Personal Statement

I like to describe Interdisciplinary Studies as the buffet of college learning. By majoring in Interdisciplinary Studies, I have been able to study the subjects that interest me and have helped me prepare for the real world. When I first entered college I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life, but I eventually settled on teaching. Since there is no undergraduate major for education at Virginia Tech anymore, I decided on Interdisciplinary Studies. This major has allowed me to choose two minors that interest me, these are PK-6 Social Studies and PK-6 Math. If I had not chosen IDST, I would have had to double major in Math and History to obtain my goals.
Interdisciplinary Studies allows students to study the subjects that most interest them. Also, IDST teaches students to use their minors, as well as other aspects of learning, to view problems from different angles and find a solution. I am not sure what types of problems that I will be able to solve using my minors, however taking the education route has allowed me to take a class in many subjects. Following the requirements for Education Graduate School, I have been able to take a class in just about every area that Virginia Tech offers. Also being an IDST major, I have been able to take classes in areas such as Women’s Studies, Judaic Studies, and Humanities; which are not required for Graduate School. Having classes in all these areas will help me in the future to educate children, which is the problem that I wish to solve for myself. Figuring out how to teach children and effectively help them to learn is a large problem that all teachers need to figure out.
I have taken a class in sociology, psychology, and will be taking a class in human development. These classes have and will enable me to understand how a child’s mind works and the most effective ways to teach them. My minors will also help me to teach children the subjects that they need to be successful. I want to teach kindergarten, and two of the math classes I have taken have given me the tools to learn how to teach math to children that age so that they are able to understand and learn it. Using my social studies minor, I am able to take different history classes that I can use in my kindergarten classes to teach the kids a little about history. The only problem that concerns me is the high level of education that I am learning and then having to break it down to be able to teach on a kindergarten level. This is where I figure that my Graduate School will help along with the tools of problem solving I have learned in IDST.
IDST is a problem solving major. I feel that this major gives students a chance to pull areas of study together to figure out a solution, rather than just being given the solution. IDST gives a student a better awareness of the world around them and how they can use their minors to help solve those problems. IDST also teaches a student to find more than one solution and to look at every aspect of a problem. Interdisciplinary Studies is also a major that is continually changing and evolving, and I am sometimes not sure what exactly it is all about. I do know that Interdisciplinary Studies is a major that allows students to study the subjects that interest them the most, which is what I love. I am the type of person that will only learn about the stuff that I am interested in and feel that I will use when I graduate. This major has allowed me to combine my interest in children with that of math and history, which is something that no other major on a college campus offers to students. I also feel that since IDST offers this type of freedom to students, they are often the students that graduate from college the most well rounded in all aspects of their learning. From my point of view, I feel that Interdisciplinary Studies is the major that will help me to become a well-rounded educator for the future, which is a trait that every educator needs to have.