ISF Advice

From the desk of Dawn Strough,
ISF Student Affairs Officer

Fall into ISF

I just love this time of the semester. If you were to look at the MANY messy piles of paper on my desk or walk by and hear me mumbling to myself, you might think otherwise, as this time of the semester is for me, like it is for you, very hectic. But, there is just something really exciting about the beginning of the semester, and even more so about the beginning of the new academic year. Students are either excited to be back or excited to begin at Cal. I just love the energy.

I attended Prof. Holub's ISF 100A course last week, and I was reminded why I love my job. I witnessed insightful, intelligent questions and intellectual curiosity that are the trademarks of an ISF student.

In my previous life as an L&S adviser, I saw many students wandering (sometimes aimlessly) to find a major that was a good fit, or struggling to pursue a major that wasn't. Even then, I would often refer students to this program because of the creative control students have in shaping their education. It is one of the things I like most about the ISF program - the ability for a student to customize his/her education by constructing an individual area of concentration and possibly even study at a foreign university or participate in research. I am fortunate enough to speak with students every day who find their way to ISF because they want this very thing for themselves. It is a conversation I love to have.

I also had the privilege last week of being invited to hear a presentation by one of this year's Haas Scholars. If you are wondering what the Haas Scholars program is, here is a brief description from their web site:

"The Robert & Colleen Haas Scholars Program at the University of California, Berkeley funds financial aid eligible, academically talented undergraduates to engage in a sustained research, field-study or creative project in the summer before and during their senior year at Berkeley. Each year, twenty Haas Scholars are selected from all disciplines and departments across the University on the basis of the merit and originality of their project proposals."

Attending this presentation, I noticed that one fifth - that is, a total of four students - of this year's group of scholars are ISF majors! There is a reason why students from the ISF major are successful in garnering competitive scholarships such as Haas: just as I witnessed in Prof. Holub's class, ISF students are bright, self-motivated, ambitious students with fascinating interests. This leads to the opportunity to create a senior thesis that, for so many, is a true capstone experience to their undergraduate education. Unfortunately, not many students know about the kinds of opportunities that exist for those students who will write senior thesis projects, and yet, what a perfect opportunity for ISF majors!

If you would like more information about the Haas Scholars program, or any of the other research opportunities that exist, consider attending a workshop on how to get started in research. Dates of workshops and additional information (including a list of this year's Haas Scholars recipients) can be found at http://research.berkeley.edu/haas_scholars. Or, to see what other undergraduate research opportunities exist at Cal, visit the "Undergraduate Research @ Berkeley" page at http://research.berkeley.edu/.

As always, if you would like to talk more about this, or anything else that might be on your mind, my door is open.