At the beginning of my freshman year, I had my mind set on being a biology major. I was enrolled in biology and chemistry, and by chance I ended up in an Interpersonal Communication class. I found myself only looking forward to attending Interpersonal Communication, and slowly falling in love and becoming fascinated with what Communication was all about. It was after my freshman year commenced that I realized being a Comm major was where I belonged.
Over the last four years, I learned so much over so many classes. I have improved my writing, reading of scholarly articles, communication skills, ability to analyze messages in the media, and I have been able to implement all of these skills into my personal life. Being a Communication major has allowed me to apply my new skills to my personal relationships, and in turn, improve my life. But the benefits have not only been personal. Studying Communication at St. Norbert has allowed me to pursue my dream of attending law school and becoming a lawyer. Being able to communicate is an essential skill in becoming a lawyer, and my major in it, paired with classes I’ve taken from the pre-law certificate, have molded me into the student/person I am today.
The area of discipline I focused in is Communication, with a wide range of classes and professors. The twelve classes I took include Interpersonal Communication, Mass Media, Communication Inquiry, Media Psychology, Intimate Relationships and Media, Writing for Media, Communication and Mental Health, Conflict Communication, Business and Professional Speaking, Health Communication, Women and Media, and the Communication Capstone. Thankfully for all of these classes, I was able to take on different scholarly perspectives. For example, I was able to engage with the Critical-Cultural perspective in my Conflict Communication class, when a group of my peers and I created a website for people navigate cross-cultural relationships. I engaged with the Scholarly Communication perspective in nearly all of my courses by evaluating and disseminating how scholarly information is shared. Finally, I engaged with the Psychological/Cognitive perspective in my studies by focusing on the individual senders and receivers of messages in communication, and examining how cognitive processes influence message interpretation.
After graduation, I will be pursuing Law school and my dream of becoming a Lawyer. Although I learned so much in the classroom, I was also learning outside the classroom. For my freshman and sophomore years, I was on both the SNC Basketball and Track and Field teams. This taught me leadership, communication, team work, hard work, and dedication. My junior and senior years, I had a job as a bartender in De Pere, where I learned more lessons on leadership, hard work, dedication, communication, and time management.
St. Norbert has set me up for success as I move forward. The lessons I have learned both in and outside of the classroom have molded me into the person I am today.