Personal Statement

Kayla Reed
IDST 4114
Prof. Augustine
7/9/08


Personal Statement on Interdisciplinary Studies

Interdisciplinary Studies is the practice of combining different subjects all into one solid subject. It can also be used when a person is trying to create a business with many different departments, professions, technologies, and tools that all together form one company. When it comes to my life right now as a college student, I do interdisciplinary work everyday. I am an Interdisciplinary Studies major with minors in PK-6 Mathematics and General Science which come together all as one solid degree. This way I can look into different subjects that I am interested in, like Mathematics and Science and study both, instead of just focusing on one subject. This amount of knowledge I have gained from the two different subjects will greatly benefit me in the future after I graduate from college next year. This is because I plan to become an elementary school teacher who knows a lot about many different subjects and will want to teach my students everything I know and not just one subject. In my opinion a student who gets a degree in Interdisciplinary studies will greatly benefit more from their degree as far as knowing more things and being open to mire things, than a student who is only getting a degree in one subject such as Math, Science, or History. As an interdisciplinary student I have to use many different perspectives everyday in order to come up with one idea that everyone can benefit from. In my IDST 1114 class, four people and I as a group had to come up with a complex phenomenon and research the different disciplines that could go into it. Our group decided that our phenomenon is why Americans are growing up so financially illiterate. Together we came up with four different disciplines which were History, Education, Economics, Finance and thoroughly researched each topic into how each one could help solve our problem of how our generation more than others are so financial illiterate. We found out things like how other countries actually have higher percentages as far as finances are concerned. One complex phenomenon that I would be trying to solve is why Virginia Tech took out the five year education program where you could graduate with a Bachelors and Masters degree all in five years. I thought that the University had a great education program and should have never taken it away from the school. This I heard created a lot of controversy throughout the past couple of years and it really aggravated many students and their parents, including mine. So in my opinion I would like to research all of the different disciplines that are involved in the Education program here at Tech including things like the history of it, and the finances that go along with it.
In conclusion Interdisciplinary Studies has greatly helped me in many ways because it has helped me to broaden my interests, ideas and theories, instead of just coming up with one theory or explanation for a question. Being an Interdisciplinary student you can study almost anything you want, and as many subjects as want. It is a way for students to research and study many different topics and subjects and incorporate them into one idea, project or degree, like I have done with my degree.