Samford After Sundown

Our Courses

Upcoming Courses

Through our professional and personal development courses, Samford After Sundown responds to the educational needs of individuals, businesses, industries and government agencies in the Birmingham metropolitan area, as well as to professional groups in the region.

Browse upcoming courses for courses that interest you. When you find just the right fit, register for courses. Contact us directly if you have any questions.

Online Courses

In cooperation with Education to Go, Samford After Sundown offers a wide range of interactive professional development and personal enrichment courses, taught by expert instructors and available entirely online.

Browse online courses.

Certificate Programs

Samford After Sundown’s certificate programs provide comprehensive professional training to help you succeed in the workplace. Programs include:

Photography Certificate

The Samford After Sundown Photography program offers a certificate of achievement to students who have completed all required course work and successfully presented a portfolio for review. The certificate recognizes that the student has a broad background in photography and should be able to function at a high level as a photographer. Upon completion of the program, it is expected that students should be able to:

  • Understand and operate the camera and peripheral equipment quickly and efficiently;
  • Demonstrate a high degree of technical and artistic skills;
  • Download or develop and manipulate the images—whether in a computer or in a traditional dark room environment—to achieve the look, the size and the format desired;
  • Deliver high-quality output either as a printed image or a digital file.

General Course Requirements:

  • I. Core Curriculum
    • a. Basic Photography
    • b. Intermediate Photography
    • c. Advanced Photography
    • d. A class in artificial lighting technique (At least one from the following presently offered courses. Please check with your adviser for new courses that might also fulfill this requirement):
      • i. Flash Photography
      • ii. Studio Lighting
    • e. A post processing course (At least one from the following presently offered courses. Please check with your adviser for new courses that might also fulfill this requirement):
      • i. Adobe Photoshop Elements I
      • ii. Adobe Photoshop Elements II
      • iii. Adobe Photoshop Lightroom
      • iv. Adobe Photoshop for Photographers I
      • v. Adobe Photoshop for Photographers II
    • f. Portfolio Development and Presentation
    • g. A printing course
    • h. Three additional courses of student choice
  • II. Completion of Courses
    • a. Students must attend a minimum of 80% of the class sessions. Leaving at the break is considered a half class.
    • b. Students must present work in each review that immediately follows a completed “shooting” class.
  • III. Portfolio Requirements - The student will present a portfolio of exactly twenty images. Five of the images will be in a series. The remaining fifteen will demonstrate mastery in a variety of subject areas, especially those in which the student has taken courses.
    • a. All twenty images will be included in a well presented digital portfolio.
    • b. At least ten of the images will be museum matted, archival quality prints.
    • c. The five images in a series must be among the printed images.
    • d. The prints must have been printed and matted by the student.
    • e. The student will present an artist statement that is well written, original, printed on high quality linen paper and attractively displayed
  • III. Adviser - The candidate must select an adviser from among the photography instructors at Samford After Sundown.
    • a. The adviser must be selected at least six months prior to application for the certificate so that the adviser has ample opportunity to counsel and direct the student in the finishing stages of the process.
    • b. The adviser may not serve as a judge on the portfolio review for any student she/he advised. For a complete list of certificate requirements please speak with your adviser or see Suzanne Montgomery, director of Samford After Sundown, 101 Dwight Beeson Hall.
Pharmacy Technician Certificate

The Pharmacy Technician Certificate Program prepares students to become part of the fastest growing profession in the healthcare industry. Pharmacy technicians assist pharmacists with technical tasks, such as filling prescriptions, record entry and patient support, allowing pharmacists to spend more time counseling and educating patients. Community and hospital pharmacies, prescription processing companies, home care organizations and other pharmaceutical industries employ pharmacy technicians.

Samford’s Pharmacy Technician Certificate Program, taught by Samford pharmacy faculty and registered pharmacists, introduces the necessary clerical, business and technical aspects of the industry. This includes the role of the pharmacy technician and standards of the industry, pharmacy law, understanding a prescription, pharmacology and therapeutics, sterile products, pharmacy math, inventory management, business management, patient communication, prescription processing, and pharmacy records.

Students will be prepared to take the national certification examination offered by the Pharmacy Technician Certification Board to become a Certified Pharmacy Technician [CPhT], but most importantly, will get hands-on experience in sterile compounding and processing prescriptions in Samford’s state-of-the-art laboratories.

The Pharmacy Technician Certificate program consists of a total of 69 classroom and lab instructional hours. The smaller class size allows for individual attention from the instructors and interaction with a small cohort of students.

Healthcare Interpreter Training Certificate

The Healthcare Interpreter Training Certificate, the first of its kind in the southeastern United States, is designed to train bilingual and bicultural students to develop the awareness, knowledge and skills necessary for effective language interpretation in healthcare settings. Through academic preparation, practical skills training and service in community-based healthcare settings, certificate candidates learn the roles and responsibilities of a healthcare interpreter, basic knowledge of common medical conditions, treatments and procedures, language and cultural nuances for specific communities, and advanced interpreting skills. The nine-month program consists of course work taught one evening each week and on two weekend days each month. In order to qualify for admission, prospective students must have completed at least a high school diploma and must be bilingual in English and Spanish. Pretests are administered to determine language proficiency.

On April 24, 2006, the Healthcare Interpreter Training (HIT) Certificate Program was honored by Region VII of the Association of Continuing Higher Education with the 2006 Distinguished Non-Credit Program Award. This award recognizes one non-credit program in the Southeastern United States each year for outstanding originality and innovation, as it relates to audience, delivery, promotion, collaboration and content, and success in achieving the goals and objectives established by the program. The HIT Certificate Program is designed to train individuals who are bilingual in English and Spanish to become qualified interpreters in a medical setting. By building on the Samford distinction and by partnering with community organizations, the HIT Certificate Program excelled in each of these areas. In the spring of 2005, twenty-one students successfully completed the program and are now better equipped to bridge

Custom Programs & Onsite Services

Grow your business through education!
Samford After Sundown offers professional training solutions using several proven methods of instruction:

Samford After Sundown will work with you to develop education programs that best serve your employees and business. Contact the Samford After Sundown office with questions.