By Alexis Young
Contributing Writer
The Individualized Major program is one of the smaller programs on campus. However, the program has been a part of the school for at least two decades, originally having been called Interdepartmental Studies, said Anne Foerst.
Foerst, an associate professor of computer science, recently was announced to be the new director of the Individualized Major program at St. Bonaventure. Foerst said that a degree in Individualized Studies gives graduates an edge when applying to jobs and graduate programs post-Bonaventure.
“The skills employers are looking for are really things like self-motivation, teamwork, all these kinds of meta-skills,” Foerst said. “They don’t care what you graduated in, and designing your own basically signals to an employer or grad school that you’re self-sufficient and can create something on your own.”
The Individualized Major program is not a way to avoid the hard classes that appear in every course of study, she said. According to Foerst, the program proves to be very labor-intensive as students are required to look into what classes the school offers in order to make their own individualized 4-year degree. According to Foerst, the approval process usually takes about a year with a lot of back and forth between the student and the director.
“It’s a very fun process because students already come in with a narrative of what they’re interested in, but I help them to refine it and make it more academic, and I love that process,” said Foerst. “I love helping the students develop their own narrative and their own interests.”
Bianca Georgakopoulos, a junior Individualized Major student found her niche in the self-created major, “Health and Human Nature.” The main concentrations of Georgakopoulos’ course of study are Biology, Psychology and Sociology.
“I think this program offers a really different experience than the traditional major,” Georgakopoulos said, “You are able to literally choose the classes that you want to take (obviously with some minor limitations), as long as they follow your personal take on why you want to make your own major.”
Georgakopoulos said the Individualized Major program is what college is about.
“I think the major aspect that needs to be considered is to make sure that you actually are passionate about your subject areas. This isn’t some made up program where you randomly choose easy classes out of hat and get your degree. There is a main, overarching focus involved,” Georgakopoulos said.
Interest meetings will be held twice a semester. The last remaining interest meeting for this semester will take place Oct. 26 from 5:30-6:30 p.m. in Plassmann 107.
Anyone interested in the program can contact Foerst at afoerst@sbu.edu.
youngam13@bonaventure.edu
