Questions For a Senior Student
1.) When and why did you choose to major in Anthropology?
In high school I originally wanted to do something in fashion because I really liked sort of the arts side of things, but I also enjoyed science and history, so I decided to take an Arts History course at a local community college during my senior year. I got really into the “pre-historic” side of the arts and ended up pursuing that a little more before I found Anthropology. So I went into college as an Anthropology major but having no idea where I was going to take it, and I always liked museums so I kind of figured, “I’ll work in a museum! That’ll be fun”.
2.) When and why did you choose to combine your major in Anthropology with a minor in Design?
As I got experience actually working in a museum during the summer of my freshman year, I realized that I wanted to do something more artistic with it, and after talking to a few people at the museum I figured out that exhibit design was a thing that you could do. So I took some classes related to exhibit design at the beginning of my sophomore year, and I ended up liking it because it was a way for me to bring science and art together as a way to educate others.
3.) What was your favorite Anthropology course and what was your favorite Design course?
I’m in a Human Origins class right now that I’m really enjoying, we go through the entire evolutionary history of the human lineage…there’s a lot of stuff to memorize *laughs*, but I also took a class on Archeology that was really interesting because we got to do lots of hands-on labs, like analyzing pottery or working with hieroglyphics.
I’ve liked all of my design classes because they’re all really applied. I heard that they’re changing the minor to focus more on the history of design and less of the technical application. But right now the classes are set up so you’ll get a project and you’ll either work individually or with a group…like in my Design Concept class we had to redesign a product, so my group choose a water bottle and created a 3-D prototype which was expensive but ended up turing out pretty cool. Now I’m doing a lot of graphic design work which is something new for me, but it’s been a good experience and I’m learning a lot from it.
4.) What kind of extra curricular experiences have you had (research, internships, student org., study abroad, etc.)?
So I volunteered at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History in the Paleoanthropology department the summer after my freshman year doing “collections management”, which basically is a lot of sorting through bones making sure everything is in order. It was good for me to just be in the museum because I felt like I learned a lot about what it’s like to work there and I was also able to build up a lot of contacts within the field itself. Now I’m at COSI, I started that this summer doing an archives internship, so we’re going through all of their old files from past exhibits and there’s all kinds of historical Columbus stuff which is cool. And I work on the museum on campus just doing random collection work for them, I also designed an exhibit poster so there’s all kinds of crazy stuff there. I work a lot so I don’t have a lot of time for many student orgs, but I am involved in the Anthropology club. There’s also a research group that I’m a part of, so we discuss our research and bounce ideas off one another. We all come together with our different projects and if someone wants to present occasionally there will be conferences that they can present at. It’s been great to talk about my undergraduate thesis with them, so what I’m doing is a hands-on human evolution exhibit that will be held hopefully somewhere on campus.
5.) What are your plans after graduation?
So I’m planning on trying out the grad school route because I enjoy school and I wouldn’t mind doing it more and I’d like to eventually get an advanced degree, but I don’t really need it for what I want to do, so it’s not a priority at this point. I would like to find a job after graduation and then take that route before I do end up deciding to go to grad school, because I think it’s important for me to have practical experience in the field and then if I want to further my education I’ll go back at a later point. My dream job would be to work for a private design company that does exhibits. I have a friend who is doing it right now and he really loves it because he’s able to do a lot of international travel, which is something that I’ve always wanted to incorporate into my future career.
My Response
1. How did you find this interviewee, and why did you choose to interview this person?
After attending a lecture for survey in order to learn more about the Anthropology major, I went up to one of the professors who spoke during the lecture in order to ask him about a student of his who he mentioned is majoring in Anthropology and minoring in Design. He gave me her email and I was able to get in contact with her (I originally just wanted to ask her what she planned on doing after graduation), but after receiving an email from her telling me that she planned on using this unique major/minor combination in order to design museum exhibits, I asked her if I could interview her in order to find out more.
2. How has this interview influenced your major and/or career exploration?
Yes, this interview has influenced my decision. I no longer think that Anthropology is the major for me, but now I am confident that I want to find a way to choose a major that will work together with a minor in design to help me find a practical job that I am passionate about while still being able to incorporate my love of art. After the interview, I also spoke with her about a friend of hers who is majoring in International Relations, and she gave me her email as well so that I can talk with her more about what she is planning on doing after graduation.
3. Did you learn anything unexpected from the interview? If so, what? If not, which ideas did the
interview reinforce?
One interesting thing that she emphasized during the interview was the importance of internships. She mentioned that so far, she has held 4 internship positions that have all served in helping her figure out what she does or does not want to do in the future, as well as put her in contact with important people in the fields of Anthropology and Design. We talked about the internship fairs held during the Fall and Spring, and after hearing from her how helpful internships can be I am even more motivated to start looking for and applying for internships.
4. What do you feel you still need to learn about this major/career before being able to make a
confident decision?
While I was planning on taking a cultural Anthropology class in the Spring in order to explore this major more, I do not think I will keep the class on my schedule. If anything were to influence my decision on this, it would be more information on what sort of jobs I could have after graduation with a degree in Anthropology. But after talking about what sort of jobs her friends and other people she knows have gone into after graduation, I feel more confident that Anthro is not the major for me.
5. Which major exploration tools/activities/resources that you utilized this semester were most
helpful to you and why?
I have mainly used Ohio State’s websites on the different majors in order to have a clearer idea on what each major is about. So far the most helpful thing for me has been to talk to people actually majoring in the things that I am interested in in order to understand the major itself in a more practical sense. Attending the lectures has also been helpful, as well as my Freshman survey class.