Rationale for Program Committee (Educational Planning)

At SUNY Empire State College one is able to pick and choose one's classes that the student wants to take, to learn the things that are of interest to the individual student, rather than completing a standardized degree designed by others as what is typical of other colleges. I picked and chose the classes that I felt I would need the most in both my life and my artistic ambitions, designing my degree around the theme of my life-long goal to be a writer of substance. Once one picks the classes one wants to take, the student must then write a rationalization explaining why I chose the classes I did, what I hope to get out of them, and where I can take my degree when it is completed. Here is my "rationale", as the school calls this essay, the degree for which I created for myself, called "Creative Writing and Literature".

 

Joseph R. Melanson

#0942912

                                                Rationale

              I believe that as individuals will be the most successful when we learn how to follow our dreams, yet it is also important to be able to be recognized by potential employers as a person with a useful talent or skill for their organization. I think the person I am trying to become through my created degree program is a person who can not only continuously produce new ideas and concepts, but who can also focus and shape them. I believe this Creative Writing and Literature degree will teach me a marketable skill to a great many companies and organizations either here in Central New York or elsewhere, as well as how to become a successful author. 

              The Bachelor’s degree that I have designed is in the Cultural Studies area of study, with a concentration in Creative Writing and Literature. This degree reflects my desire to become a professional writer of significant skill and talent, but whose same skill is still marketable in the public sector in the area of communication, marketing, advertising or any fields that rely on a solid writing talent. I also intend to complete a Master’s degree in Creative Writing in the future and have selected many introductory classes to build upon in more advanced courses after I have successfully completed my Bachelor’s. 

               I have transferred with forty credits to this college from Onondaga Community College. Some of these credits are in the area of literature and writing, and are included in my area of concentration. I completed courses similar to my intended plan of study at Empire State College. I completed courses on Creative Writing in Fiction, Creative Writing in Poetry, Writing Non-Fiction, as well as courses to introduce me to the fundamentals of elementary composition. These courses have given me the knowledge to begin pulling ideas out of my head and organizing them into more clear and presentable words on paper. These courses have allowed me to begin to be able to reflect what were once invisible and abstract concepts in my mind into solid and tangible words that I can now expand and modify.

             The courses that I have selected for my concentration are all online literature courses offered by Empire State College. I prefer to take my courses online to maximize the amount of time that I am able to devote to my studies, as well as my personal goals as well. My goal is to pursue the craft of writing as concretely and as solidly as one can in a bachelor degree program. I have selected the courses offered at Empire State College which reflect the courses that seem to be the most commonly offered in three of the top universities known for their writing programs. The three colleges whose writing programs I researched were: Syracuse University, Yale, and the University of Iowa. The subjects most common to all three, what I assume are common to most others, and are available through Empire State College are: Literary Criticism, the Classics of Literature, the Bible and Religion, Culture, Shakespeare, and Ethnic and Gender Studies.

             The connection between my prior learning and my current learning is for my fundamental need for understanding, communication, both spoken and written, in both my personal life, and my professional ambitions. I have included other courses that I believe will not only help me in the craft of writing, or rather the craft of organizing ideas into a marketable product, as well as the craft of living a life of significance.

 From my General Learning Studies, I have selected courses from a few integral categories which I believe lead to a greater capacity to participate in the world of Humanity. The categories are: psychology, culture, sex and gender definitions, and religion. I have always been interested in psychology, especially what is the measure of natural, internal states, and the narratives that form in our minds. In the three psychology classes I have selected, I hope to learn the fundamentals of the science of psychology, the ability to determine different personalities and the characteristics of each, and what comprises the spectrum of behavior that is interpreted by the science as abnormal. I think these classes with also profit me by giving me a better understanding of the people I am surrounded by in my life, measuring my own psychological phenomena against others, and to learn how to improve my continued interactions with people and groups. This understanding of the human psyche will also enhance my use of characterization in works I hope to someday publish.

 I am interested in the study of culture and its implications for the individual and the groups that that individual finds himself in throughout one’s lifetime. For this reason I attempt to break down culture into what I believe are its most fundamental and reoccurring components of a person’s life, the qualities of sex, gender, and its implications. I also hope to study what is considered a “family” or the groups that the individual identifies most strongly with so I chose to add Family and Society to my program. It is the ability of a person to modify himself to the group he finds himself in at any given time, whether it be a patriarchal or matriarchal group is one of the basic measures of success for a human being. From my observation most of great literature is about the family or society.

 The study “Human Nutrition” is my selection for the SUNY General Education science requirement because nutrition and its implications, is one of the common issues of our life, an indelible link between us all, even if it is often overlooked and dismissed. I think our nutrition informs all of our behavior, not only our physical but intellectual and social behavior as well. I believe a person can assume and induce different psychological states by the selections of their diets. 

 My main goal of my education is to understand my past, to learn how to properly interpret my present, and make sense of it to benefit myself and others in the future. I hope to accrue significant knowledge to give breadth and depth to the ideas that I have already have, to be introduced to new ideas that will raise the fruition of my previous thinking to new standards, and I hope those ideas will become as clear and precise in their communication as found in the level of the most revered writings of the most accomplished and professional writers known to us today. I believe the degree which I have designed will put me on the path of that development. I believe the courses that I have selected will enable me to see from several, more shaper perspectives than I had previously. I think the sum of this degree will be useful in the field of advertising, marketing, publishing, or wherever the clarity of presentable ideas is necessary. I would like to thank the Assessment Committee for taking the time to review my portfolio.