The mission of the Mexican American Studies Department is to serve SJSU students and diverse communities through an interdisciplinary Chicana/o Studies Program that is based on principles of education for Social Justice. The program prepares students to critically examine and address intellectual traditions and contemporary issues resulting from race, ethnicity, class, and gender intersections in Chicana/o-Latina/o and other communities. The overall goal of the MAS department is to prepare students to critically assess the conceptualizations of race and ethnicity, as these relate to and are challenged by Chicana/o communities. Students develop critical thinking skills and a comparative analysis bewteen Chicana/o and other communities. In the end, students integrate major issues and theories from MAS courses and apply them to current problems as they plan for post-graduate work. This goal is accomplished by means of: 1) an academic minor for undergraduate students from all academic majors; 2) a graduate program with three emphases in Policy Studies, k-20 education, and Comparative Ethnic Studies; and 3) serving as an academic resource for Chicana/o-Latina/o communities.