Educational Goals

With each passing year I have observed an increase in the rate at which I see events which reflect a slow regression back to the days of slavery. The increase is both surreal and startling. Although outlawed in the United States some 145 years ago slavery is once again becoming a serious problem both at home and abroad and is being perpetrated by sources including CEO’s, farmers, and coyotes (those who help illegal immigrants cross the US, Mexico border). 

Now known as human trafficking, or trafficking in persons, this illegal activity is the first piece of the puzzle I am assembling under the banner of my BDIC major. This within the broader theme of human rights comes to the second prong. The second prong is healthcare. While heath care can achieve longer life spans and a better world, the healthcare industry is also a gold mine of information. Heath care systems can be used to create a picture of people falling into pattern of abuse or addiction that could lead to or are indicative of trafficking. This action will require development of policies that may not be present in health care systems around the world. A clear understanding of healthcare systems in the United States and abroad is critical to gathering and utilizing data to track down and eliminate human trafficking rings. 

These issues require similar skill sets; the ability to analyze and correct policy issues, the thought process to organize and execute social movements, the ability to understand the law and how it relates to the lives of those affected by its reinterpretation, and the ability to weigh all options and correctly choose the one that will result in the optimal results. These abilities are clearly met by using a combination of coursework that can be found nowhere else on this or any other campus.

Over all the combined Political Science, Management, and Public Health perspectives will grant me greater understanding of the problems that society faces. It will address how to drive policy decisions, how to leverege under represented communities and how to assess situations in an empirical manner that is critical when addressing issues of intrest.

Entrepreneurship and Economics was a way for me to marry my love of business and economics with a socially conscientious tone. This concentration focuses on new businesses and non-profit business models. I wanted to understand how artistic and other idealistic businesses make money when it seems there is no money to make and the different avenues of doing so.

With the knowledge I have gained from my multidisciplinary coursework I can now navigate several fields and business situations; be it working in the development department of a non-profit or helping a for-profit business understand how to make money on a tighter budget. I have the ability to manage and maintain economic assets because of my work and research through BDIC. 

After ACT NOW!, I had my first post-college interview and was immediately hired into that position as Assistant Event Coordinator at Chamber Theatrem Productions.  I was working for a Broadway producer booking national tours. It was alright and I learned a lot, but I realized that my heart didn't lie on the administrative side of theatre, it lies on the creative/production side.

That job ended on a Friday, and by the following Monday, my dream jobs came through: I am currently a working Director/Choreographer in Boston, which is precisely what my degree from BDIC set me up to do.  I am directing Arthur Miller's "All My Sons" at Bentley University, and choreographing a production of "Singin' in the Rain" at the Arsenal Center for the Arts.  I am still pursuing photography on the side.

I think it shows that if you follow your heart, it can only lead you in positive directions. I consider myself incredibly lucky to be doing exactly what I want to be doing in this economy (or in any economy for that matter).  I believe it was a combination of the skill set BDIC gave me and my own personal drive that allows me to say how unbelievably happy and fortunate I am these days.

            Two years ago, while still studying and working in agriculture, I decided to take an Intro to Communications class as an elective and found out very quickly that I also have a love for working with people and for leading others. After changing my major to communications and graduating with an associate’s degree, I realized that while I loved both agriculture and communications equally, neither by itself would satisfy my intellectual goals. Upon finding the BDIC program here at UMass Amherst, I am hoping that I’ve found the solution to my problem.  Through BDIC, I want to explore agriculture more, while taking core classes in communications and also strengthen my professional skills by taking classes in leadership, entrepreneurship and education. I plan to call the degree “Agricultural Communications and Leadership”.

            Also, while taking classes in agriculture, communications and leadership, I am hoping to get myself out in the work force and get real life experiences in this field. I think that for both the agriculture and communications fields alike, it is very important to have real world experiences. In communications, It is important to have strong public speaking skills and be able to maintain control of different people and situations. No matter what you learn in a classroom, you can only gain these skills through actually doing it. For these reasons, I am hoping to either find an internship for a semester, or to go on a domestic exchange study. There are agricultural communications majors already set-up at other institutions across the country. I would love to travel to one of these schools and be able to work with students and professors who are already doing what I am hoping to accomplish. In conclusion, by taking classes in these three main departments (agriculture, communications and education[leadership]) and devoting myself to an internship or exchange program, I know that BDIC will help me to discover the agricultural leader and advocate that I want to become.

Experiential Background

            Over the past 6 years, I have been working very closely with the agriculture industry. I have a strong passion for plants and animals and it is truly the trade I want to be involved in. The first experience I had that lead me to explore agricultural communications would be my work with the FFA, or The Future Farmers of America. The FFA is a national youth organization whose purpose is to develop students’ potential for premier leadership, personal growth and career success through agricultural education. I am currently a state officer with the organization and have been for the last three years. My job is to be an advocate for agricultural education and be a leader, role model and representative of agriculture and the organizations over 500,000 members across the country. My experiences with the group have taught me to love public relations and working with people. I think that I would be great in a position that requires me to advocate on behalf of the organization or business, even better if it is an agricultural business or institution. Also, this position has given me so many leadership opportunities, like speaking in front of large groups of people and influencing members and business owners across the state and country. I think I have very strong leadership and entrepreneurial skills, again, because of my work with the FFA and being able to be the leader of an organization and of a team of leaders, so I would like to keep strengthening them and add this concentration to my proposal.

            Other experiences that I have had that have lead me to where I  am would be my other college experiences and things I am interested in. First off, I already have my associates degree in communications so I know what kind of courses I need to take and I already know that I enjoy them. I learned what kind of classes I liked and which ones I didn’t like and I’ve figured out that there are many classes in the communications field that I would like to try. There is just something so rewarding to me about working in an industry that directly supplies people with food and clothing. By combining this love with my natural abilities in the communications field, I would have the perfect major to prepare me for life beyond college.

Continuing Aims     

            I think the world today needs more people who are proficient in communications studies. Media is exponentially growing and becoming more complex. This means that people are going to be getting information in more ways than we already are. By having a strong background in communications, I’ll be better suited to find new ways to get people the information they need through whatever channel they want it through. By adding my agriculture knowledge into the mix I would be able to organize information about agricultural events and news and send it out to people so that they can be more informed about an industry that is so important to our world.

            After I receive my degree in Agricultural Communications, I would love to find a job directly related to what I am doing. I haven’t decided if I would continue with my education and go on to graduate school yet, but it is definitely an option. I think if I did continue on with graduate school, I would really like to get my masters in the arts and continue with something in communications. I would also really like to go to a graduate school far away from here so that I could experience other cultures of people and see how they do things across the country, such as in a big city or in a small rural town. Every county in ever state has different policies and different goals for agricultural practices, so I would love to experience one of them Regardless of grad school, I think the type of job that BDIC will prepare me for is one in a position of leadership. I would love to work with a Public Relations firm or do something where I would get to dictate my own work and create my own schedule. I work best in jobs where I have a goal or a deadline, but the path I take to reaching that goal is decided by me. Also, for me to be happy in a job, I would have to be working with agriculture. Just doing PR work wouldn’t be enough. In addition to this degree helping me with my future career, it would also be helping me with my hobbies. I love working with animals and I am also interested in getting into some plant hobbies, such as gardening. Currently, I love training dogs and doing agility and obedience work, as well as breeding rabbits. I am hoping that this degree will help me understand more about the business side of what I am already doing, as well as teach me more about things I would like to do.

            With this degree, I would be qualified for jobs, such as working with the United States Department of Agriculture or other government funded agriculture organizations, educating others about the agriculture field or with a company or organization that needs a public relations specialist. There is a huge calling for people in this field because with the surge in technologies in this century, agriculture has become over shadowed. People have started to not care about where their food or clothing comes from. It is all about money and getting things fast. Seeing this, many agricultural businesses are looking for people to help them keep up with the trends and keep the public educated about what they are buying or consuming. 

Educational Goals

Siegfried Hoyer is a brilliant scientist at the University of Heidelberg in Germany. His work demonstrates that the molecular pathology involved in Alzheimer’s disease parallels that of diabetes. Streptozotocin, which is normally used in vivo to produce a model for diabetes, was injected into the cerebrum. The resulting disruptions in glucose brain energy metabolism produced behavioral and chemical changes akin to Alzheimer’s disease. This discovery can provide huge insight into the nature of a disease which affects so many of the elderly.

The department that Siegfried Hoyer works in is the Department of Pathochemistry and General Neurochemistry. Pathochemistry is an interdisciplinary science that examines the molecular mechanisms of disease. It stems from biochemistry and meets pharmacology, toxicology, pathology, neuroscience, and immunology at a cross road. The ingenuity and creativity in pathochemistry no doubt is derived from its synthesis of many domains of knowledge.

How might such a concentration manifest itself within UMass as a BDIC major? The pathochemistry major would take relevant courses from the department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology with classes that include general biochemistry; the department of Psychology for the benefit of taking courses related to neuroscience; the department of Biology for courses such as endocrinology and molecular medicine; the department of Food Science for the and the department of Nutrition for the study of bioactive food compounds and their role in pathology; the department of Microbiology and the department of Animal Science for courses relating to immunology and virology. In this way, a blend of courses from these multitudinous departments are all entirely relevant to the scope of pathochemistry. Obtaining a major from one existing department cannot even come close to constituting to unique and intelligible field of pathochemistry.

Experiential Background

At the end of my freshman year of high school my mother died of breast cancer. My high school was a high tech vocational institution where I studied and became certified in biotechnology. I feel that in some ways my mother's death led me to enter the biomedical field. Moving forward a few years, I began independent research for the Massachusetts Science and Engineering Fair. My studies examined the synergistic neurotoxic effects of caffeine and aspartame in neuronal cell cultures. I wound up taking 3^rd place 3 times in the various science fairs over the course of two years. However, more importantly, this research introduced me to the ideas of apoptosis and excitotoxcity, which are two important concepts in the field of neurochemistry and pathology.

In the summer between my junior and senior year of high school, I began work as an intern in the neuropharmacology labs at the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences in Boston. This work involved examining the neuroprotective effects of various lipophilic phytochemicals in both animal and cell culture models. Ultimately, this led to me being included as the second author for an abstract presented at the Experimental Biology Conference of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology in 2008.

However, up until this point, I had only really been interested in pharmacology and neurochemistry. It was the multitude of relevant courses that I enrolled in at UMass that gave an appreciation for kinases, intracellular signal transduction and the pathways involved in molecular pathogenesis. The work of Siegfried Hoyer also fascinated me, and understanding the data that came out of his lab in the Department of Pathochemistry pushed was the final straw and I was hooked into the idea of following this path.

Continuing Aims

Unlike many at this age, I have a clear idea of what I want to do with my life and feel that my BDIC concentration will bring excellent preparedness for that. I hope to be an academic and scientific researcher. In order to accomplish this, I will have to enroll in graduate school and ultimately obtain a PhD or Dr. rer. nat. The road to this will likely include an MSc on the way. There are many Masters degree programs taught in Europe which are top notch for biomedical research such as The Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zürich, Freie Universität Berlin and the Karolinska Institute. Upon obtaining a BSc with my BDIC – pathochemistry concentration, I would be eligible for and apply to the aforementioned schools and more. The courses included in my concentration include the core courses that graduate admissions committees like to see such as General Biochemistry as well as the ever critical laboratory research experience BDIC affords me.

However, if I were to pursue a field other than academia, BDIC – pathochemistry would allow prepare me to begin work in Massachusetts' burgeoning biotechnology industry. Despite the global economic downturn, the biotech industry is in need of many skilled technicians and scientists. Another option is that the valuable skills in creativity and leadership learned from my BDIC concentration would prepare me for continuing my father's small private nutraceutical company. Regardless of the path that life takes me, BDIC will be able to train me for all of the destinations I have outlined and more.

Educational Goals

            Though we seem to live in a civilized society, a first world country, America is not without its faults. Our people still go hungry, others face discrimination, and still more cannot even function in our highly educated society. According to “The Silent Epidemic,” every twenty-nine seconds, a student drops out of high school; More than one million American high school students drop out every year. It is estimated that 1 in 10 households in America goes hungry or is threatened by the possibility of hunger. Forty-four of our fifty states refuse to issue marriage licenses to same sex couples. These facts may be disheartening to some, but to me they are motivating. While I know that I cannot singlehandedly fix the world, our country, or even a community, I also know that small groups of determined people have often led to great social change. However, the people that change the world are not conformists. They do not take the easy way out. They are leaders, people who seek out and synthesize the resources they need to create social justice and ease the burdens of those who go without. BDIC is where these people belong, and where I belong.          

  For my curriculum, I plan to follow the new Civ + X track. I will integrate courses from the Citizen Scholars Program, Anthropology, Sociology, Environmental Science, and Political Science. My curriculum will be based upon the above service learning model, uniting civic engagement, academic study, and practical experience. I am pulling from several different departments because the issues of public policy and social change are vast and cannot be explored in few disciplines. From the Sociology department, I will utilize courses that allow me to study social movements of the past in order to understand the diverse catalysts that lead to social change. Courses from the Anthropology department will give me a global perspective on possible solutions to our own country’s issues. The Environmental Science courses will provide me with relevant knowledge about sustainability and interconnectedness. The classes I take in the Political Science department will focus on public policy and the tools necessary to address social problems politically. The Citizen Scholars program and Grassroots Community Development and its subsequent courses will provide both theory and tools in a way that unites my diverse discipline in a cogent way.

Experiential Background

            I originally became interested in international issues of society during the “Save Nazanin” campaign that Amnesty International ran with Nazanin Afshin-Jam to free a woman in Iran who had been imprisoned for stabbing a man who attempted to sexually assault her and her cousin. That this woman was jailed for her actions and, without the intervention of several national agencies, most likely would have been hanged, astounded me. I thought I knew that nothing even resembling this incident could happen in the United States, so Nazanin’s trial seemed distant. Still, I was impassioned by her story; I signed the petition Amnesty International had created and spread the word to friends and family. However, that’s where my involvement ended. I thought that there was nothing substantial I could do about international injustice until I was much older. In my senior year of high school, I learned about the murder of Lawrence King. In the weeks prior to his murder, he had openly admitted to being gay. Another student shot him while in school and he died two days later. I had not known the extent of hate crimes in America, so I assumed this one was localized and highly unusual. As I grow older, I am becoming increasingly aware of discrimination and injustice and just how close it comes to my home, and that fact alone has motivated me to begin working within my own community, tackling the issues that exist within our country.

It was the middle of the Spring 2010 Semester when I began to ask myself what I was going to do about it. I was an English major at the time. While I loved my world of stories and grammar, my major left me feeling discontented. I sat reading books that many others had read before me, analyzing stanzas many others had already analyzed, but I wasn’t changing anything. I went in search of a more meaningful area of study. I applied to the Citizen Scholars Program, which opened my eyes to a whole word of social justice and service learning within our campus. There was a campus organization devoted solely to helping students get involved and make a difference! Still, I wanted to incorporate this learning into a major. I visited the Legal Studies office, but their approach was too legislation-focused for me and considered Political Science, but it dealt too little with actual human issues and too much with theory. I knew I wanted work within politics and social sciences. I loved the idea of majoring in community service and social issues, but I did not think a major in civic engagement existed. A few weeks later, I was looking for the Community Engagement Program office in Goodell and stumbled into the BDIC office. Shortly after, I found my major.

Continuing Aims

            Though I never have a complete picture of where I am headed, I am currently considering furthering my education as one of several possibilities. I do not have much experience with law, though I plan to pursue an internship with the on-campus Student Legal Services Office next year to learn whether law would be an apt career choice for me, as well as to gain experience in working for student’s rights. I have also become very interested in public policy as a career option in the future. I plan to immerse myself in public policy courses in the next three years and am pursuing the Public Policy and International Affairs Fellowship in order to learn more about public policy positions and graduate school. The graduate level Social Justice Education Department at UMass is equally appealing, as I have been convinced for the majority of my young life that I want to teach in some way, shape, or form. Their small class sizes and emphasis on equality draw me.

            Should graduate schooling not turn out to hold my future career, I am researching positions within AmeriCorps and the Peace Corps. As of now, my whole self yearns for travel, so the Peace Corps Youth Development program may prove to be more fitting. Those are generally only programs over a few years, however, so I am also looking into positions at Amnesty International. With my focus on public policy developing, I am starting to see myself remaining within the United States to work on domestic issues rather than international affairs, so the AmeriCorps program is beginning to look incredibly interesting, as well as Teach For America. I still have a lot left to figure out, but I have three years left to do some figuring and plenty of options. 

What I hope to accomplish with my concentreation once I graduate this May 2011 is the confidence to begin and effectively run my own business as well as being able to practice and improve my creativity through fashion design. As of right now I am working on my portfolio that would incorporate all that I have learned these past years about society, fashion, and business.

The following are some photos of drawings and garments I have done throughout these years: