Professional Opportunities & Job Skills

The ability to adapt and become flexible is the most valuable trait anyone can acquire. In today’s professional world, change is a constant. If someone is unable to work around such a changing environment is not likely to be able to stay in the game. My personal goal for my professional life is to always remain open to change and flexibility. In conjunction with this philosophy I have chosen to create an interdisciplinary education which will help me achieve this goal most effectively. Through all of this change, computers will remain a constant in our daily lives. The ability to understand computers is one which I find to be the key to survival. As these changes occur, another constant will remain. Professions will always take on business structures and tenets. Hence, a full understanding of what makes up these structures and how they work together to keep a business running will allow me to walk into any profession understanding the basics of how everything works. Finally, there seems to be a trend in the ways in which the world is changing today. Nations are interacting and doing business with one another, borders are blurring, and the world is becoming whole again. No longer can we expect to only interact with our close neighbors and countrymen, we must open our minds to the differences of the world and respect this phenomenon. In any business I am confident that I will employ both my computer and political science backgrounds. Before I discovered this new philosophy, I was unaware of the ways in which the disciplines connected with each other. I was narrow-minded and could only see myself being stuck doing the same job with the same set of skills for the rest of my life. Now, I realize that this is very unlikely, and frankly highly undesirable. As my lifetime progresses, the world will continue to change and more than likely I will need to adapt to many professional careers. Being well-rounded and flexible is the best thing I can do for myself and my future. In your own words, how would you describe your philosophy concerning your professional life and future, how do you see the professional world and how you will fit into it? This is different for everyone and really is a reflection of your own personal views. I used to only see the world as a corporate ladder, a planned laid out future, for example. Also, reflect on whether or not your personal philosophy is interdisciplinary, and in how you came to this conclusion. As I have said before, my previous philosophy was very mono-disciplinary in nature. Each discipline had its own box and never got mixed up. Each philosophy is different and not all rely on interdisciplinary. Looking at your life and views before you became an interdisciplinary student, how have you changed? What were your goals before and how have they evolved to this point? This is the most unique, as each person wanted to follow a very specific and different path than your peers today.
Also Consider:
What do you like to do during your free time? Are you a part of any clubs or organizations? Pick the ones that would be beneficial to your chosen career. How has this experienced
Have you participated in an internship or externship. And how has it helped you professional skills?
• How have you used your interdisciplinary in your professional life?
• What has been your professional history?
• What are your strongest and weakest job skills?
• What can you do to develop and improve upon your weak skills?

**We look forward to hearing your stories! And don’t forget to make sure that each of your posts are being signed with your full names! Thanks for everything this semester; it was wonderful getting to know you all! Good luck in your future endeavors!**

Personal Philosophy, Career Goals, & Academic Opportunities

Since discovering, learning about and studying interdisciplinary studies I have gained new insights into the ways that professions coexist. For example, every single profession relates to and shows characteristics of running a business. Many people are out there studying and getting degrees non-business related. Yet when these people enter the workforce, they will have to apply principles and knowledge that would normally have been gained by attending business classes. The world today is one giant business under its mask of unrelated professions. In my own education, I see my study of both the Computer and Political Sciences as providing support for my Business foundation which, gives it all more meaning. By having a clear understanding of how the world interacts with itself and also have a firm grasp on the technological tools which can and are being used to integrate and streamline all aspects of a business, I have achieved depth as well as breadth in my education. Prior to this understanding, I saw the world as clearly defined compartments which housed each group of career paths and disciplines. Today, I see it all as one giant web which is only making itself stronger with more connections each day. I can only hope that I can continue to be a valuable part of this web, creating new connections and discovering old ones. In my opinion, flexibility is key today.

Tell me:
What is your personal philosophy regarding your professional life? Is this interdisciplinary in nature? Why or why not? How has this view changed since you began your interdisciplinary life?

E-Portfolio

One of the most important and beneficial items that you will be completing as an ids student is the completion of and E-Portfolio. The E- Portfolio is a tool that you will all used to collect, select, and reflect on your education here at UCF. You will be able to show your IDS thinking and overall successes for a specific audience such as future employment or graduate/professional school. Remember the IDS all about showing off your talents, abilities, and skills to a specific audience in a professional manner.

Some things to consider,
::DO THIS::
1) Brainstorm and give me some examples on how your e-portfolio can demonstrate interdisciplinary.
2) What is your audience and purpose?( future goals using this tool)
3) What style/ colors schemes do you think will look best? What makes yours stand out amongst the rest?
4) What are some things you are considering as putting for evidence? Why? ( past essays/ projects to show off)

Reflection

Reflection is more than just description. While description is important for explanation, it does not provide the meaning and significance that is needed to truly reflect. For example, telling a story gives the reader a description of an event or series of events. However, reflection comes into play when you look back on those events and learn from them, giving them meaning. In my e-portfolio, it is important to use reflection to show why I am telling the stories that I am using. If I simply said I fixed my computer and this is how I did it, the reader would be left asking "Why are you telling me this?". By employing the use of reflection, I am learning from my story and growing from it. When I include this information, the reader understands the message. In layman's terms, the point of the e-portfolio is to relay a message, and the stories which you use within it are merely the vehicles with which you attach that message(s). Reflection is all about why, what is the meaning, and where is the significance.

Answer these questions:
1. ) What does reflection mean to you?
2.) What is your understanding of this term?
3.) What sets it apart from mere description?
4.) How do you plan on using reflection to develop your e-portfolio?

Interviewing

Hey Everyone, hope you've had a great weekend. For this week's blog topic we are going to be talking about the interview process. For me, before the interview is always a stressful time, and I'm looking forward to this week to see how much we can learn from each other and be prepared for our next big interview. As part of Ms. Moody's class, I am aware that you did an interview practice video for one of your modules. How did it go? I remember being a little intimidated after doing that exercise, being afraid I was the least prepared student for a job ever. However, that's not the purpose of this exercise, this is supposed to be helpful preparation for the future. Many of the questions and discussion points this week will be based off that interview module. Again, feel free to ask any questions about the interview process you may have and we can try and figure it out together.

Questions and discussion points we will be addressing this week are:
-Discuss the results of your interview practice.
-Discuss the best way to answer some of the standard and non-standard interview questions.
-How do you deal with a phone interview and panel interviews?
-When is the time to talk about salary?

Cover Letters and Resumes

Hi everyone. Hope you have had a wonderful spring break. Those breaks sure do fly bye. I spent the past week in Chicago doing some missions work; it was quite an adventure as we drove up there, but it was a wonderful time.

This week’s topic we are going to look at cover letters and resumes. Cover letters and resumes are so important to understand as students seeking employment. I had a recent experience where I forgot to bring a cover letter and resume to a job interview; needless to say I didn’t get the job. It’s important to clarify the purpose of cover letters and resumes now, so when we start using them with employers we are able to describe well what we as individuals can bring to the table.

Answer the following questions:
What are some ways your resume can highlight your interdisciplinarity?
What are some questions about cover letters you’ve had?
What are some questions about resumes that you’ve had or do you have any advice to share?
Share a cover letter you have created, and share any resources you’ve found about resumes or cover letters.

Research Skills & Interdisciplinary Problem Solving

Hello Everyone. This is Week 4 and we are focusing on Research Skills & Interdisciplinary Problem Solving. We are all constantly learning either by taking classes or by job experiences. In each of these we can try to excel on our own, but lets face it. Planning and research is the key. We need some outlet to get creative and our minds thinking. It’s a skill that teachers have been drilling into us our whole lives because it’s so valuable. We use all sorts of research skills in order to complete work goals and course research assignments.

Answer These and Do This:
• What certain abilities do you find very useful when completing a research project? How can research help you in an employment setting? Also remember to think Interdisciplinary. How might your ability to solve problems from an interdisciplinary perspective be valuable to an employer?

• Create a potential (fictitious but believable) work scenario where your research and problem solving skills as an interdisciplinary thinker might come into play.

Ethics and Critical Thinking

Just an FYI, the group can also address one another not just me:

When I took the critical thinking reasoning virtual philosopher I have to admit that it was difficult to make some of the decisions that I did. With the friend problem I choose to tell my friend the truth by ethical reasoning, with the life boat scenario I choose to throw the 400 pound guy out the boat with critical thinking, and for the liver problem I choose to save the AIDS researcher with critical thinking. All my choices came from my personal ethics and I have to say by doing this assignment I felt like I had to take real responsibility for my choices. Ethical reasoning deals with your beliefs and values and sometimes that interferes with what you need to do. Critical reasoning is more like looking at a problem from all angles and coming up with the best situation not really involving your feelings. Summarizing my scores I was consistent with my choices, half of me was happy to see that but then the other half felt bad because of some of the choices that I had to make in this exercise.

DO THIS….Have fun with this exercise

1. Click the link below which will take you to an interactive exercise called Virtual Philosopher developed by Dr. Wade Maki from the Philosophy department at the University of North Caroline at Greensboro.
Virtual Philosopher Link (must have updated FLASH to play correctly): http://web.uncg.edu/dcl/courses/vicecrime/vp/vp.html
2a. Comment on your critical thinking reasoning that led to your decisions for all three scenarios: the friend's problem, the lifeboat problem, the liver problem.
b. Explain where your critical thinking gave way to your values, ethics, and beliefs? Comment on the differences you perceive between "ethical" and "critical" reasoning and what kinds of problems it caused in doing or reflecting on this exercise and even in your academic experiences.
c. Comment on how the Virtual Philosopher scored your response. From the comments you received about your responses, what insight have you gained about your own critical thinking and reasoning?

Integration

Integration is the process of combining different things together to make it a new whole. A couple of examples of integration is when two companies consolidate together to become one entity like Northwest Airlines and Delta. Also taking racial differences and putting them together in one community. Sometimes we think our areas of concentration & our minors really do not mesh together or integrate with one another, but that is what makes IDS such an innovative concept. You can bring subjects together that you did not think were possible. Our lives are integrated all the time whether it is in a professional, academic, or personal capacity. It is important for our areas/minor to integrate in these three aspects of our lives because it helps shape who we are, how we learn, and eventually what type of job we go for. I feel the way my areas/minor can get integrated better is by at least combining two out of the three subjects if not all of them. My areas are education, Behavioral & Social Science and a minor in History. I plan to be a history professor, and commission as an officer in the air force; I have integrated both of my areas and minor in my aspirations.

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NOW ITS YOUR TURN!!!
What does integration mean to you and why is it important in your life? Is it important to integrate your areas/minor and why? Have you integrated your areas/minor and if so how? Post your comments to these questions and share your thoughts!!!!FYI I will be the only one posting to your comments this week....So lets have fun....

Welcome! Introductions!

Hi CornerStone Students! My name is Elise Robinson and I choose Interdisciplinary Studies BA as my major. My areas of study are Behavioral and Social Sciences, Arts, and a minor in Health Sciences. At first I choose these areas out of convenience but with the help of capstone I was able to combine these disciplines and come up with a career that I am interested in as well as being most prepared in. My outlook on the future is always open for change; however my plan A with my IDS BA is to become a human resource officer for a medical business. I look forward to discussing and blogging with all of work, I hope we all get a lot of this Spring Term.

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Hi Cornerstone students! My name is Stephanie Shafer and I am a senior graduating in May. :D My areas are Health and Behavioral and Social Sciences and my minor is Social Science Education. In explaining IDS to my peers I often describe it as “create your own major”, but have discovered it’s much more than that. It’s creating new knowledge with the research of different disciplines. My favorite part about being an IDS major is the diversity, and the opportunity to take the classes I am really interested in, within the different colleges. I love all things Africa and would like to go there and do some missions work after college, and IDS has given me a vast background of education and I feel I could be helpful over there in a variety of ways. I feel that the biggest disadvantage of IDS is that it still has a way to go in being respected amongst the academic community, because you have more freedom to choose your classes. I’m really looking forward to this semester and getting to know each other.
~Steph~

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Hello ALL, My name is Idilia Gonzalez but you can call me DEE…I am currently in my last semester here at UCF. My areas of study are Education and Behavioral and Social Science, with a minor in history. I am a Senior Airmen in the United States Air Force and putting a package in to commission as an officer. I am from Brooklyn, NY and have been in Orlando for about seven years. I choose IDS because I switched my major a couple of times and had a lot of credits to apply somewhere so IDS was perfect for me. IDS is a newer discipline compare to the traditional majors out there, many have not heard of it and it could be challenging to explain it to someone unfamiliar with it. I really see many advantages of being an IDS major, we get to structure our own education, become a well rounded student and I feel we become the better choice out there to employers. I am looking forward to meeting everyone and helping you in any way I can to get you to your goals.

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Hello Cornerstone students! My name is Mikaela Anderson and I will be assisting in the effort to guide all of you through the rest of this semester. I will be graduating this semester, after four years in college, with my first minor in Business Administration and my second minor in Political Science. I chose to focus my degree on the Behavioral and Social Sciences and the Computational Sciences. Through the understanding that I have gained through Interdisciplinary Studies (IDS) has taught me that keeping an open mind and realizing that the world we live in is connected in some way or another. IDS realizes that too much specialization produces a narrow view of the world and limits a person’s experiences and understanding. Also, no one can know everything there is to know not only because there is too much to learn in one lifetime, but also because the pool of information is growing at an exponential rate. Therefore, the best thing for someone to do is to keep an open mind and look for how things interact with and affect each other. By achieving an IDS perspective and knowledge base, a person can achieve new heights and open doors that haven’t even been explored yet. Within my course of education I have realized that business practices and principles are a part of every career and as such are vital to be familiar with and understand. And further, all businesses are affected by the changing conditions of the world in which they exist and therefore it is valuable to understand the underlying ideas behind political science. Of course however, the growing proliferation of technology in today’s world which is a part of nearly every aspect of life cannot be ignored and as such warrants study and the acquirement of knowledge.

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NOW ITS YOUR TURN!!

Go ahead and write a brief post and let us know who you are. What are your interests? What your major is and what you'd like to do with it, as well as something interesting or different about yourself. Any Questions or Concerns feel free to post those as well. Just click "comment" on this post and paste it into the text box. --THE GEMS