WWW.QNS.COM RIDGEWOOD TIMES OCTOBER 3, 2019 17
Questions to ask when choosing a degree
Many college-bound students
fi nd that there’s one question
commonly asked by family
members, friends and even complete
strangers: What degree are you pursuing?
It’s a great conversation starter
and gives students an opportunity to
share their educational goals with
others, but for some who are trying to
select from a long list of degree choices
for the fi rst time, this seemingly harmless
question can be daunting.
CMT artist and Arizona State
University online student Ashley
Wineland has some tips to share from
her personal experience with selecting
a college degree. Whether you’re looking
to create a plan of action for picking
the perfect major or just need some
inspiration, Wineland shares four
questions she asked herself along the
way that helped her select the perfect
degree for her professional goals.
Will you pursue an online degree?
“I knew I was going to be online
bound as soon as I hit my senior year
of high school,” Wineland said. “Usually,
this is a pretty restrictive path for
degree options as most colleges only
have paths dedicated in things like
business or art history. As someone
who had already started building a
career in entertainment as a singer/
songwriter, I knew that those options
weren’t going to make the fi nal cut for
me.”
What is your passion?
Wineland found that her heart and
soul was in music entertainment,
but a degree path with that primary
focus was not available to her. “I had
to think outside the box,” she said. “I
asked myself important questions like,
‘What can you do that is still creative
in nature, but can also aid other parts
of your career?’”
How can your passion lead
to a career?
As Wineland considered how to
use the skills she learned to expand
her career path and combine with her
passion for entertainment, she found
a creative, yet business and media
focused degree called Film and Media
Studies.
“I remember being so ecstatic when
I found Film and Media Studies in the
degree options,” Wineland said. The
degree program has four major areas
of emphasis: a screenwriting portion,
which allowed Wineland to use her
creative writing skills, and the other
three areas which focused on the evolution
of media, how it is used today
and what impact it has on our society.
“I knew I was going to be able to use
these skills to improve how I communicated
with my fan base, produce visual
content - the future of the entertainment
industry - and form my business
plans. It was an all-encompassing
degree that was going to aid me in different
facets of my career that I wasn’t
already actively homing in on.”
A degree you may never have considered,
or even known was available,
can provide an exciting educational
experience - and ASU Online is a great
place to start. When choosing your
degree, be open to possibilities and
refl ect on how you can creatively use
the skill sets a degree path has to off er
to pursue your best life.
— BPT
EDUCATION
19
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