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2025-2026

Gender, Sexuality and Women's Studies, Bachelor of Arts (NEXT STEP Pathway)

VCU

Community college:
Associate of Arts in Liberal Arts (Brightpoint Community College)
Brightpoint Community College
Associate degree

Associate of Arts in Liberal Arts

Completing the associate degree will waive VCU's general education requirements.

Program description

The Department of Gender, Sexuality and Women’s Studies is committed to social transformation. Representing a wide range of disciplines, faculty in the department produce and disseminate interdisciplinary feminist knowledge and theories, and view them as vitally connected to community engagement and activism. The department encourages students to understand gender and sexuality as inextricably bound to other forms of difference and to examine how the construction of difference produces and reinforces social, cultural, economic and political inequities.

Career opportunities

Students in the department are introduced to new analytical, theoretical and creative frameworks to enable them to understand, critique and transform themselves and the world around them. Through teaching, activism, scholarly and creative production and community engagement, the department provides analytical and critical tools to equip students for careers in a broad range of fields, including but not limited to non-profits/NGOs, social services, health care, art production, publishing, education, social justice, and law.


Gender, Sexuality and Women’s Studies provides the background for students to understand, critique and transform themselves and the world around them. Through teaching, activism, scholarly and creative production and community engagement, the department provides analytical and critical tools to equip students for careers in a broad range of fields, including but not limited to non-profits/NGOs, social services, health care, art & media production, publishing, education, government and international development agencies, social justice, and law.

Bachelor-level job titles
  • Clinical Research Coordinator
  • Fundraiser 
  • High School Teacher
  • Human Resource Specialist
  • Marketing Research Specialist
  • Medical Records and Health Information Technicians
  • Social and Human Services Assistant 
  • Social Science Research Assistant
  • Staff and Legislative Assistant    
  • Technical Writer
  • Training & Development Specialist
Graduate and professional level job titles
  • Attorney
  • College Professor or Administrator
  • Nonprofit Director
  • Social Worker
Contact information

 

VCU Transfer Center

Telephone: (804) 827-1349

Email: transferinfo@vcu.edu

Transfer Advising Request

VCCS Transfer Planning Checklist


Office of Admissions

Telephone: (804) 828-1222 or (800) 841-3638

Email: ugrad@vcu.edu
Apply Here.

Guaranteed transfer admission requirements

Students are guaranteed admission to this degree program with:

  • Completion of the associate degree
  • Minimum GPA of 2.5
  • All courses completed with a "C" grade or better
Degree requirements in Bulletin
Plan of study in Bulletin
Requirements
Highest level of math required
  • Quantitative Foundations requirement only
Science required
  • Natural Sciences requirement only
Foreign language requirements
  • Yes
Additional tuition/fees
  • No
GPA requirements (to progress/graduate in the major)
  • 2.0
VCU Major Maps

View VCU Major Map for Gender, Sexuality and Women’s Studies with concentration in Health, Society and Social Justice

Transfer major map
Visit majormaps.vcu.edu for the online version with links.
Sponsored by the Office of the Provost
Major map compass icon
2025-2026

Gender, Sexuality and Women's Studies, Bachelor of Arts (NEXT STEP Pathway)

Brightpoint Community College (Associate of Arts in Liberal Arts)

MAXIMIZE COURSE AND DEGREE PLANNING GET CONNECTED WITH YOUR COMMUNITY DEVELOP CULTURAL AGILITY EXPLORE CAREERS AND DEVELOP ESSENTIAL SKILLS PREPARING FOR LIFE AFTER COLLEGE
Explore Year 1
  • Register for SDV 100.
  • Schedule an advising appointment with your Brightpoint advisor.
  • Be prepared for academic challenges in your classes and use tutoring to get ahead.
  • Cultivate relationships with your professors.
  • Explore financial aid resources and submit the FAFSA on time.
  • Attend cultural events at community college and VCU to celebrate diversity.
  • Attend VCU’s annual Intercultural Festival or another community intercultural event.
  • Make friends with people with diverse perspectives and join a cultural or identity-related student organization.
  • Consider learning a foreign language to open doors to international organizations and future study.
  • Develop personal and career goals and create SMART steps for 2-3 "dream jobs."
  • Practice independent living skills (such as money management, self-care, time management, and personal responsibility).
  • Create a weekly and monthly budget.
  • Prepare for a career after college by creating a brand for yourself.
Experience Year 2
  • Visit the VCU campus and attend a transfer admission session.
  • Research housing options for next year.
  • Attend a talk or other event sponsored by the GSWS department, consider joining a VCU club, or meeting with VCU students to make professional and personal connections.
  • Learn about short-term, semester and year-long study abroad options.
  • Check out the VCU Office of Multicultural Student Affairs (OMSA) and follow @vcuomsa.
  • Attend VCU cultural events, including the monthly Global Café, VCU Diversity Scholars in Research week, or department-related events.
  • Using LinkedIn, connect to at least 10 people. Check out the VCU alumni page in My Network.
  • Use the cost calculator to estimate your tuition/fees as an upperclassman at VCU.
  • Explore the types of aid available at VCU.
  • Consider who you would like to have serve as professional and academic references for future letters of recommendation.

Explore
MAXIMIZE COURSE AND DEGREE PLANNING
  • Register for SDV 100.
  • Schedule an advising appointment with your Brightpoint advisor.
  • Be prepared for academic challenges in your classes and use tutoring to get ahead.
  • Cultivate relationships with your professors.
  • Explore financial aid resources and submit the FAFSA on time.
GET CONNECTED WITH YOUR COMMUNITY
DEVELOP CULTURAL AGILITY
  • Attend cultural events at community college and VCU to celebrate diversity.
  • Attend VCU’s annual Intercultural Festival or another community intercultural event.
  • Make friends with people with diverse perspectives and join a cultural or identity-related student organization.
  • Consider learning a foreign language to open doors to international organizations and future study.
EXPLORE CAREERS AND DEVELOP ESSENTIAL SKILLS
PREPARING FOR LIFE AFTER COLLEGE
  • Develop personal and career goals and create SMART steps for 2-3 "dream jobs."
  • Practice independent living skills (such as money management, self-care, time management, and personal responsibility).
  • Create a weekly and monthly budget.
  • Prepare for a career after college by creating a brand for yourself.

Experience
MAXIMIZE COURSE AND DEGREE PLANNING
GET CONNECTED WITH YOUR COMMUNITY
  • Visit the VCU campus and attend a transfer admission session.
  • Research housing options for next year.
  • Attend a talk or other event sponsored by the GSWS department, consider joining a VCU club, or meeting with VCU students to make professional and personal connections.
DEVELOP CULTURAL AGILITY
  • Learn about short-term, semester and year-long study abroad options.
  • Check out the VCU Office of Multicultural Student Affairs (OMSA) and follow @vcuomsa.
  • Attend VCU cultural events, including the monthly Global Café, VCU Diversity Scholars in Research week, or department-related events.
EXPLORE CAREERS AND DEVELOP ESSENTIAL SKILLS
PREPARING FOR LIFE AFTER COLLEGE
  • Using LinkedIn, connect to at least 10 people. Check out the VCU alumni page in My Network.
  • Use the cost calculator to estimate your tuition/fees as an upperclassman at VCU.
  • Explore the types of aid available at VCU.
  • Consider who you would like to have serve as professional and academic references for future letters of recommendation.
Recommended courses
Major map compass icon
2025-2026

Gender, Sexuality and Women's Studies, Bachelor of Arts (NEXT STEP Pathway)

Brightpoint Community College (Associate of Arts in Liberal Arts)

Brightpoint Community College courses
Course Title Equivalent course Credits Requirements
SDV 100 College Success Skills UNIV 101 1 Elective
ENG 111 College Composition I UNIV 111 3 General education
ENG 112 College Composition II UNIV 200 3 General education
MTH 154 Quantitative Reasoning MATH 131 3 General education
CST Select one: CST 100 OR CST 110 SPCH 3 General education
Foreign language 101 or transfer elective Note: students are eligible for a waiver of VCU's language requirement (language through the 102 level) if they successfully completed through the third level of a foreign language in high school. VCU equivalent 3 to 4 Elective
History elective (select one from approved BCC list) VCU equivalent 3 General education
Laboratory science elective (select one from approved BCC list) VCU equivalent 4 General education
Foreign language 102 or transfer elective Note: students are eligible for a waiver of VCU's language requirement (language through the 102 level) if they successfully completed through the third level of a foreign language in high school. VCU equivalent 3 to 4 Elective
Arts elective (select one from approved BCC list) VCU equivalent 3 General education
Social/behavioral sciences elective (select one from approved BCC list) VCU equivalent 3 General education
History elective (select one from approved BCC list) VCU equivalent 3 General education
Literature elective (select one from approved BCC list) VCU equivalent 3 General education
Foreign language 201 or transfer elective VCU equivalent 3 Elective
Cultural Understanding/Civic Engagement elective (select one from approved BCC list) VCU equivalent 3 Elective
Philosophy/Religion elective (select one from approved BCC list) VCU equivalent 3 Elective
Foreign language 202 or transfer elective VCU equivalent 3 Elective
Liberal Arts Transfer Electives VCU equivalents 8 to 10 Elective
Brightpoint credits transferred to VCU 60 to 62
VCU courses
Course Title Credits Requirements
GSWS 201 Introduction to Gender, Sexuality and Women's Studies 3 Major
GSWS 301 Feminist Theory 3 Major
GSWS 393 Feminist Research and Methods of Inquiry 3 Major
GSWS 401 Topical Senior Seminar 3 Major
GSWS 420 Algorithmic Inequalities: Gender, Race and Power in Big Tech 3 Major
GSWS 493 Internship 3 Major
GSWS art, media, culture and creative expression course (200-400 level): see VCU advisor for course options 3 Major
GSWS race, racism and anti-racism course (200-400 level): see VCU advisor for course options 3 Major
GSWS systems of power course (200-400 level): see VCU advisor for course options 3 Major
GSWS electives (two of three courses must be upper-level): see VCU advisor for course options 9 Major
Open electives (consider a minor or second major) Note: Students must complete a minimum of 45 upper-level credits to graduate from VCU. 22 to 24 Elective
Credits completed at VCU 58 to 60
Minimum credits required for bachelor's degree 120