “There is no years of experience requirement with that.”
The Masters of Science in Educational Leadership also requires a GPA of 3.0 and a valid teaching
certificate and students must have one year of teaching experience.
The Masters of Education in Education requires that the candidate have a 3.0 GPA and hold a teaching
certificate or have passed their Oklahoma General Education Test (OGET) and Oklahoma Subject Area
Test (OSAT.)
People with an undergraduate GPA less than 3.0 can be conditionally admitted to the program.
There are some commonalities between the different master’s in education programs.
“All of our programs require some sort of research course,” she said. “They all have to take that. Not
necessarily the same course. It depends on the program that you’re in. All the master’s degrees consist of
11 classes, so 33 credits all together to obtain a master’s.”
Garrett said that field placements are offered in all of the department’s masters programs to provide
students with a quality learning experience.
“We have partnerships with schools,” Garrett said. “The field placements are embedded into the
courses, and so usually the field placement will somehow align with the course requirement … each class
that they have a field placement (for) will have a minimum of field hours. It varies depending on the
course and on the program.”
For more information about admission into a master’s degree program at Cameron, email the Office of
the Registrar at registrar@cameron.edu.
For more information about the Psychology Department, email marydz@cameron.edu For more
information about the Education Department email sgarrett@cameron.edu. For more information about
the Business Department, email graduate@cameron.edu.