Future Career Synthesis Essay
As I come close to completion in my current program, I have started to deliberate on the next steps in my life. I know what I would like to do and the impact that I would like on the organizations that I work for and the communities that I get to serve. As I reflect on what I have learned so far and feel what God has called me to do, I have decided to take a Bachelor of Science degree with a focus on education and psychology. I prefer an interdisciplinary study approach as opposed to a single major because it allows for a greater synthesis of ideas. I feel like multiple disciplines enhance my critical thinking skills and expand my mind more than one discipline would. A multidisciplinary approach also helps me to explore subjects across disciplinary boundaries that will motivate me to pursue new knowledge and make a greater impact in my organization. Research on multidisciplinary studying also confirms that focusing on more than one major is beneficial for students. Often, the combination of disciplines encourages higher-order thinking and a better ability to understand and apply related concepts (Jones, 2009). Education and psychology are two very closely related fields, and having knowledge from both disciplines will make me more valuable to my future organization and communities.
My first discipline is education. Education is an academic discipline that focuses on forms of thought and approaches to the successful sharing of knowledge. One of the primary reasons that I chose this discipline is that teachers have a primary impact on people’s lives. Education professionals are responsible for instilling some of the basic human values very early in a child’s life. I would like to have that kind of impact on someone’s life in the future. Being trained to be an educator will develop some of the most critical life skills that can benefit my employers and the societies that I serve. This discipline develops a drive for self-improvement and the improvement of others. As an educator, I will always be taking in information and instilling it in others. My employers can benefit from my ability to develop a learning culture that promotes continuous improvement. My students and the organization as a whole can always embrace new knowledge and continue to improve for the better.
I am also interested in psychology. I chose this as a second discipline because I feel like psychology and education are interconnected. Psychology is a discipline focused on studying how the mind works and how that influences people’s behaviors (Valsiner et al., 2017). With knowledge of psychology, it is easier to comprehend why people act the way they do. Knowledge of psychology helps me to interpret people’s behaviors and use psychological evidence to develop approaches to the improvement of people’s behaviors. In my future work in the education field, psychology will play a key role in helping me to understand student behaviors. With psychological knowledge, I can understand why certain students demonstrate certain behaviors; I can also determine their learning styles and the approaches that would best help them to take in information. Therefore, my knowledge of psychology will complement my ability to teach people.
In summary, my chosen disciplines of psychology and education complement each other. The knowledge of psychology helps me to understand the students better so that I can use my knowledge in education to teach them successfully. With the combination of knowledge that I have learned from these disciplines, I anticipate that I will be very impactful in people’s lives from the early stages of development. I will use my education skills to instill the right knowledge and values into people from the early stages of life. I will use the knowledge from psychology to determine the best approaches to achieve this kind of impact in their lives. I will determine their learning needs using my psychological skills and meet those needs with my education skills. My employers will benefit from having a teaching professional with a combination of knowledge in teaching and understanding the best approaches to teaching people with diverse characteristics and needs. I am looking forward to finally being able to make an impact with the knowledge and skills that I learn from my multidisciplinary studying approach.
References
Jones, C. (2009). Interdisciplinary approach: advantages, disadvantages, and the future benefits of interdisciplinary studies.
Valsiner, J., Chaudhary, N., & Benetka, G. (2017). From methodology to methods in human psychology. Cham: Springer International Publishing.
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Question
Future Career Synthesis Essay
Synthesis Essay Instructions
Prompt: In 700-1,100 words, convince a hiring manager in your field that your choice of areas of study has prepared you well for your proposed future career (or advancement of your career). What skills do you bring to the table as a result of your combined studies? You will NOT address your audience members directly, but you do want to help them understand why an interdisciplinary approach is better than a single-major approach to the job or field that you hope to be working in.
Requirements:
- You may use the first person but not the second person.
- Your grammar, spelling, and punctuation should be flawless. Visit the Liberty University writing centers if you want extra help: https://www.liberty.edu/academics/casas/academicsuccess/index.cfm?PID=38382
- As per college writing best practice, your essay should be thesis-driven, and each body paragraph should ideally be centered around a specific area of study. Include introduction and conclusion paragraphs.
- If you are not pursuing a professional job after you graduate (retiring, stay-at-home, graduate school, etc.), explain how what you have learned will be relevant to your next stage in life.
- You should not explain your personal history or the story of how you chose your areas of study. Focus only on answering one simple question: “How do your areas of study and the specific classes you took prepare you for this job graduate program promotion or next stage in life?”
- Develop your main points using specific examples of particular classes, information, and skills you learned that will contribute to your career field.
- Organize your paper like this (synthesize wherever possible):
- Introduction to establish what your areas of study are, what the next career step is, and what your thesis is
- Body paragraph justifying first area of study with specific examples of skills and how your education prepared you for them
- Body paragraph justifying the second area of study with specific examples similar to the above
- Body paragraph justifying the third area of study (if you have a third area) with specific examples
- Conclusion to summarize and synthesize main points while emphasizing your preparedness
- Use APA formatting and a title page, but no abstract page is required.
Additional Suggestions:
- You should not explain your personal history or the story of how you chose your areas of study. Focus on how your areas of study connect to your future in this field.
- You need to justify all areas of study in your degree, but you can use as many paragraphs or sub-points as you like for each.
- Remember, you will succeed if you convince your audience that your areas of study will prepare you well for what comes next, but you are not trying to convince them that they should hire you. Focus on the smaller, simpler question of your preparedness.
- Reliable sources, while not required, will make your argument more trustworthy.
- To begin brainstorming, you can ask yourself, “What relevant skills, knowledge, or experiences did I acquire in earning the credits for each of my areas of study?”
- Note that even if you transferred in credit or received PLA credit for life experiences, you can still use skills learned through those to justify your decisions.
- For many INDS students, their areas of study are a series of choices over the course of several years as they learn of new areas of interest and their career plans evolve; be honest but remember that it is up to you to explain why your skills are relevant to your field, not why you chose them.
- If you have an area of study that seems to no longer apply to your proposed field, you still have to justify it. Be creative and remember back to what you learned; think about how principles, skills, or ideologies might still be relevant.
- You can use Liberty’s web pages as a source when describing classes or your degree but make sure to properly cite each use.