FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM OCTOBER 17, 2019 • EDUCATION • THE QUEENS COURIER 49
education
Four questions to ask when choosing a degree
Many college-bound students find
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 first 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. Th e 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 diff erent facets of my career that I wasn’t
already actively homing in on.”
Are you open to other
possibilities?
With more degree options than ever
before, there will likely be a few ‘new to
you’ majors to consider. Keeping an open
mind will help you open up possibilities
and, like Wineland, fi nd a perfect fi t.
“Overall, I have found a love for my
degree and have been able to begin implementing
its lessons into my work life,”
Wineland said.
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.
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