Meet Communication Studies Major and CS Undergraduate Student Advisory Executive Team member, Claire Carlson! Claire is a Sophomore who is currently majoring in Communication Studies with hopes to gain a position within a high school after graduation.
What has your experience serving on the Undergraduate Advisory Board been like?
Serving on the Undergraduate Advisory Board has been a great experience that I'm so thankful to have found! It's really great to be able to come together with others who have the same passion for Communication Studies. The members of the board are so smart, talented, and such hard-working individuals so it is great to be able to work together to see where our ideas can take us. I feel like being a part of the board has been great exposure to learn how to reach out to faculty, the community, and campus as a whole to work on that level of engagement across a broader community.
How did you find Communication Studies?
In my senior year of high school, our debate coach offered an Advanced Communication class that had never been taught before and he encouraged me to take it! Throughout that introductory level course, I found a passion for understanding how and why we communicate the way we do. When looking for schools, UNL really stood out to me with their Communication Studies program and after my first few lectures in Comm101 and meeting with advisors, I became confident that Communication Studies was the right place for me.
What do you like most about being a Communication Studies major?
I'm a Communication Studies and Psychology double major and I absolutely love it. Understanding people and how and why they communicate the way that they do fascinates me and being able to take courses that help me understand that has been a great experience. My Comm classes have consistently been my favorites and they're the courses that I look forward to most each week. I love that within the Major/Minor everyone has a different trajectory that they're on. Communication Studies is such a strong foundation for whatever you want to do seeing as communication helps connect us to those all around us.
What has been your favorite Communication class?
My favorite Communication class was my Comm354: Health Communication course. As I am striving to be a part of the health field, it was the perfect course for me to combine my learning of things that interest me. Understanding the communication discourse that goes into the health field, whether it be between patients and providers, patients and their loved ones, or reaching those without access to healthcare, it an extremely relevant and interesting topic that I was excited to delve into.
What cool experiences have you had at UNL?
I've had a lot of amazing experiences in my time here at UNL so far. Being apart of the Advisory Board has been a great opportunity that is explicitly for my major but I feel as though being a Communication major has provided me with a skill set that helps extend beyond the comm department. On campus, I am involved in my sorority, Tri Delta and have the wonderful opportunity to serve as the Philanthropy Chairman and help fundraise for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. I also am involved in NHRI as a mentor for a sweet 6th grader! Getting to work with others and serve in these leadership roles has helped make my time here at UNL great and I know that being a Communication major has helped me within these opportunities.
What are your plans after graduation?
As a current sophomore, there is still some time before graduation but my goal is to obtain my PhD to become a Clinical Psychologist! People are my passion and though I am going into a psychology field, I firmly believe that Communication Studies is the perfect foundation that will continue to help aid me as I continue studying people in a variety of aspects. That's the beauty of the major! The opportunities are limitless and there isn't a set path or structure that needs to be followed post graduation.