{"id":296332,"date":"2018-02-15T12:03:04","date_gmt":"2018-02-15T17:03:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/?p=296332"},"modified":"2018-03-16T14:09:57","modified_gmt":"2018-03-16T18:09:57","slug":"intersections-rochester-curriculum-students-created-majors-296332","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/intersections-rochester-curriculum-students-created-majors-296332\/","title":{"rendered":"The Rochester Curriculum: Creating their own majors"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"logo<\/a>\u2018I want to make cities more livable for all people\u2019<\/strong><\/h2>\n

\u201cYou can\u2019t look at a city through just one lens, or you won\u2019t understand it,\u201d says Joseph Evan Gray \u201918.<\/p>\n

Gray, a New York City native, transferred to the University of Rochester as a sophomore to pursue his interest in mid-sized Rust Belt cities. The University as given him access to a wealth of courses\u2014as well as internships with the Rochester city government\u2014to further his studies.<\/p>\n

Even more, it has given him the freedom to piece those elements together into an urban studies major of his own creation.<\/p>\n

\"young
Joseph Gray ’18 and Luticha Doucette, a research analyst with the city of Rochester, are pictured in the atrium of City Hall in Rochester, New York. Gray has interned with the City of Rochester, and worked on a project supervised by Doucette that surveys businesses for their accessibility to people with disabilities. Gray is completing an interdepartmental major in urban studies that he designed himself. (University of Rochester photo \/ J. Adam Fenster)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

Creating your own major<\/h3>\n

Artistic and mathematical space. Cultural consumerism. Islam and the modern world. Sustainable urban development.<\/p>\n

These are just some of the other interdepartmental majors created by students through the University\u2019s Multidisciplinary Studies Center.<\/p>\n

The center also administers several University-approved multidisciplinary majors, such as American Studies; Archaeology, Technology and Historical Structures; Data Science; Digital Media Studies; East Asia Studies; and Public Health.<\/p>\n

Students who have successfully created their own majors credit the help they received from Jennifer Sherwood, assistant director of the center.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe was really great at telling me \u2018here are the things that you need to do,\u201d says Aliye Gallagher \u201919 whose major is Digital Communications: Theory, Analysis, and Practice.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t even think how many times we\u2019ve met,\u201d says Courtney Thomas \u201918, who created a major in neuroeconomics. \u201cShe really directed me with linear steps, not just conceptual advice, and that is what you need. I never really felt pressured, but I understood there was a process.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

A growing fascination with cities<\/strong><\/p>\n

Born in Manhattan, Gray grew up in Brooklyn until he was 10, then moved to Italy to live with his mother in rural Sicily until he was 18. But his heart and mind remained in the city.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was always interested in how things worked in New York City,\u201d he says. \u201cHow people lived in New York City, and how it all came together. I fell in love with the idea of cities as melting pots of culture.\u201d<\/p>\n

After returning to the United States, Gray completed high school at the Manhattan Comprehensive Night & Day High School for international students, where he literally took classes day and night. He then enrolled as a Higher Education Opportunity Program (HEOP) scholar at Bard College, a liberal arts college in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York. The courses he took there in political science, sociology, and art history helped him \u201crealize that all three came together: the architectural, the social, and the cultural aspects of cities,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

With his budding interest in the experience of mid-sized cities like Rochester, he researched the University, and found out about some of the course offerings and the possibility of creating an urban studies major. Gray transferred in the spring of his sophomore year.<\/p>\n

Help from two \u201camazing\u201d advisors<\/strong><\/p>\n

Gray hit it off right away with the people he calls his two \u201camazing\u201d advisors: Gerald Gamm, professor of political science, and Joan Saab, professor and chair of art history.<\/p>\n

Gamm\u2019s Urban Change and City Politics, and Saab\u2019s Representing the Modern City, have illuminated \u201chow the physical setting of cities affects the people who live there,\u201d Gray says.<\/p>\n

For example, when Gray looks at Rochester as it is now, compared to 60 years ago, he can see how urban renewal and the construction of major highways transformed the city. They accelerated white flight to the suburbs and left pockets of concentrated poverty throughout the city.<\/p>\n

Gray\u2019s political science courses led to two internships in the city. During one, Gray worked with Rochester\u2019s Southeast Neighborhood Service Center. \u201cI really loved working there because I got to meet a lot of neighborhood leaders,\u201d Gray says. \u201cThey are such a prominent force in Rochester \u2013 ensuring that people whose voices would otherwise be overlooked are heard in city politics.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gray chose his second internship after hearing Luticha Doucette, a research analyst in the Mayor\u2019s Office of Innovation, \u201cgive an amazing speech\u201d about the need to improve accessibility for people with disabilities. Doucette, who uses a wheelchair, recounted her own experiences, and \u201copened the eyes of everyone in that class,\u201d Gray says.<\/p>\n

After spending a semester surveying the accessibility of Rochester businesses, Gray is now expanding his project. He\u2019ll be researching changes to city policy that could improve accessibility, potential sources to help with funding, and ways to recognize businesses that have made their establishments accessible.<\/p>\n

\u201cI’m also looking into similar policies that have already been put forth by other cities in the US and Canada and will be in touch with them,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cJoseph is doing the bulk of the work,\u201d says Doucette. \u201cI\u2019m supervising, but he\u2019s coming up with the work plan and talking to people. It\u2019s his project, and the information will be used to inform city policy and services.\u201d<\/p>\n

Next steps<\/strong><\/p>\n

Because he is also interested in rapidly changing cities on the West Coast, Gray plans to pursue a degree in urban planning there. \u201cI look forward to seeing where my graduate studies lead me,\u201d he says. \u201cI want to make cities more livable for all people and will do so by tackling the small challenges one at a time.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

\u2018To foster more deliberate, meaningful communications…\u2019<\/strong><\/h2>\n
\"young
Aliye Gallagher ’19, who is pursuing through a major she created called \u201cDigital Communications: Theory, Analysis, Application,\u201d studies in Rush Rhees Library. (University of Rochester photo \/ J. Adam Fenster)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Here\u2019s what really \u201cbugs\u201d Aliye Gallagher \u201919.<\/p>\n

\u201cMiscommunication,\u201d says the University of Rochester junior.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m in a room, and two people are talking to each other, and one keeps saying the same thing, and the other keeps saying \u2018I don\u2019t understand.\u2019 I want to just jump in, rephrase it, and spit it out,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Exchanges of ideas can become even trickier when the people communicating aren\u2019t in the same room.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn an email or text, it\u2019s hard to correctly interpret tone and meaning,\u201d Gallagher says. \u201cWords become ambiguous when they\u2019re not paired with cues such as body language and facial expression.\u201d<\/p>\n

Miscommunication, however, is not merely a pet peeve of Gallagher\u2019s. It\u2019s an intellectual interest, and one she\u2019s pursuing through the major she created called Digital Communications: Theory, Analysis, Application. It incorporates classes across a broad swath of disciplines: English, digital media studies, linguistics, psychology, art history, statistics, and American Sign Language.<\/p>\n

Her goal? \u201cTo foster more deliberate, meaningful communications using digital mediums.\u201d<\/p>\n

An early love for digital technology<\/strong><\/p>\n

Gallagher, who is from Madison, Wisconsin, learned American Sign Language at an early age from her mother, a therapist who worked with the deaf community.<\/p>\n

She also fell in love with digital technology. Her father worked in information technology and was always bringing computers home to work on. \u201cI was also playing coding computer games when I was little,\u201d Gallagher says.<\/p>\n

She became interested in Rochester in part because of its American Sign Language program. But she also \u201cfell in love\u201d with the University\u2019s cluster system after learning about it during a tour of the campus.<\/p>\n

Gallagher decided to minor in ASL, in order to focus more broadly on digital media and communications. When she searched the list of undergraduate majors offered at Rochester, two of them\u2014Digital Media Studies, and the Language, Media and Communications track in English\u2014included elements of what she wanted to study. However, \u201cneither completely fulfilled all of the areas that I hoped to explore,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

By the end of her sophomore fall semester and into the following spring, Gallagher was knocking regularly at the door of Jennifer Sherwood, assistant director of the Multidisciplinary Studies Center, who was guiding her through the steps she needed to follow to create her own major.<\/p>\n

That spring was particularly hectic. In addition to convincing her advisors, getting approvals from department chairs, and writing essays to win approval for her major, Gallagher was simultaneously working through the process of applying to study abroad the following fall.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was crazy,\u201d Gallagher says. \u201cI looked back at my schedule and it was like one meeting after another. But it was a hundred percent worth it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018I want to stay ahead of the curve\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

Gallagher is confident the major she created, and the clusters she\u2019s taken in web design and psychology, will help her make a difference when she graduates.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverything I\u2019m doing is helping me be able to do the things I love after I graduate,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

She is especially interested in improving digital communication in the business world. That might mean working for a digital company like Apple or Google, concentrating on social media, web accessibility, or creating apps. Or it might mean doing digital communication work for any company, she says.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just really want to get out there and work,\u201d Gallagher says. Farther down the road, she sees herself giving seminars and doing consulting work for businesses, or perhaps going to graduate school to do further research in the field.<\/p>\n

\u201cSomeone from my mother\u2019s generation said to me the other day, \u2018when you\u2019re my age, your kids are going to know so much more about the media than you will,\u2019\u201d Gallagher says.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to be the person that doesn\u2019t<\/em> apply to. I want to stay ahead of the curve.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

\u2018Hoping to do some good in the world\u2019<\/strong><\/h2>\n
\"Courtney
Neuroeconomics major Courtney Thomas \u201918. \u201cThe University allowed me the freedom to study what I was interested in and, if it wasn\u2019t in the curriculum, to create my own,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd lo and behold, that\u2019s what I\u2019ve done.\u201d(University photo \/ J. Adam Fenster)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

By now, Courtney Thomas \u201918 knows what to expect when he tells people about his interdepartmental major.<\/p>\n

\u201cNeuroeconomics<\/em>? What\u2019s that<\/em>?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI tell them it\u2019s a branch of economic behavioral science,\u201d the University of Rochester senior explains in the \u201celevator speech\u201d he\u2019s created for just such occasions. \u201cBut it takes it a step further, looking at our economic decision making through neuroscience and psychology, to which I\u2019ve added sociology.\u201d<\/p>\n

You won\u2019t find neuroeconomics on the University\u2019s list of undergraduate majors. Thomas, a Posse Foundation scholar<\/a>, created it himself.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe University allowed me the freedom to study what I was interested in and, if it wasn\u2019t in the curriculum, to create my own,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd lo and behold, that\u2019s what I\u2019ve done.\u201d<\/p>\n

A unique approach to neuroeconomics<\/strong><\/p>\n

Thomas, who is from Washington, D.C., came here intending to study astrophysics. But he says he quickly realized that he is better suited to change the world as an \u201corganizer\u201d\u2014as someone with a knack for \u201cunderstanding how systems work, how people work, and creating a platform and infrastructure for change to take place.\u201d<\/p>\n

He was drawn to economics and international relations (his other major), and became particularly interested in human behavior and decision making as applied to financial and social capital. Because the emerging field of neuroeconomics examines such issues, Thomas worked with Jennifer Sherwood, assistant director at the Multidisciplinary Studies Center<\/a>, to create his own major in the field.<\/p>\n

It was Thomas\u2019s idea to include sociology in the major. \u201cRight now neuroeconomics is the intersection between neuroscience, economics, and psychology,\u201d he explains. Sociology should be part of the mix as well, he believes, because it extends the understanding of decision making beyond the individual (the realm of psychology) into group settings\u2014business networks, for example.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s considering a number of options to continue his education, including a PhD in neuroeconomics, a master\u2019s degree in public administration, or a doctorate in law.<\/p>\n

Harnessing computer science to root out discrimination<\/strong><\/p>\n

And after that?<\/p>\n

Over the long term, he says, he would like to establish a nonprofit investment bank \u201cworking with historically oppressed groups and the bottom one percent in America.\u201d It would provide money-managing education and high-level financial services\u2014no fees tacked on. \u201cThere\u2019s no downside to it,\u201d Thomas says. \u201cIt puts more people in the economy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another dream of his is to see his hometown\u2014where residents pay federal taxes but have no voting representatives in Congress\u2014send a voting delegation to Congress, and better yet, with Thomas himself as \u00a0\u201cWashington, D.C.\u2019s first voting senator.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the meantime, he will remain at Rochester next year as an e5 (formerly known as KEY) scholar<\/a>, studying how to identify biases in algorithms that are used, for example, to process mortgage and job applications \u2013 biases that result in gender and ethnic discrimination.\u00a0 \u201cWe need to find a way to eradicate those biases, and use algorithms that can learn to flag and eliminate biases that we as humans cannot even see,\u201d Thomas says.<\/p>\n

Thomas knows he\u2019s ambitious. But he remains notably modest about what those ambitions signify.<\/p>\n

\u201cHonestly, I\u2019m just a typical college student, hoping to do some good in the world some day,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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He is also a double major in international relations and a Kauffman Entrepreneurial Scholar. Thomas serves as a teaching assistant in sociology professor Thomas Smith's \u201cSocial Network Theory\u201d class, and works with his fellow students Prosper Feya '18, right, and Benjamin Ramey '19 during class in Lattimore Hall. (University of Rochester photo \/ J. 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