BDIC is an "alternative" academic program.  As a BDIC student you can find yourself in situations where you are a little bit unsure if the outside world will understand you and respect you.  Not everyone comprehends the idea of letting students design their own majors.  But there are big advantages to being different.

I am both a history professor and the director of BDIC.  History offers total legitimacy.  The discipline has been around for hundreds of years.  Every university has a history department! No one finds it very unusual to be a history professor.  But this can breed complacency.   Someone who is too certain of his existence can stop reflecting and stop innovating.

An organization that is on the edge will constantly seek ways to improve and seek new ways to express itself--in order to demonstrate its value and creativity.  Linda, Joyce, and I are always looking for ways to improve BDIC and to draw public attention to these improvements.

I wonder if it's the same for the BDIC student as it is for me as the BDIC director.   Do you find that because of the BDIC major, you are motivated to prove that you can do better than others?  Do you find that BDIC makes you doubt yourself some time but that this doubt produces creative thoughts and also helps to make you do better work?