The semester is coming to an end and I know at least on the cornerstone end we are all very excited to be graduating. As we graduate, it is necessary to start looking for jobs and right about now is when we find out if our degrees really meant something. So what about you? Have you guys started to see how your interdisciplinary degree has influenced your personal life? Tell us a little about your professional history and how your degree has been useful integrating it.

It is truly necessary to start to think about your career options and start marketing yourself now because when your in our place, it will be too late! And it will come sooner than you think!

So identify what you think are your strongest and weakest job skills and what you can do to improve on those skills.

What professional clubs or organizations can help you in your chosen careers? (pick two)

Also, what about volunteering, internships, or extern-ships? Does anything seem promising or do you have an interest in?

For me volunteering with Florida Hospital's Children Hospital has given my resume and my commitment to my future career a great boost. It helped me narrow down exactly what I wanted to do and gave me relative experience and a great letter of recommendation. PPMS and AMSA has also helped put a big boost on my job track showing me this volunteer opportunity as well as a network of other students giving me valuable advice and markers for where I should be.

How have your career goals altered over time?

I started out wanting to be a veterinarian and when I got into shadowing I figured out that it just wasn't right for me. But even bad experience is good experience. At least you know what you DON'T want to do.

Personally I spent 2 years of my college career working for with veterinarians and getting experience in veterinary medicine. I graduated a year early, so as you can see my resume was definitely lacking in relative Pediatric care related fields. However, most employers don't care that you changed your mind, they care that your dedicated! So get experience in all forms, good or bad. At least you'll be able to say, well I thought I wanted to do this but I changed my mind and now THIS is where I want to be. They will see from your previous hard work that you are right for them. College is about figuring out who you are they understand that.

Finally, what is your personal philosophy in your professional life and how is (or isn't) it interdisciplinary? Try to describe yourself in 15 words or less. (it can be over) If you don't like it, chances are an employer won't like it either.

My fifteen words or less is...

I am a future ambitious pediatric surgeon, who genuinely cares for her patients. My thirteen words tell employers that I am determined at becoming a pediatrician and am caring. Pediatrics stems from medicine and sciences, my Life and Biomedical Sciences core and Chemistry Minor. Caring resembles my Humanities core concentration on ethical principle.

This quote, with a few minor changes, will get me through my career in all steps because to shows me my goals and dedication in the long run and why I am doing what I'm doing now in the short run.

Good Luck in your future endeavors! It has been a pleasure blogging with you!

P.S. Try to get your responses in early so you won't have to worry about this and the F word! FINALS!

When  it comes to our careers, our personal philosophy will be slightly different than many of our peers and colleagues. As interdisciplinarians, we are being trained to think in a manner that encourages synthesis of information, thinking outside of the box, and well rounded approaches to solving problems. Our professions may take us in many directions, and we must always keep in mind that there is not on single way or one right way to live our professional lives. I know that for me personally, my thoughts regarding my professional life has changed dramatically from focusing on a single scientific discipline, to a more laid back all inclusive artistic approach. My career goals have come full circle from Molecular & Microbiology to IDS Commerce and Behavioral Science and I  am excited to embrace my new Interdisciplinary future. This week discuss your own personal philosophy concerning your professional life. How is or isn't this interdisciplinary? Lastly, how have your career goals altered ?

The end of the semester is close and things are winding down.There are many questions in the air when it comes to your IDS class, particularly pertaining to the e-portfolio.

1. How will your e-Portfolio demonstrate your interdisciplinarity?
2. What is the audience / purpose you're thinking of using?
3. How would you envision your e-Portfolio looking like? What would you like to stand out?
4. What things are you thinking could be used as evidence?

I wanted my e-portfolio to relect not only what I did at UCF but who I am as a person and my life outside of eduction as well. I feel by not only showing all the different classes you took the best way to demenstrate interdisplinary is to tie in your personality and everyday life expereinces. Each e-potfolio has a purpose or a audience and everyone's is different depending on what they want to use it for. Personally, I would like my family and frineds to view my e-portfolio to see what I did over the last 4 years and how I grew. Overall, this is a great major and the E-portfolio is just another unqiue thing this major has to offer!
The end of the semester is close and things are winding down. How do you feel when it comes to the eportfolio and how it reflects you?

Reflection

lection is looking at experiences you have encountered and drawing your own conclusions on what you learned from them and how it affects your strengths and weaknesses in your life.  It is important for us to be reflective in life and continue to grow and improve.  We can face a situation and instead of just moving on think about how we responded, what we could do differently the next time and what we can expect to draw from it for the future.  The more reflective we are in life the more we can improve our responses and think of ourselves instead of just always reacting.  Reflection is an excellent tool for growth.  Reflection is different from description because describing something only tells the story of what happened and reflection can be rethinking an experience with an emphasis on how it affected us and its impact on our self improvement.

I believe my portfolio is a tool for reflection.   It is an opportunity to show what concepts I have learned, the education I have received and where I see myself in the future.  I can describe my experiences and then reflect on what I learned, whether it was a strength and how I can improve or use it for my upcoming situations.

This week be sure to share your understanding of "reflection". How is it different from description, and share how you're planning to use reflection in developing your e-Portfolio content pages.

The interview process is considered the most crucial part of getting a job. It is all about how you present yourself and if you meet the companies needs. I recently had a interview for Physician Assistant schools and they ask the basic questions like Tell me about yourself?, Why did you choose this profession?, What do you have to offer this company/school? But it is the unexpected questions that stump us and those vary depending on what your interviewing for. Before I went to my interview I went to a mock interview. UCF offers free mock interviews and EVERYONE should take advantage of it. Before going to the mock interview I was advised to read this site, http://www.perfectinterview.com/ucf/, which teaches you how to prepare yourself to have the perfect interview. During my interview practice I was told to speak slowly and to elaborate more on my questions. The questions I found problematic was “what do you expect fro a supervisor”, and “What comes to mind when you consider what you disliked about your last job”? I found these one difficulty because no matter what you said it could be seen as a negative. Overall, the mock interview and this website really helped because I got into Physician Assistant School. Don’t forget the best way to have a good interview is to remain calm, breathe, and take a second to think before answering the question.

Go to the website > http://www.perfectinterview.com/ucf/

• Complete the short interview , what questions did you think you need more practice on? Did you find this website helpful? What are other tips you can give your peers on how to nail a interview? When do you think it is the right time to talk about salary?

This week we are discussing resumes and cover letters. It is important to display our interests, education, and experience in a way that highlights our interdisciplinary background. We can use our resume to display our multiple fields of study which have led to our IDS degree. Some students may find it beneficial to list relevant classes we have taken in our journey towards interdisciplinarity. The experience section of a resume is a great place to show our interdisciplinary knowledge. Through internships, jobs, and volunteer work, we can give an illustration of how we have put our interdisciplinarity to work and how we can continue to do so in the future.

Cover letters are also extremely important and a great place to highlight your interdisciplinary background. Your cover letter must be well-written and free from grammatical errors. It is the first thing your potential employer will read about you and can determine whether your resume is trashed or leads to an interview. It is important to change your cover letter each time and tailor it to the organization you are sending it to. You should not be sending the same, boring, general letter to every company. Also, your cover letter should not just repeat the same information presented in your resume. Use your cover letter to provide additional insight to potential employers. This is your first opportunity to shine – take advantage of that!

I found this website extremely helpful when I was trying to leave the restaurant industry and move into the social services field (and I recently landed a job!):

http://www.dumblittleman.com/2009/02/how-to-write-great-cover-letters-for.html

If you are unsure of how to even begin composing a cover letter, here is a good template to follow:

http://www.cvtips.com/cover-letter/cover-letter-template.html

What questions do you have about cover letters and resumes? How do you plan to use your resume to highlight your interdisciplinarity? Share at least 3 tips which you think are the most important things to remember when composing cover letters and your resume. Have you found a really great resource to turn to when looking for ideas? Please share it with the rest of us!

Please leave your replies as a comment to this post. Don’t forget to include your full name in your post so that you receive credit. When responding to other students, you may find it helpful to begin your response with, “@their name” so that it is easy to see who you are directing your question/comment to. Be sure to check back throughout the week to see if other students have posted questions or replies for you!

Week 4 - Research

Welcome back Cornerstone Students! This week we are going to be looking into the topic of Research and how being an interdisciplinarian plays into it. As we have discussed before, interdisciplinary studies teaches us how to integrate information from various subjects to create new information that solves a particular problem, serves a purpose, or accomplishes a goal. The process of interdisciplinary research can take time; when you are synthesizing information from typically disconnected fields, research is anything but typical. In the past, most of you have probably come across some form of research whether it is a term paper or full blown biology lab report. You might have approached your assignment from one specific field of study, only analyzing the issue in terms of a single mindset. To be an interdisciplinarian, it is necessary to take the evidence or arguments presented from multiple fields of study and fill in the gaps of one discipline with information from another.

It is taught in school year after year that research and problem solving skills will be necessary and important in life; however, this blanket statement seems obviously vague and someone false unless a realistic example can prove its truth. Now I am going to give you what I think of as possible work situation for my two areas of study in my intended career; I have chosen to become a hairstylist and one day own a salon, and to supplement my choice my two areas of study are Commerce and Behavioral/Social Sciences. While I may not encounter life altering situations in my field, I know that it requires problem solving from more than one mindset. On a daily basis I will have to read people, their reactions, emotions, responses, and comments which can be interpreted and understood using Social Science logic and principles. At the same time, I will have to figure out how to get them to spend the most money before leaving my chair, hence the workings of commerce. Now the important part is to integrate the two areas to create the most successful situation for each individual client; too much pushing for services or products may turn away a conservative person, while not being edgy enough just to save face may disappoint someone looking for a real change. As I mentioned, it may not be a monumental task, but it is a work scenario that requires an interdisciplinary mindset.

This week consider the following topics regarding research and problem solving as an interdisciplinarian. How do we use research in our everyday lives? In school? At work? Which specific skills are used when completing a research project? How might these skills be translated towards future employment? How might your ability to solve problems from an interdisciplinary perspective be valuable to a future employer or a current employer?

Please leave your replies as a comment to this post. Don’t forget to include your full name in your post so that you receive credit. When responding to other students, you may find it helpful to begin your response with, “@their name” so that it is easy to see who you are directing your question/comment to. Be sure to check back throughout the week to see if other students have posted questions or replies for you!

Week 3- Critical Thinking

Welcome to Week 3! I hope you all are enjoying the blog and getting to know more about the benefits of your degree and the possibilities that come with it. This week we will talk about critical thinking and how it applies to your degree.

Critical thinking has a common definition of thinking critically, but how can we relate that to interdisciplinary studies? A critical interdisciplinarian try to interrogate and evaluate existing disciplines and knowledge to raise questions for value and purpose. They try to eliminate build bridging and do away with borders entirely. Very similar to integration, thinking critically about interdisciplinary studies allows you to create a new discipline entirely using your cores. The Virtual Philosopher should have helped you evaluate your critical thinking ability.

Here is the link in case you missed it earlier...

http://web.uncg.edu/dcl/courses/vicecrime/vp/vp.html

In the liver problem you were asked to decide who should get the liver first. This process is highly challenged and debated across hospitals. The Division of Transplantation of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services makes that call on how gets the transplant and who does not. UNOS (the united network for organ sharing) is a private organization that took responsibility for the operation in 1986. The members of this board debate the ethics of who gets an organ and who does not. Usually, the sickest and youngest is the first on most occasions. But what do you think? Should the 60 year old Noble Peace Prize winner get the organ? Or the little boy? Or the billionaire?

For this week discuss how your critical thinking relates to interdisciplinary studies?

Comment on how the Virtual Philosopher scored your response. From the comments you received about your response, what insight have you gained about your own critical thinking and reasoning? (basically comment on how you came to the decisions you did in the friends problem, liver problem, and lifeboat problem) How does the outline of your critical thinking disposition match with the application of it in doing the Virtual Philosopher?

Please leave your replies as a comment to this post. Don’t forget to include your full name in your post so that you receive credit. When responding to other students, you may find it helpful to begin your response with, “@their name” so that it is easy to see who you are directing your question/comment to. Be sure to check back throughout the week to see if other students have posted questions or replies for you!

Week 2 - Integration

Integration can be described as blending your two areas of study into one large cohesive unit. The idea is to find a way to creatively combine ideas and knowledge from each of your subject areas and to form a new whole. In our last blog, several students mentioned one disadvantage of an IDS degree is that employers don’t feel it is credible. IDS can appear to be unfocused unless you have integration. To combat this issue, it may be helpful if you are able to explain how you have integrated your fields of study into one cohesive unit.

My two subject areas are Behavioral & Social Sciences and Health and I have a minor in Aging Studies. When I returned to UCF after a five year hiatus, I knew that I wanted to study Gerontology (the study of aging). Since UCF does not offer an undergraduate degree in this field, I had the amazing opportunity of creating my own Aging degree. I chose to minor in Aging Studies and complement this with IDS concentrations in Behavioral & Social Sciences and Health. When I explain this degree to others, I like to explain my integration of areas by saying "I attempt to understand how our mental and physical health affects our aging process". You can see that I combined knowledge from each of my areas (Mental = Behavioral & Social Sciences, Physical = Health, Aging process = Aging Studies). It is important to have a goal in mind and use that when selecting your courses. There is so much flexibility with this degree, I think it would be very easy to just pick courses that you think may be "fun" or "easy" and never tie it all together. If you have a particular goal in mind, you can use the flexibility to choose courses that will be relevant to your future career. For example, some of my courses in the Health part of my degree have also been in the aging studies field. I chose courses such as Long Term Care & Administration and Health Care Needs of the Elderly since they not only meet the requirements for the Health portion, but also strengthen my goal of an Aging Studies degree and will hopefully be useful in my career.

Being able to connect or integrate your areas of study and minor are an essential part of being an interdisciplinarian. What does integration mean to you and what are some examples? Have you been able to integrate your areas and minor? If your areas don't tend to flow and you are finding integration challenging, what can you do to search for common ground between your areas of study? Why is integration of your subject areas and minor important in terms of professional, academic, and/or personal development?

Please leave your replies as a comment to this post. Don’t forget to include your full name in your post so that you receive credit. When responding to other students, you may find it helpful to begin your response with, “@their name” so that it is easy to see who you are directing your question/comment to. Be sure to check back throughout the week to see if other students have posted questions or replies for you!

Week 1 - Introductions

Hello Cornerstone students! We are very excited to begin our mentoring blog. We are going to use this first post as a time to get to know one another and ease into our blogging. Don’t forget to check back throughout the week to see if other students have posted questions or replies for you. Please include the following info in your first post:

• Who are you? What are your areas / minors?
• What year are you?
• How do you explain IDS to others?
• What are the advantages/disadvantages of an interdisciplinary education?

Please leave your replies as a comment to this post. Don’t forget to include your full name in your post so that you receive credit. When responding to other students, you may find it helpful to begin your response with, “@their name” so that it is easy to see who you are directing your question/comment to. We can’t wait to get to know each of you and are looking forward to our semester together!


Kelly J.
I am Kelly Jasen. I am so excited to finally be graduating in May! My concentrations are in Behavioral & Social Sciences and Health and I will have a minor in Aging Studies. When someone asks me what “Interdisciplinary Studies” is (which happens ALL the time), I explain it like so: “Instead of picking just one subject area like a traditional major, I split my studies into two subject areas and I have a minor.” I think that two major advantages of an Interdisciplinary degree is that it is great for students who are passionate about more than one subject area and it allows for flexibility in our job opportunities post-graduation. When I returned to school after a 7 year break, I thought I really wanted to work with the elderly. Since UCF does not offer a Bachelor’s in Gerontology or anything related, I felt this degree and combination of subject areas would benefit me the most. Just last week, I began a great new job which is not elder-related, but it does use my 2 areas of concentration. See why our flexible degree is so appealing?! :-) One disadvantage to choosing an IDS degree is that not many people know what it is. I have to explain the degree anytime someone asks me what I study at UCF and some people don’t think it’s a very “legitimate” degree. Hopefully, once I explain IDS, they understand the value of having multiple study areas. I truly believe the benefits of an IDS degree greatly outweigh the negatives and have been very satisfied with my degree choice and the employment opportunities IDS has opened up for me.

Emily L.
My name is Emily Lumpkin and this will be my last semester at UCF. I am so excited for this last semester, but I know that I will miss it in the end. I actually started at UCF as a Molecular Biology & Microbiology (M&M) Major. About two years into that program I realized that despite my desire to become a doctor (from the age of three!) it really wasn't for me at all. I began my search for a new major, but to do so I actually had to search for my intended career first and this is how I came to IDS. I landed on the idea that I was going to become a hairstylist, and then I decided that I would be wasting my education with such a basic goal, so I later made up my mind to eventually open and own a salon/day spa. Well, I began looking at business classes, but I realized that the curriculum was going to go in too much of a corporate direction, and my industry is actually based on personality and interaction socially. Well then I thought that only sociology classes weren't going to cut it either. When I met with an advisor in the Second Year office, he introduced me to the option of Interdisciplinary Studies and the rest is history! My two subject areas are Commerce and Behavioral/Social Sciences with a minor in History. I think IDS is perfect for those who just don't quite fit in one nice, neat, little package of a discipline. I typically use this when I am explaining IDS to people because it helps to share with them that IDS allows for a more well rounded education. I find that it helps to explain that while most employers may not be familiar with IDS, they should consider the advantages of someone who is well trained in multiple fields. We are flexible in our thinking strategies, and also we are able to integrate knowledge from normally disjointed topics. Naturally you are going to encounter those who just don't take you seriously, and they may think that IDS is somewhat of a bogus major, but I want you to remember that after all of your training to become an interdisciplinarian, working somewhere so close minded probably won't be your best fit. Getting turned down once or twice by someone who doesn't understand or accept IDS may lead you to someone who wholeheartedly embraces the Interdisciplinary concept, and thus will most likely be the best fit for you in the long run. Keep an open mind and IDS will lead you to more options then you could ever have imagined. Hope you have a great semester, and of course a fantastic journey at UCF!

Sarah P.
Hey Everyone! I am Sarah Petree! I am very excited to be graduating this semester. My areas in Interdisciplinary Studies are Life and Biomedical Sciences and Humanities with a minor in Chemistry. I picked these cores because I am attending medical school. Biomedical sciences and Chemistry contain many required courses. With Humanities, I feel like it in necessary for a doctor to be able to relate with their patients and understand them to provide a better quality of care. By taking those courses, I give myself a leg up on the competition because I feel as though not only am I having a chance to take the requirements, I am also able to learn the philosophy behind my future job. I get to learn about the ethical principles behind medicine and new drugs. No other future med student can say that. There are not a lot of disadvantages to this Major. As long as you work hard and are self motivated IDS is great and will help you enjoy your time at UCF.

Nicole V.
Hello, I am Nicole Verlato. My areas of study are as follows, Education and Behavioral and Social Sciences. My minor is health services Administration. I am a senior here at UCF. IDS is a process of answering a question, solving a problem, or addressing a topic that is too broad or complex to be dealt with adequately by a single discipline or profession. It integrates their insights to produce a more comprehensive understanding or cognitive advancement. The advantages of an interdisciplinary education that IDS graduate will have at least three careers , not three jobs but three quite different career in their working lifetime so with IDS education they have three different area of studies and minor to graduate with and further their opportunity in their career. Life is interdisciplinary. It doesn’t have departments. It doesn’t have majors with a pre-formatted program to follow. Life is messy, interesting, complex, exhilarating, excruciating, and surprising. And definitely interdisciplinary. It is a world widespread because educators recognized that it is needed. The disadvantages of an interdisciplinary education are not having the knowledge of fields of study. It is a lot of research that is involved with ids education. It does not lay claim to a universally recognized core of knowledge but rather draws on existing disciplinary knowledge.

Jarna P.
Before attending college, I was always interested in Medicine. While in high school I was encouraged by my parents to volunteer for a local hospital. By the time I had started my undergraduate career at the University of Central Florida I declared my major as Pre-Medicine because of my volunteer experience. However, after being exposed to a few of the Pre-Medical classes I learned that becoming a doctor was no longer what I wanted to do. I found that I enjoyed certain Science classes, and decided to change my major to IDS because it exposes you to a broader range of potential careers. I started doing research on different medical careers and found the Physician Assistant program. Initially I did not know much about this career in the hands on aspect, however on paper it seemed appealing. I decided to find a Physician Assistant to shadow, and this is when I found my love for this career. Outside of my educational career at UCF, I have had the opportunity to be engaged in Greek life. As a Greek, I was a member of Zeta Tau Alpha, and through this experience I learned how to balance a social life as well as my educational career. While being a member I took part in many community service, and enrichment events. Between the values my parents have taught me and the one’s I have gained through my college experience have made me who I am today. I am still young, and have many more challenges, experiences, and values to learn in life. I am looking forward to what the next chapters in my life will bring.