Week Nine: Finding a Niche

One of the most enjoyable components of graduate education is the opportunity to mold curriculum to individual interests.  As a supplement to core coursework strong electives can help provide unique marketing opportunities for the professional impact of each student.  Electives and additional coursework build cognates, which are similar to minors in undergraduate education. They serve as a group of courses that help to construct a field expertise.

The challenge of this process comes within the process of choosing courses that both meet interests and are marketable within a designated professional field.  If this was drawn as a venn diagram it would include the intersection [C] of a circle titled “field needs” [A] and another titled “professional passions” [B].  

The challenge of this search is that it is unique to each person.  

The way I have started to break this down is by considering the following factors:

1. What are my goals upon graduation?
• I plan to apply for faculty positions, so my research should fill a field void and begin a research niche.
• If I were to be pursuing administrative work my research could compliment my work to solidify professional expertise and supplement my future professional administrative work.
2. What are my realistic areas of interest?
3. How do these interests fit within my field of study?
4. What courses would compliment this pursuit best?

This is an evolving process, but reflecting on it over time will help to seek out courses that come up throughout the program that might supplement my cognate. It is important to me to find courses that are a strong fit, this will likely involve patience which is difficult because it would feel so much better to have a degree plan laid out. I just have to remind myself that there is plenty of time.

A quote "every passion has a destiny" by Barry Miles rings true to me as I consider this process. The development of this quote actually has an interesting story. I firmly believe that it is the goal of each of us to find out what out greatest passion is in life and find a way to pursue it in everyday life. It is my hope that targeted coursework can help me find that path, and I hope you find yours too.

Remember that what lies ahead might be a challenge but it is worth every minute.