Dear Cornerstone Students,
Welcome to your IDS Cornerstone Mentoring Blog! We are your mentors and are here to provide you with information regarding the IDS program, college, post graduate planning, and life in general. Each week we will discuss different topics, however if there is something we have not covered that you would like to discuss, please feel free to bring it up. Remember, we are here for you! We would like to start by getting to know each other so first we will introduce ourselves.
Hello Mentees,
My name is Pam. I am a 42 year old mother of two who after a 15 year break decided to return to UCF to finish her degree. I am so excited to finally graduate! My minor is in recreation and my areas are in business and behavioral and social science. After graduating, I plan to get an MA in Christian Counseling. I spend most of my time driving my youngest daughter all over the state to play club soccer. My oldest daughter is a senior in nursing school at the University of Memphis. My passions are Jesus Christ and of course soccer. If I could give one piece of advice it would be stay in school and finish your degree. However if you are returning, hang in there and don’t quit…if I can do it, you can too! I am looking forward to getting to know each one of you and to help you in any way I can.
Pam
Hello Mentee,
I am so glad we can get to know you this semester. Here is a little about me...my name is Rebekah Rabon. I am 24 years old and a super-duper-senior at UCF. I have been an IDS student for a year now. I was in many colleges around UCF and couldn’t decide what I wanted to do with my life. I have some background in Health and Education. I chose these areas to be my areas of concentration and then chose a Psychology minor. I plan to, as soon as I graduate this semester, to go on and get both my RN degree at Florida Hospital College. I am also applying to different pre-schools around the area to get a job teaching so that I can work on getting my teacher’s certification. There are advantages and disadvantages to this degree I have chosen I believe. I feel I have many more opportunities open to me now with the background I have accumulated. However, I also feel as if I am at a disadvantage as far as timing. It has taken me much longer to come to a finalized degree choice. Anyways…enough of the school talk. As far as what I do for my life…I am a 4th/5th grade volleyball coach. Right now we are in the training period and getting ready for the season to start. I also sub at a local Christian school part time. I am very involved in my church and I volunteer every week with the music ministry. I am working part-time also in the convention industry for a company here in Orlando. I work every random convention helping the business give information to potential clients. I am a busy little bee and I love it. I love staying busy and helping out wherever I am needed. I am working toward saving money to go on a mission trip this summer for three months where I will be working in a hospital in Israel. This is pretty much what I spend my time doing and I love every moment of life. I have a wonderful family whom I am very close to and we enjoy spending as much time together as possible. I am excited to get to know you….
Rebekah
Hey--my name is Kadie. I am 24 (for a couple more days) and in my last semester--YAY! My areas of study are Education, Public Affairs and Sociology. I love watching football and kayaking. I believe one of the advantages of an interdisciplinary education is studying three separate areas versus one. I can’t wait to get to know each one of you and help out with anything you need!
Kadie
Hello cornerstone students. My name is Peter Hartley. I am 22 years old and in my last semester here at UCF. I have an area of study in behavioral sciences and criminal justice and my minor is in entrepreneurship. After graduation I plan to move back to St. Petersburg where I was born and raised and find a job preferably working as a boat captain or something else involving boats. I do not know if graduate school is in my future or not but I plan on deciding that after I work for a while and decide what I really want to do for a living. I look forward to finishing up school and getting to know you throughout this semester.
Peter
Now we would like to hear from you. Please tell us your name, where you are from, and your hobbies/interest. Then, let us know what year you are in and your minor and two areas. Last, tell us how you explain the IDS major to others and what you feel the advantages and disadvantages of the program are. Remember to reply by using the comment feature. We are looking forward to hearing from you!
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Hi I am Dora Peters, 27, I took a few years off of school to work and am back to complete my degree. I have completed the Computer Engineering and the Computational Sciences parts of my IDS degree. I am working on the one class left for my Public Administration minor. I am loving this degree because it allowed me to work on all the fields I love. I explain to people that this degree allows me to explore everything i love without being confined to one set of classes. I look forward to completing my capstone class next semester and graduating in August (God-willing.) My passions include Jesus and his love, family, friends and football, in that order! I want to work with a non profit when I graduate. Preferably with someone like the International Justice Mission (IJM) I am very passionate about young children and the society's support for them to grow up to be all that they can be. I want to help with any of my 3 abilities. We shall see where God leads. Its nice to meet all of you and I am looking forward to learning from all of your experiences.
ReplyDeleteHi guys!
ReplyDeleteMy name is Paloma, I am 24, from Puerto Rico and this is my first semester at UCF and I just moved from Miami. This past December I finished an associates degree in fashion accessory design (shoes, handbags, jewelry), which is my passion! Since I always wanted a bachelor and I had many credits from previous schools in criminal justice, public administration and human behavior I decided to give ids a try. My areas of study are entrepreneurship, human behavior and public administration. My dream and goal is to have my own jewelry line and that is the reason I choose entrepreneurship as my minor.
nice meeting you all,
Paloma
Oh, I don't know if it' me but the yellow comments are very hard to read.
ReplyDeletePaloma
About the IDS program, I think the advantages are pretty clear. It is a great opportunity to focus on the areas you want to learn about and the fact that you can mix the all together and make your own unique special blend is formidable. The only disadvantage I can really think of it's that maybe it can be more challenging for us to find a job.
ReplyDeleteWhen explaining IDS to others I tell them that you can choose three areas that you have interest in and the idea is to blend them all together.
Hey, hey, hey children, my name is Galen Macpherson. Born in Omaha, Nebraska and raised in Palm Bay, Florida with Scotch-Irish heritage. Yeah, it’s pretty sick being a mick! I am very interested in money and I feel like I am somewhat addicted to it. I love to generate wealth, that’s for sure. I also surf, play guitar, hackeysack, swim, run, keep it real, read, and watch movies. I am in my second semester of college, though I completed my AA through a program in my high school, so credit-wise I’m a sophomore or junior, I don’t know. My two areas of study are Communication and Public Affairs and I have a minor that I’ll probably change anyway but its marketing. I explain my major usually as two disciplines of study with a minor. I usually say my areas are communication and public affairs with a minor in marketing. The advantages of the program are clear, I mean, virtually unlimited class selection for starters. Last semester I had the worst schedule you could dream of…but then I switched to my IDS major. Muha. Muhahaha. Disadvantages could possibly be that employers aren’t really looking for people with a degree in multiple areas, more like multiple degrees focused on one discipline.
ReplyDeleteHello everybody!
ReplyDeleteI love the energy in here :D !
My name is Ana Zuniga, I am 22 and I am from Costa Rica but I went to high school here in Orlando. I love going out to dance, music really is a big part of my life! I listen to everything from HipHop to Opera, Musicals to Merengue. Pretty much any rhythm created by man I have at least one song in my mp3. This obviously tells you why I ended up in IDS. I have too many interests for one major. So my minor is Micro and Molecular Biology, my areas of concentration are Social Sciences and Health. At this point my plan is to go to grad school to get a Master's in Speech and Language Pathology.
The advantages of this major is that you get a taste of different fields. The disadvantage is that it is harder to market to people who are unfamiliar with it.
P.S. I also thought the yellow postings were extremely hard to read, I had to highlight the text so it would be less straining.
Hey everyone, I'm Kathleen (one of the mentors)...little synopses of myself:
ReplyDeleteBorn in Jamaica and raised in Long Island New York. I'm what you would call a black Irish, LOL. I love food and playing flag football and I can't wait for this semester to be over. I will be graduation in May in hopes to become a PA and work in an ER or a low income community. An advantage of IDS is the flexibility it provides in your diploma. For me it has allowed me to enjoy some interesting subjects that I don't fall asleep in, while having those credits go towards completing my degree. A disadvantage is the fact that not many people know about IDS. This major could truly help many students in search of their "own" degree yet some have no idea and settle for what is given. Well that's me; I hope this year goes well for us all!
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ReplyDeleteWell hello everybody. My name is Totiro N. Clark II, I'm 21 years old and I'm an army brat (my dad was in the army for 22 years). I was born in Hidelburg, Germany, but I grew up all over the place (Arizona, Florida, Germany were the three main places). Im in my final year at UCF, so I'll be an IDS Capstone student next semester. On a personal note, I'm also a 4th year student in the Army ROTC program on campus. I listen to songs, not genres (meaning I don't hold grudges against entire genre's of music, I'll listen to anything if I like it), and I love watching movies, playing soccer, playing piano and working out.
ReplyDeleteMy two areas are Computational Sciences and Humanities and my minor is Military Science. To others I explain the IDS major, honestly, as just the easiest way for me to graduate by the end of this year. I'm not going to bs you, haha. I think the advantages of this are the ability to choose your specific areas of interest and to follow through with them earlier. I dont really see any true disadvantages to this program or anything that I dislike, mainly because Its helping me get to where I want to go, which for me is a Commissioned Officer in the Active Duty Component of the United States Army. Anyway, I hope this ends up being a great semester!
Peace.
-Totiro N. Clark II
Sorry to those of you who had a hard time with the yellow postings! I enjoyed reading everyone's explanation of the IDS program. It really shows how unique, open minded, and well rounded we are. I believe these are the things that will set us apart in the workforce. Pam
ReplyDeleteHello everyone, this is Kadie, one of the mentors… I will respond to several of your postings as necessary. Again, please feel free to ask any questions, share stories and experiences or express any concerns you may have. As your capstone mentors, we are here to assist you in any way we can.
ReplyDeleteHi Dora!
I was curious, have you thought about going after your Master’s degree upon completion of your bachelors? I, too, have always had a desire to work with a non-profit, and I have been contemplating pursuing a Masters in Non-Profit Management, especially since UCF offers a program online.
Paloma and Ana,
I tried to change the settings on the blog to make it easier to read the messages. Please let me know if it helped any, otherwise I will attempt to find a better way to make the changes needed. Thanks and sorry for the difficulty.
Totiro,
Like you, I wanted the easiest program I could find. When I say easy, I mean so I wouldn’t have to start over from scratch, not so much easy as in the coursework. I already had an A.A. in Elementary Education and had started my B.S. in the same field, but decided that teaching was not for me. So, that left me somewhat high and dry, until I found the IDS program! After initially being a little miffed about it, I have really learned to enjoy it and realized last year that it is more than just a bogus degree. I have had many opportunities to take the coolest classes and learn about a variety of things. I’ve begun to describe my degree as more than just some degree, but as a positive because I have three focus areas. I’m sure you will feel the same, especially with your goals already in place. Hope you enjoy it!
I also have to agree with the majority of you that the IDS degree is amazing because it does allow us to work in the areas we love with lots of flexibility and opportunity.
Remember, the mentors are here to help. Good luck with the semester!
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ReplyDeleteI am also in the same boat as Totiro and Kadie. I was M&M for three years and when I realized I no longer wanted to be an Optometrist and started looking around for a different major, IDS was the best choice both because of how many interests I could include and because I wasn't "wasting" those three years of my life!
ReplyDeleteSo, although I am sure this was the easiest route to take for me too, I think IDS would have been awesome for me as a freshman also.
~Ana Zuniga
I did not realize that we had to make three separate posts?!I would have broken up my first post...
ReplyDeleteThe yellow is better now, thank you. It is not as bright so it's easier to read.
It's really interesting to see how different everybody's IDS major is. This is really the beauty of it. I told one of my friends who has switched majors three times because she can't figure it out that she should look into IDS. When she went to Career Services they told her it was a bad idea because marketability and that she might have more difficulty finding a job. I also get the comments that IDS is not a "real major", which I kind of laugh at. But, what do you guys think about that?
~Ana Zuniga
Hello everyone,
ReplyDeleteMy name is Lawatha CherRenfro. Most people call me "L," I prefer that actually. I was born in Ohio but moved to Florida when I was about three years old. I have had an interest in space, rockets, and space shuttles since I was in kindergarten. I will be comfortable in a job where I get to work with shuttles, missiles and rocket launches. That is probably why I chose to have my two interdisciplinary areas in computational science and engineering with a minor in aerospace studies and mathematics.
If I were explaining IDS to another person I would say that it is incredibly amazing program. There is no other program I know of that allows a student to be so flexible. The program is designed to enable a student with two or more different interest to pursue knowledge in those areas while teaching the student how to integrate those subject matters. With my areas, engineering and computational sciences, it would not be extraordinarily difficult to get a bachelor's in both areas since the foundation of engineering is mathematics. But for someone who has interests in music and psychology, for example, would either have to decide music or psychology, or they would have to double major in both which would take longer than most people are willing to remain in school for a bachelor's. IDS not only allows you to get knowledge in more than one area of study, you are also equipped with the problem solving tools that would allow you to solve problems by thinking outside of the discipline or subject matter a certain problem may exist.
One advantage of this major is being able to explore what you actually want to learn. Once you pick the subject areas, you will still have the flexibility to pick which classes you want to take. Another advantage is this program encourages diversity. A disadvantage of the IDS major is the perception of the IDS major being a bogus major. This perception may lead to many employers not to hire someone who has and IDS major. The only other disadvantage I know of is IDS being not well known major. This could also lead to potential problems when talking about employment.
Ana,
ReplyDeleteI touched on this a little in my last comment, I really have changed the way I describe my major. At first, I did say it was kind of a bogus degree, but what does that say for me? (Obviously, I didn't say this to future employers, but when I described it to friends.) Now I describe it as being a major benefit because I have three areas of studies, kind of like degrees in three areas. I have acadmic experience in Sociology, Education and Public Affiars, which is better than having experience in just Sociology or just Education. I think the key to making the degree marketable is finding a way to market yourself and make it sound like you believe it's a great degree.