During my own elementary school years, for example, I shifted from wanting to be a trash collector to an archaeologist. My fascination with the things people threw away remained; when I went to a college that did not teach archaeology, I became a medieval historian instead.
For most of us, changing our minds about what we want to be when we grow up will have proven to be a good thing, and not only because the economy can support only a limited number of firefighters. For today’s students, however, changing their minds about careers will not be an option but a necessity. Given the pace at which the economy is changing, experts predict that by the time today’s students retire from the work force, most will have held at least a dozen different jobs in almost as many different industries.
Educating our students to succeed in such a world is the most important thing we do in the College of Arts and Sciences, and we are devoting a great deal of time and energy toward doing this important job even better. But as the alumni stories in this edition of Perspectives will attest, we are already doing it pretty well. The unique combination of breadth and depth that characterizes an Arts and Sciences education has allowed these alumni to combine majors in dance and biology, Russian and computer science, anthropology and Danish, and biochemistry and economics. It also has provided them with an intellectual understanding and an appreciation of cultural differences across the globe, and with the capacity to communicate what they know in persuasive and culturally specific ways.