A self-reflection on the communication discipline and my position within it….
What does it mean to me to be a student of Communication and Media Studies at St. Norbert College? For me, that means being able to explore a major that is so diverse in options for career fields after college and one that allowed me to explore my creative side while being able to learn about topics of interest to expand my knowledge on communication in its various forms. Over the past four years, I have sufficiently learned how to properly and professionally communicate in various settings, both online and in person, and how to communicate with a variety of individuals across contexts. My learning has had a significant impact on my own personal relationships through advancing my skills in proper communication and in my professional life through being able to create an effective online professional presence.
For my area of discipline, I specialized in Communication emphasis. The majority of the work I completed throughout my courses was engaging in the scholarly perspectives of social scientific research. I completed various papers and writing assignments pertaining to previously conducted research studies, as well as projects in professional development, popular and mass media, and additional communication concerns relevant today.
After graduation, my plans lie slightly outside the realm of communication and media studies. As I am a double major in both Communication and Psychology, I have chosen to go down the Psychology route for after graduation. This coming summer I will be attending graduate school at the University of Wisconsin, Oshkosh for professional counseling with a school counseling emphasis.
Some experiences I had outside the classroom that were beneficial was using campus resources (e.g. the library research center, IT services, and the writing center) and being able to visit the career center for outside of class help with my resume, cover letters, and mock interviews. I perfected my skills in being able to find scholarly sources, properly cite them, and create literature reviews to then be used in research papers in the proper formatting. I additionally was able to also attend the undergraduate research forum, but this was for the Developmental Decision-Making Lab as a part of my Psychology Major.