Jacob Matto
Year Graduated: 
2018

Research Assistant

Purdue University

Job description

Researching, coding, writing, and editing for a historical-political project involving conceptual analysis and data gathering using historical records, archives, and literature from the New York Times.

Why did you choose this program?

Because of my passion for immersing myself into different cultures, the desire to understand the customs and society of a place, seeing beautiful landscapes, and being witness to the endless amounts of knowledge that come along with traveling.

How did this program prepare you for your job?

It gave me the initiative to focus on analyzing issues with different perspectives in mind. International Studies is one of the most interdisciplinary majors at Humboldt State, and the program gave me the skills to look at conflicts in my research through the scope of macro-economics, sociology, political systems, and human tendencies.

What did you enjoy most about the program?

Two things: studying abroad being required for the program, and taking a variety of different classes. I'm sure most university students at some point in their academic careers have thought, "oh, I'd love to study abroad." This major pushes you to do just that! And this is a good thing, because sometimes taking the first steps towards something is the hardest, and International Studies guides you along the way in preparing you for your memorable journey abroad. And secondly, as someone who often finds the same routine dull and non-motivating, the classes that are a part of the International Studies program, semester-by-semester, never fail to spark curiosity and intrigue. If you pursue International Studies, you don't stick to one category, for that would go against the whole ethos of an interdisciplinary study preparing you for an interdisciplinary world! Over the course of my studies, I took International Studies-sanctioned classes in the departments of Anthropology, Economics, English, Geography, History, Political Science, and Spanish.

What would you say to prospective students who are thinking about applying to this program?

Think of issues in this world that you'd like to tackle, or better yet, initially understand more about and maybe help alleviate at a later time, and see if those issues stem from one source or a multitude of sources. There's a very good chance it's going to be more than one! And if this issue is an international one that requires far-ranging insights and methodologies to find solutions to, think about how well an interdisciplinary education will prepare you for tackling those issues.

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