Equipping For The Future

       In the Honors Program, knowledge is encouraged and cultivated the way a tree is cultivated by a gardener.I'm not talking about just any kind of knowledge, though. There are three types: foundational, disciplinary, and interdiscplinary.
         Foundational knowledge involves basic facts and concepts. Knowing how to add and subtract is foundational knowledge.
        Disciplinary deals with in-depth facts, concepts, and methodologies of at least one subject or discipline. My class in musical theory is teaching me the specifics of my major, music, so I am gaining discplinary knowledge from it.
        Interdisciplinary knowledge connects different academic disciplines in different settings. If I take what I am learning in my musical theory, Celtic Christianity, and voice classes and then apply it in a chapel setting I am employing interdisciplinary knowledge.
        But how is all this knowledge going to help me in the real world? Just because I can do these things doesn't mean I'm going to end up in a job where I use my knowledge of music and the Celtic style of worship. As one businessman put it, "Everybody ten years out of college is doing something completely different than they went to college for and majored in." I have no way of knowing if these classes will be relevant in the job I get when I graduate. So, is any of this knowledge going to help me?
        According to a study done by The Association of American Colleges and Universities, employers are looking for employees who can integrate and apply their skills and knowledge in real-world settings. I think the Honors Program is preparing me for that. I am learning so much about how having knowledge means acting on it, not just putting it down on a piece of paper and giving it to a professor. Employers aren't looking for someone who knows every book forwards and backwards. They want someone who can integrate what they know and apply it. I believe the the Honors Program is helping me cultivate integration of the three kinds of knowledge.
      Something else the Honors Program is preparing us for is how to be innovative and think creatively. I remember sitting down with Brad Gambill for the first time to talk about my gifts and strengths. I think I expected him to look me up and down, read my strengths results, and let me know what box I would belong in for the next four years. He didn't. Instead, he asked me where I saw myself going. My strengths were not a limiting factor, but a freeing one. He wanted me to think creatively and construct a possible future for myself, instead of alllowing someone else to do it for me.
      This is what employers are looking for in people they hire. They don't want people who will just do the same old thing. They want new ideas. The Honors Program is preparing me for the real world by teaching me to think outside the box in whatever area I study. It is also helping me to use three very important forms of knowledge. The Honors Program is equipping me for the future.

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