Black in College

Tomorrow is the day I wake up at the crack of dawn–or whenever the hell poll stations open–to vote for the first time. Tuesdays are usually my late days where I get to lounge around before heading to my Human Evolution class in the afternoon. It’s a good thing I will be waking up early tomorrow, however, because I do have some errands to run, and tomorrow would make as good a time as any to switch my Geology major to Africana Studies. Now, don’t think that I am abandoning Ecology and Natural Resources, this simply is not true! But Geology is going to have to go. I realized that if I’m going to start the Organization of Cooperative Initiatives, I’m going to have to actually have some background in the health and economic issues that set minority groups and poor neighborhoods apart from others. I’ve been trying to find the perfect combination of majors, and I think this is it. The Africana Studies major is very low-key, which means I won’t be stressing out trying to figure out how to fit which classes where. Also, I’m trying to get a certificate in “Public Health Preparedness” just in case I want to get into Environmental Public Policy in the graduate level. Geology and Ecology are a little too close together discipline-wise, and with Ecology I wouldn’t be abandoning my anthropological leanings. Also, it’s a unique combination that I believe would look good for graduate school.

Coming soon, I will include a list of graduate schools I am interested in. Yeah, I’m sure you care a great deal. But I have to keep these goals constantly in front of me–confronting me–in some way in order to keep myself focused. I just can’t wait until I’m not an undergraduate anymore. Not that graduate school is going to be easier, but at least the idiots will be partially weeded out. I must have changed my major a million times already this semester, but it’s going to be worth it once I get the ball rolling. I still have to set up some concrete meetings with the head of the Ecology and Natural Resources. It seems like the department is small and personal, so I’m going to have to take advantage of any connection I can get. I also have to send some e-mails to the head of the Africana Studies department. That may provide for some decent recommendations. At this point, I’m sure my advisor for Comparative Literature is tired of me at this point. I’ve been sick three times already and I’ve delayed out meeting by a couple weeks. I sent her yet another e-mail apologizing, but she hasn’t gotten back to me. Gah. If I’m going for the 4.0 this is not the best way to accomplish that. Anyway, there are still two more months until the end of the semester.

By the way, the Africana Studies website says that Rutgers is going to be combining the Africana Studies, South Asian Studies, and Middle Eastern Studies department into one big department; which, of course, would mean less classes offered per department. Since I don’t plan on taking too many Africana Studies classes per semester, the scheduling/availability aspect of the change doesn’t bother me. What does bother me is that these regions should be able to have their own histories and departments without lumping them together as if they are once and the same. The European Studies, Jewish Studies, Russian, French, German, Polish, etc should be combined under that logic, although I haven’t heard news of such a proposal for some strange reason… Come time for a research project of some kind, I may be able to combine Ecology and Africana Studies in a meaningful way. “Urban Ecology” perhaps? There is also a really great field school that offered Ecology programs in Kenya–and guess what would look really good on my application…!

Blah. But here, again, I am spilling out too many plans. It’s better if I just try to get them handled one at a time and see how things begin to add up. I think many of these goals (if not all of them) are attainable. I just can’t get ahead of myself or else it’s going to seem overwhelming. Breathe. Baby steps.

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