This week’s #HCSS shines a spotlight on Kenya Loudd, an Interdisciplinary Studies junior from Ft. Worth! Loudd is a McNair Scholar.

MR: Tell me about being accepted to the McNair Scholar program.

KL: I was excited about it because research is the path that I want to take – research and professorship. So I was excited about it because it gives me an opportunity to get paid to do what I like to do anyway, and then prepare me to do it on a larger level than I’ve done it at before. And also to be able to present, and go to conferences, and things like that, so I’m very excited about it.

MR: You mentioned research and professorship. What are your goals after graduation?

KL: After graduation I am planning on enrolling in the Mind, Brain and Education master’s program here… and then getting a doctorate in Education. And like I said, I would like to be a professor. Ultimately, I would like to teach outside of the country. It may be [helping] form some schools in some impoverished areas around the world, particularly South America and Africa.

MR: Has the Honors College affected those goals?

KL: I think because I came in as a transfer student, that was really locked into my vision before I came in. So if anything, the Honors College has, with the extra workload…prepared me for what’s to come.

MR: What is it like being an INTS major?

KL: It’s fun because you get to do more than one thing at a time. So for instance, this semester, I start my day with Diversity Organizations, and then I go to a Black Families class, then I leave there and go to Intro to Social Work, and I end the day with Leadership Theory. So it’s like a splash of everything in a day. It’s not mundane, I’ll put it that way. It keeps my attention in a lot of different areas – and, not only that, what I’m studying allows me to see the intersectionality between all these things and look at them in a bigger picture, as opposed to if I was just studying one of these fields all by itself. I might not see how it all connects the same way.

MR: With INTS you minor in different things. What are your specializations?

KL: African American Studies, Disability Studies, and Leadership Studies.

MR: If you could give someone who’s just now entering college any advice, what would it be?

KL: Prioritize, that’s the biggest thing. Prioritize about what’s important and what’s not. Map out what your vision is. I know when you’re first starting, a lot of people – it’s probably different for me, because I’m older – but I actually have a 17-year-old daughter who’s getting ready to enter college in the fall. So what I tell her is, “Focus in, see what your interests are and explore them. Research, do your own outside research. Find a mentor, find someone in these different areas, even professors, and form a relationship with them, and really get to understand what it is that they do and the field that they’re studying. And then when you figure out what works for you, map your plan out and work your plan.

MR: What has been the most significant moment or accomplishment so far as a student at UTA?

KL: Probably the McNair Program… that was the biggest thing. I think when I applied for it, I didn’t realize how few people they accept. And then they accepted me while I was doing my interview, they didn’t wait and call me back later. When they… told me the amount of people on campus that are in the program at one time, it kind of blew my mind. I was like, “Really? I feel so special.”

#HCSS is back this week with Electrical Engineering senior Ben Barnett from Burleson, TX! Barnett is a Maverick Terry Scholar and an IEEE Officer.

Ben Barnett stands in front of College Hall.

MR: Tell me about your experience with your major.

BB: So I actually started as a Mechanical Engineering major, and ended up realizing that I was kind of looking forward to the Circuits class in that major, and I wondered how it applied to EE. So I just decided to switch. It was a really good decision. I love all the things I do in EE, as hard as it is. Specifically my interest is in the energy field, but there’s a lot of things you can do with it, like microcontrollers, programming, software engineering…power systems, just all sorts of stuff. I very much enjoy what I do on a day to day, and plan to go into energy research.

MR: What are your goals after graduation?

BB: I’m going to apply for graduate school in my last semester, which is this fall. I’m also going to apply for jobs at the same time. Right now I’m thinking that I’ll pick between the two. So I’ll hopefully get some job offers, and I’ll have an idea of the responsibilities and the salary and all that stuff. And I’ll hopefully get into some grad schools that I apply for, and I’ll see what the benefits are of that, and weigh the pros and cons… Right now I’m leaning towards grad school because what I want to do is heavily research-oriented, so I think having a PhD would be very advantageous, but I also want to make money, so you have to make that balance.

MR: Aside from applying to grad school, what goals do you have for the rest of your time as an undergrad?

BB: My time as an undergrad is actually pretty close to being done, but my final semester I’ll be doing the Honors Senior Design…finishing up that project, doing the job applications, grad applications, and setting myself up to see where I go next…. I don’t have too lofty goals because it’s like, I don’t want to stress myself out too much.

MR: Has being in the Honors College affected your goals?

BB: For sure, for sure. Doing the Honors contracts with professors has made me go talk to them and made me build connections, and get into doing research. I started with an Honors contract for my Physics class, and ended up doing research in the Physics department because of that. And then, I did that for a while and enjoyed it, and kind of wanted to explore other options, so now I do research in Electrical Engineering. So the Honors college has helped me a lot actually, because it’s forced me to build connections, and it’s put me with like-minded people who are driven and have high goals for themselves. So I’ve built a lot of connections and been able to have opportunities presented to me that I wouldn’t have known about otherwise.

MR: What has the community experience been like for you in the Honors College?

BB: Every time I’m around, it’s very positive. The people who work in the Honors College, they’re very nice. The students are very hospitable. It’s peaceful and it’s quiet – I really like it. I’m not around as much as I wish I could be, because I’m just so busy with other responsibilities, but it kind of feels like an oasis in the desert of college you can come back to…find some grounding, and refresh yourself. A lot of the people, they understand, because they’re so similar. They have similar mindsets, similar goals. They understand kind of what you’re thinking and maybe the stress you’re under… It’s kind of like a home away from home.

This week the #HCSS spotlight shines on Microbiology sophomore Sarah Wolff from Newark, Texas! Wolff is an Honors College Advocate as well as an Undergraduate Recitation Leader in the College of Science.

Sarah Wolff stands outside College Hall.

MR: Tell me about your major.

SW: I first started out as a Bio major… I’ve been pre-med since my freshman year, and then I had a crisis and changed my major to Nursing for a little while. And then I went on a six month period in which I realized I really wanted to go to med school, so I changed my major to Microbiology because I didn’t like how much evolution ecology was included in the Biology major. So this semester and last semester were my first semesters as a Micro major, and it’s been wonderful. I love it very much. It’s way more interesting than normal biology to me, because it’s more molecular and cellular biology, which is what I really wanted to study. So I’m quite happy with it.

MR: What are your goals for the rest of your time as an undergraduate?

SW: To graduate on time would be great. To graduate with my Honors degree early; to maintain a 4.0.

MR: Do you have any goals for after graduation?

SW: Medical school! That’s about it.

MR: So you want to be a doctor?

SW: I do. That’s the dream.

MR: What has your experience been like in the Honors College?

SW: Very wonderful. I went to school in a really tiny class, so my graduating class was 14 people. So when I came here, it was a bit of a culture shock [because] of all the people…. My first day, in the CAB, actually, I was sitting there crying—it was a rough time, it was a lonely freshman year—and one of the Honors students…came up and introduced herself to me, and she was just the very sweetest… Everyone that I have come into contact with in the Honors College is just an incredible mentor to me, and they’ve just been so wonderful about creating a little community for all of us, and all my friends are here in the Honors College. And the staff, I adore the staff, they’re the best. Being an advocate has been so wonderful because I feel like I talk about the Honors College all the time to my friends anyway, so it was nice to be able to do that officially for the Honors College. And I do like that it has helped me distinguish my resume a little bit, because med school is the plan, so the Honors degree will help with that.

MR: Tell me about being an Advocate.

SW: It’s the best. I think the best part about it is just being with other Honors students that are also very happy with their experience as Honors students; we have formed a little crew [and] we do things together, we hang out a lot together and that’s really nice. And I enjoy going to the different events that we have and talking about the Honors College. I really like doing the Senior Academic Excellence Day where you talk to the seniors coming in and then get to reassure them that everything’s going to be okay, and just telling them about the different benefits of the Honors College. So yeah, it’s been really good, I really enjoy it a lot.