Makenna Aldrich stands outside College Hall.

MR: Tell me about your experience with Interdisciplinary Studies.

MA: I joined second semester of freshman year after going through six majors and not liking any of them. And then I found INTS and I was able to take, all the things I wanted to do and put it into one thing. And so I liked the flexibility of being able to do that, so…every semester since it’s just been better and better.

MR: What has your experience been like as an Honors student?

MA: It’s been good; this is my first [year] as an Honors student, but I’ve been able to talk to professors more, get more involved with them in class. Otherwise I probably wouldn’t even talk to my professors, but when you have to make a contract with them, especially if it’s not an Honors-designated class, then you have to go and introduce yourself, meet them, kind of talk to see what they’re looking for and what they’ll accept, and continue that communication through the semester to complete the contract. So it kind of pushes you to get out there and make relationships with professors that you might not otherwise do.

MR: When you started at UTA, did you think about being in the Honors College?

MA: I thought about it briefly, but I didn’t really know all that much about it. And then when I decided to do INTS, and they said [I] needed to join Honors…as I got into it I learned there was more benefits than what people had told me, because all anybody says is, “Oh, you just get free printing for a lot of extra work.” But I think that it’s more than that because I’ve been able to, focus on something in each class that I might not have learned if I wasn’t in Honors. So I wrote a paper on…things that have happened historically that are hidden in nursery rhymes in children’s songs. So the Black Plague is talked about in Ring Around the Rosie, so I wrote a paper on a bunch of songs and turned that in, and my professor loved it…. It formed that relationship. It was really cool.

MR: What are your goals after graduation?

MA: I want to join the Peace Corps, and then eventually I want to start my own nonprofit that brings education to impoverished kids in South America. And then I want to be a Foreign Service Officer with the State Department.

MR: Since you haven’t graduated yet and you’re not a senior, do you have any more goals while you’re still an undergraduate?

MA: I want to try and get done with Honors early. I’m about halfway through, and this is my second semester. And then I think that I want to try and join some other honor societies to get more involved on campus… continue staying involved, do more things with Honors… and just have those experiences and make those connections with people.

MR: Tell me about being an RA.

MA: It’s a lot of work. There’s a lot of stuff behind the scenes that isn’t always fun or exciting, but to be able to have that relationship with residents and make their experience better living on campus—because sometimes it can be scary, we have a lot of international students who have never been to America before—being one of the first people that they really see and see constantly, and kind of being that support for them, and helping them get plugged in, and figure out where their classes are…that’s the good part of being in RA, the interaction with residents.

MR: As someone who works with freshmen all the time, what advice would you give to incoming freshmen?

MA: It’s okay to not know what you want to do. A lot of people I think come into college and think they need to have everything planned out, but like myself, I switched majors so many times, and it wasn’t until I found INTS that I actually found something I like doing and I was able to take classes in something that I like doing. And that it’s okay to change your mind. Do something that nobody’s done before. Because INTS is kind of about doing something that nobody else has done before, because usually everybody’s developed major is different than everybody else’s in INTS. So being able to do something that nobody’s done is kind of exciting, not just for us but I think for Rebekah too. She gets to see how each person is like, “Oh, I’m interested in these things,” but somebody else is interested in three other things and how they combined and why. I think that’s cool.

MR: What exactly was it that made you want to stick with INTS?

MA: The flexibility of being able to choose my classes and my professors, and kind of work my degree around. A lot of other degrees, they’re already set for you. The class is already decided, you don’t get choices in what you really get to take, necessarily. But with INTS you can take anything and everything. I’ve taken a social work class, I’ve taken a philosophy class, I’m taking a global issues class. And just having the opportunity to kind of get a foot in every department and have that experience in a bunch of different things I think is really useful for the future, and in life. Because not always are you going to end up doing something that’s related to your major. I enjoy having the ability to get those skills that could be needed for the future when you have to do other things.

#HCSS is back this week to highlight senior Information Systems major, Precious Dunamis from Kogi, Nigeria! She’s the HCC Treasurer, Tau Sigma Vice President of Fundraising, AITP Undergraduate Director, and in the Senior Cohort/on the Logistic Committee of the Goolsby Leadership Academy.

Precious Dunamis poses outside of College Hall, in front of the UC.

MR: Tell me about your experience with your major, Information Systems.

PD: It really is the perfect combination between business and computer. You know, when I first enrolled in UTA, I didn’t want to just do…business in general, I wanted to add something else. And I like computers…I like working with data and stuff, but I also work in the business side of it. And so Information Systems was just that good combination and that right balance between, you know, a little bit of business and a little bit of computer, so that’s what interests me about this major.

MR: What do you want to do after you graduate?

PD: I see myself being, like, a business analyst or data analyst, where I’m just analyzing data…pulling from big data, and just analyzing it and kind of coming up with solutions or recommendations to work around business problems—or a way [I] can just recommend some ideas for businesses to grill, you know?

MR: Has being in the Honors College in any way affected those future goals for you?

PD: Yes, being in the Honors College, it opens the door for a lot of opportunities. Regularly we get emails about, you know, things happening around, like events, or scholarships. And so I’ve been getting all these emails that when I was not in the Honors College I didn’t get, and [that] really did help me. Because I get emails about events and stuff that’s happening and I actually attend those, and it really, really did help me…. It’s always good to know what is going on around, and so [the] Honors College do try with their communication to make sure that students are engaged, and that has really helped me become more engaged with UTA and what it has to offer.

MR: What has your experience in the Honors College been like as far as just connecting with other students?

PD: When I first transferred here, I remember it was…a really tough transition because I transferred from Tarrant County College, Southeast campus—a really small campus, you know, everybody knows everybody—but when I first got here it was big, it was a large university. So it was not until I got into the Honors College, I saw that it was also a smaller community, which is in particular the organization where you know, you see students who also have the same drive as you, who have the same objective as you, who have the same goals as you. And so it’s when I joined that I was able to start making friends. I made a few friends here and there and so I have people to talk to, I was able to mingle with others and really get involved, and I was like, “Yeah, okay, I found a little bit of small community in this big university.” …. That same semester, I was like, I’m going to run for officer to become more involved because of what the organization kind of offers. They just bring other students from different backgrounds together so I really love that.

MR: Is there anything about you that you want to share? Anything personal about yourself?

PD: I enjoy singing and dancing. I’m actually in the choir at my church, I’m one of the worship leaders. And so I also love dancing to any type of music, really, like people know me for singing and dancing. Which is ironic because I’m an introvert, so when people see me dancing and singing, it kind of shows a little bit of [extroversion], you know? So I guess it kind of brings me out of my shell because I’m this quiet, shy person, but… when I sing and dance and just be around people, I come out of my shell.