Shifting Focus
Posted October 24, 2015 by Amy Wilson
As a SLIS student at Simmons, there is a big deadline for two important items. One is finishing the TOR (Technology Orientation Requirement) and the other is to complete your first advising session. I finished the TOR before the semester started and this past week I completed the second task with my adviser, Jim Matarazzo. What a wealth of knowledge that man is! Connecting with him was a bit of a circuitous route of self-discovery (through another advisor, the registrar’s office, our Assistant Dean Em Claire Knowles, and finally Jim) and by the end of all these conversations, I had changed my concentration and found my voice.
Choosing classes meant that I had to make a decision about where I wanted to take them – online or on-campus? This semester both of my classes have been on-campus, and it is definitely a lot of work to run back and forth; however, I still think it’s worth it for me. I absolutely see that online learning could be useful for someone who has social anxiety, or lives far away, or has a unique work schedule; it’s neither better or worse, just different. And I chose Simmons (in fact, I didn’t apply anywhere else) because I knew I wanted to have the opportunity to attend traditional classes. Basically, I think about Amy Poehler using the line that she repeats throughout her book, Yes Please: “Good for you, not for me.”
After deciding that I wanted to be on campus, I was still confused about which classes to take. 36 credits is really not a lot, and I need to chose carefully! After my first advising session, I was overwhelmed and confused about my career path. I even questioned whether the IS&T concentration, which runs primarily online courses, was the right fit for me; it would limit my learning style and path. In the end, I knew I needed to reach out to our Assistant Dean for Student Services, Em Claire, for help.
When I told Em Claire about my concerns, she said all the right things and in a matter of a few hours, had resolved everything. She heard me out and switched me from the IS&T concentration to a track that focuses on Special Libraries. Of course, I haven’t lost interest in IS&T – I’ve just realized that my interests right now are too broad and I want to feel like my options are still open to all avenues. If you don’t have a few moments of crisis like this, you probably aren’t doing grad school right.
Em Claire also assigned me to my new adviser, Jim Matarazzo, whom I met with this week. Jim suggested several classes for me to take (Web design, Competitive Intelligence, Knowledge Management) and is already talking about internships and jobs. He pushed me to answer the question, “Where do you want to end up?” and I realized that this is what was missing from my first advising session. Because everything leading up to that answer is just a fill-in-the-blank, right? YES PLEASE.
Check out Amy’s original post at: http://studiesinjoy.