As a first-year student at Whittier, I had no idea what I wanted to major in or what career I wanted. Through the Whittier Scholars Program, I discovered my passion, where I wanted to take it, and how to get there.
With personalized guidance from my professors, Whittier Scholars gave me the flexibility to select a unique combination of courses that would fulfill graduation requirements and expose me to subjects and topics that would help me design my own major.
Through courses like international marketing, computer science, psychology, and journalism, I discovered consumer behavior, which is part psychology and part marketing, and my passion for understanding people. Along the way, I also developed my passion for the digital world.
In Whittier Scholars, you have the flexibility to choose every class you take. To create the most well-rounded degree, I researched courses in every discipline (including math and the sciences) to see if a class could be relevant to the experience I wanted to gain. Even when a class wasn’t directly tied to my major, I explored ways to tie it back to what I wanted to learn. For example, as someone who wanted a job in the corporate world, I made sure to take art classes because I knew that being able to communicate something visually would often be more effective than relying solely on words.
Designing my academic journey took research and critical thinking. Plus, as someone who was talking to professors and peers about my personal ambitions and academic plan to get there, I also learned to speak up and effectively communicate what I wanted and why. In the process, I became responsible for building my voice.
I delved into my newfound interests while also incorporating my personal interests into my education. I’ve always loved Disney, so that’s what led me to exploring how consumers’ personalities relate to their favorite Disney character for my senior project. In the end, I created a project that I was able to present in a job interview!
The knowledge I gained from this unique combination of courses helped me secure a digital marketing internship at ServiceMax, a software company. Real-world experience, like an internship or off-campus experience, is an important part of the program, and that internship led to a full-time marketing position after I graduated. I now manage the company’s social media platforms and customer communications.
I feel great about my journey knowing I took my educational design into my own hands.
