Exit Essay
I began this endeavor with the goal to accomplish what I started in 2002 by
finishing my undergraduate work and obtaining a bachelor’s degree. This degree
program allowed for a seamless transition from my community college directly into
a bachelor’s program. The selling point for this school and the Social and Behavioral
Science (SBS) degree was very simple, the simplest appearing program with no
additional required coursework to be completed prior to attending. The goal of
entering this program was to obtain a bachelor’s degree so I could advance my
career and get out of my current job position, anything that I gained in addition to
that would be a bonus. I am utilizing this essay to demonstrate the issues with this
program rather than a traditional explanation of the knowledge I gained from this
degree.
The SBS degree has allowed my writing skills to mature and become more
professional. Although I already considered myself a decent writer, the
requirements in my courses honed the basic skills I had. Specifically, Dr. Rebecca
Bales’ expectations to never use a passive voice in writing has stayed in the back of
my mind while writing and in my charting at work. This expectation has allowed my
writing to become clear and precise, demonstrating the writing skills expected from
a college graduate. In addition to my writing skills, the SBS degree has created the
ability to critical evaluate social issues.
The ability to critically evaluate social issues is a main component of the SBS
degree. Although there is not a specific class or learning outcome for critical
thinking skills, each course and each deliverable requires and hones the skills of the
student to critically evaluate multiple social issues. This skill has allowed my
everyday life to become clearer as well as allowing for the ability to acknowledge,
understand and appreciate the circumstances I am privileged to have.
In my entrance essay I mentioned that my hope was the SBS degree would
allow me the ability to create change in the healthcare fields, specifically bridging
the gap between medical and dental care. Although I still believe the
implementation of that plan is necessary, the SBS degree was not the appropriate
degree to realize that goal. However, with this degree and when I obtain a nursing
degree and license, I may be able to begin the implementation easier than if I did not
have a bachelor’s degree.
This essay requests the discussion of my most beneficial or rewarding
learning experiences from this degree program. Unfortunately there is nothing of
great significance that stands out enough to even comment in this essay. With
exception to the previously mentioned Dr. Bales lesson on passive voice, every
experience that stands out is a frustrating and difficult situation. From the first
semester this program has been difficult for many reasons, however not the obvious
reasons one would assume.
When I started this program, I did not anticipate the difficulties I
encountered. Although I was working full time and commuting from Santa Cruz,
those were not the difficult situations I was faced with. In SBS 300 I was
“introduced” to the degree, however there was no introduction, no explanation, no
clarification. We jumped right in to ILP and wordpress design and experienced
teacher assistants discussing things such as ‘ 8,000 pages of Annotations’,
‘Capstone’, “Advisors”, “MLO’s”, and “Deliverables” without any reference or
description. My community college and previous Cal State never mentioned
annotations or literature reviews and with little explanation from my SBS
professors I was at a complete loss. It was not until my second semester and in my
qualitative research methods course that I had a clearer vision of annotations and
what a capstone was. Every semester there has been an unforeseen medical or
personal issue with a professor that has jeopardized my learning experience.
Although I understand that many things cannot be anticipated, especially
medical circumstances or family deaths, each of these occurrences fragmented my
time in the classroom. I feel that I missed important lessons in my theory course and
qualitative research course. I also did not receive crucial feedback on my capstone in
my SBS 400 course as well as from my advisor. There are multiple requirements of
this degree in which the department has not standardized, creating a confusing
learning environment for its students.
This major is supposedly one of the largest on campus, however it is very
unorganized and requires clarification and agreement between all of the professors.
This major is one of the few majors offered as a transfer agreement major from a
community college, therefore many students who do not have specific majors in
mind such as business or chemistry, end up in SBS under the assumption they are
transferring into a ‘Sociology’ program. This creates a majority of students under
the sociology concentration that receive limited support, as there are only two
sociological professors on staff in the department. This requires sociology students
to have Anthropology, History, Archaeology or Global Science professors as their
advisors throughout the program. This can cause additional confusion and
frustration for students, including issues with citation styles between the
concentrations and expectations for annotation requirements are different between
every class, professor and advisor. The other main issue with the majority of the
students in this major being sociology, they are limited to two sociological based
courses, and the sociology professors teach only those courses. This can make it
difficult for students to 1. Obtain a sociological based education for their sociology
concentration and 2. Accessing their sociology professors (advisors) can be difficult.
Requiring students to have thousands of annotated pages in addition to their
regular upper division curriculum and capstone project without the proper help
makes a difficult and stressful couple of years even worse.
Although this essay asked for my reflection on what I have absorbed from
this program, what I have actually gleaned more than anything is the understanding
that every program, every business, and every group of people will never be able to
come to a consensus or agreement. The real world challenges presented to me in
educational form will allow me to troubleshoot and navigate my professional life
with slight more ease than prior to this program. My only hope now is that this
essay (although not made clear whether it was required or not) is read and the
comments made useful to the department and future SBS students.