An inquisitive nature, tenacity and compassion are the qualities that have helped me succeed at Loyola. I chose my majors because they rest at the intersection of many different disciplines and are the sources of compelling dialogue. Psychology, philosophy, earth sciences, political science and others are all required and inform sociology and environmental studies and I have enjoyed being challenged through learning about so many disciplines. At the same time, I am eager to learn about people. The theories are interesting but unless we talk to and understand each other and our own stories, they are all meaningless and no one is helped. I am the most energized when engaging in meaningful discussions with peers, mentors and friends about how they perceive the world. I am not afraid of addressing difficult subjects and asking others to do the same. I feel lucky to have found academic subjects where these interactions are common and have enjoyed being in the company of people who love conversing as much as I do. 

The Honors Program is one of the major reasons I decided to attend Loyola. The interdisciplinary focus, team-taught structure and common experience with other first-year students was exactly the academic environment I wanted to emerse myself in my freshman year and I was not disappointed. I learned about philosophy, theology, history, art, literature and political science in new and exciting ways. I feel confident conversing about any of these topics with people who have declared them as majors and I believe that I came out of the course with an altered view of the world. 

The class was broad in focus and covered the development of western thought from Genesis to the 20th Century Jewish philosopher Martin Buber. Some of my favorite works that I was exposed to were Madam Bovary,Geneaology of Morals and I and Thou. The classes tough requirements and demanding grading scales not only improved my critical thinking but caused me to become a much better communicator, particularly in terms of writing. Below I have attached the six papers I completed over my first year of the program, which show an obvious and steady improvement. .

Sociology has become a great passion of mine and I stumbled into the subject almost on accident. As an incoming first-year student in the Honors Program I had to register for my first semester of classes at home without meeting with an academic advisor. Since the instructions were somewhat vague, I picked classes that I had never had the opportunity to explore in high school. I took a philosophy class, a communications class and an introductory sociology class called Social Problems with Dr. Judson Everitt. This last class quickly came to be my favorite and Judson (as he demanded to be called) became a great mentor. I learned a great deal academically and about myself and how I wanted to conceptualize inequality and social justice. The class and Dr. Everitt convinced me to dedicate the rest of my undergraduate career to this area and possibly look into pursuing it in graduate school. One of my plans for my senior year invovles applying for a research grant and undertaking a project looking at queer student identity development with Judson as my facutly mentor. 

Environmental Studies  as an area of interest has been with me a lot longer. Coming into college I knew that I wanted to double major. I liked the idea of challenging myself and learning through multiple lenses and environmental justice and sustainability have always been important to me. Since 8th grade I have been a proud vegetarian. (My parents were not happy when I decided to start doing so on Thanksgiving Day.) I have always been a strong advocate for recycling and energy conservation in my home, I worked at a farmer's market for two years in high school and work to consume and waste as little as possible. Environmental Studies was a natural fit. It simply took me a while to realize that I could do all this and get academic credit for it. Since I declared, the interdisciplinary nature of the program has allowed me to take a wide range of classes from economics to science, philosophy, social science and communication. It also allowed me to chose classes that complemented my first BA program and my personal interests around art, food and social justice organizing.