Sociology and Loyola |
For this project, I interviewed my sociology professor, Alma Begicevic. I chose to interview her because I think she is very nice and interesting, and we seem to have similar views on social justice, and this drew me to her. I have really enjoyed sociology thus far, but I know very little about sociology as a profession, so I thought that interviewing her could help me clear that up as well. It was very hard for me to approach my professor about interviewing her, because I do not like to ask people to do things for me when it isn’t necessarily expected of them, especially people in positions of authority. I do not want to burden them when they are already busy or make them resent me for taking up their time, but once I got it over with and actually asked her, it was not so bad.
Mostly, I was surprised about all of the different research jobs that Professor Begicevic has gotten with her sociology degree. In her class, Professor Begicevic has taught us that there are two kinds of sociology: sociology intended to uncover injustice, and social reform. She told me that she once worked with the UN, which was dealing with the social reform aspect of sociology. At this job, she worked with women who are survivors of both domestic abuse and sex trafficking and after analyzing the data, would suggest policy changes for the United Nations. While I now know what sociology is from her class, I did not really have any clue as to what kind of job you can get with a sociology degree other than to teach. I found this job with the United Nations particularly intriguing, because that job sounded like something that I myself would love. It is politics-driven, but you do not have to run for office or be under heavy public scrutiny. So I was very glad to know that you could get a job that had to do with activism with a sociology degree. Professor Begicevic really emphasized how important it is to learn about the things that you are passionate about. She told me that in Bosnia, you choose a major and begin college when you are fourteen, and she chose fashion merchandising. However, because she listened to what she refers to as her “calling,” to social justice issues, she changed her major when she was eighteen and pursued sociology. This was really nice to hear, because I feel like a lot of adults in my life have discouraged me from going into teaching because you don’t make that much money. Having someone say that you should just do what you like doing, and you can figure out the rest later was very encouraging. . |