Written by Sarah Kyle
On May 14, seniors Calea Bakke, Gil Gildner and Mark Slagle will become the first of a new breed: Interdisciplinary Studies graduates.
The trio will be the first to complete the new Honors College degree program, which was officially added into Harding’s academic catalog this year.
Interdisciplinary Studies is the first official major of the Honors College, and it allows students to customize their course load by drawing from a minimum of two different academic disciplines to create an individualized major, according to Jeffrey Hopper, dean of the Honors College.
“I don’t know of another programexactlylikeit,” Hopper said.
Participants must submit their academic plan to the Honors College, vice president of Academic Affairs and the deans of each program they plan to participate in and maintain a 3.5 GPA to earn a degree.
“It doesn’t apply to any certain number of honors hours, because we want a student to be able to do this without being in the Honors College,” Hopper said. “But they have to maintain our standards.”
By the time the major officially became part of the academic catalog, Hopper said that Bakke, Slagle and Gildner were essentially pursuing an Interdisciplinary Studies major through electives. The trio immediately entered the new program and began to draft their individual majors: global communications (Bakke), visual media design (Gildner) and global narrative (Slagle).
“All three of them share a media area, but they wanted something expansive and big and broad,”Hopper said.”They wanted to make a difference in the world.”
Bakke, who said she was the first to draft her degree plan, said she and Administrative Assistant Debbie Baird worked together diligently to create her degree, global communications, and the necessary forms for future Interdisciplinary Studies majors.
Bakke said she chose Interdisciplinary Studies because it was the perfect map to get her into the world and start telling the stories of peoplefrom a variety of cultures. “Though Harding offers a wide range of majors, a lot of people have these dream jobs or things they want to pursue in their lives and there’s not a major in place that can help them get there,” Bakke said. “What’s great about Interdis- ciplinary Studies is that you can take different aspects of different departments and utilize them into a major that can work and get you towhere you’re going.”
After graduation, Bakkesaid she is beginning the journey to her dream job with a two-year commitment with One Hope, an international nonprofit missions organization in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.
“I will be doing everything from social networking to public relations,” Bakke said. “They are very internationally based, so hopefully I will be traveling a lot.”
Gildner said he created his visual media design degree after entering Harding as a graphic design major. While he always had a passion for visual art, he said he wanted to be able to use his artistic talents to communicate stories.
“Studying art and design didn’t allow me to do what I really want,” Gildner said. “Adding communication to the mix gives me the ability to tell stories through visuals. It’s very practical.”
Gildner is still pursuing a job, but he said that his dream job would include traveling the world with a camera.
Slagle said the possibili- ties for his global narrative major were “endless,” and that it has already given him multiple opportunities, like filming documentaries for Harding’s programs in Italy and Greece, with plans for Zambia this summer.
“Designing my own major has allowed me to break down any walls that other, traditional majors would have built saying what I can or cannot do post-graduation,” Slagle said.”A camera in my hands is simply a tool to tell a story.”
Including the graduating seniors, the program currently has five students, with an additionalfivenowdrafting their academic program.
“In general, this program seems to attract people who know who they are but don’t find a degree plan that meets up with who they are,” Hopper said. “Only strong students have expressed interest in it.”
