Freshman Honors student Hannah Long-Higgins admittedly has a variety of interests. She’s able to tap into most, but not all, of them through her international studies major and minors in music and communication.
Beginning this fall, however, students like Hannah will have the opportunity to map their academic path by creating a major that will allow them to “marry” their varied interests and learning objectives.
The new, interdisciplinary Self-Designed Studies major will be available to highly motivated students who are unable to meet specific career and/or academic goals through an established major at Heidelberg.
Hannah plans to exchange her minors and add a Self-Designed Studies major that will allow her to combine coursework in communication, theatre, women and gender studies, music and English. “It’s a great second major to have,” she said. “I’ll really be able to dig into interdisciplinary studies in the humanities. I’ll have a ton of flexibility I wouldn’t be able to find in one major.”
Hannah’s working title for her SDS major is “Expressions of Humanity.” Through 30 hours of coursework, she plans to explore the different ways humans express themselves through media, visual arts, performing arts and identity formation.
“I’m really pumped about it,” she said. “I see myself going in a number of directions at this point, and I hope this will help clarify my direction.”
Professors Courtney DeMayo and Marc O’Reilly, members of the faculty committee who designed the new major, see its possibilities as nearly limitless.
“This is more than just another option for them,” said DeMayo, a history professor. “It’s an opportunity to conceptualize, design and implement a curriculum specifically tailored to an individual’s interests and needs.”
If a student is interested in designing a major in film preservation, for example, he/she might be guided toward coursework in chemistry, history, media and art. Self-Designed Studies majors would work with two faculty mentors to develop their curriculum; students must maintain a 3.0 GPA to remain in the program.
“It is going to be a rigorous major that will be appealing to high-caliber students,” DeMayo said. “Students get out of their education what they put into it. The Self-Designed Studies major will empower students to take advantage of their education and explore it in new and exciting ways.”
The new major is an ideal companion for other majors and minors, and second majors will be recommended. O’Reilly, who teaches political science, described the new major as “the heightened Heidelberg experience.”
“This really is the epitome of the Heidelberg experience because of the close communication Self-Designed Studies students will have with faculty,” O’Reilly said.
DeMayo and O’Reilly agree that the new major will allow the university to maximize its resources in more ways than one. “This allows us to create something for our students that we might not otherwise have the demand or the resources to construct,” said DeMayo.
The new major will encourage more student-faculty interaction, sharing of ideas and mutual learning. “The more excited our students are (about their learning), the better,” she added.
The flexibility of the new major will allow for exciting options in research, study abroad, internships and portfolio development. “We will be pioneers together in this program, and that’s very exciting to me,” O’Reilly said.