Department of Sociology

Name: Victoria Vazquez

Major(s) and Minor: Majored in Sociology and Criminal Justice with a minor in Anthropology

Year: 2018

Why did you choose Sociology as your major?

I chose Sociology as my major because I took a Sociology class in high school. It was a mess of a class but I liked the material so I wanted to give it another try when I got to college. And I fell in love with it right away. My sociology classes were the ones that I was both good at and enjoyed, rather than other classes I was taking that were always only one or the other.

What did you like most about it?

What I personally like about Sociology is that, because we are trying to understand how people perceive the world around them and why people act the ways that they do, what we can study is endless. Sociology can be broad but you may also find a specific subsection that means a lot to you and I was lucky enough to find that myself.

What is your current position, what do you, and what do you enjoy most about it?

I currently work as a phone interviewer for a public policy research company. That’s a fancy way of saying I ask people questions over the phone all day. I enjoy this because I collect data that could positively affect public policy.

What was your first job after Rutgers and how did you get it?

Since I am a recent graduate, my first job out of Rutgers is in my current position. I am a phone interviewer for a public policy research company. I was able to get this position because of my degree and my past research experience while I was an undergraduate.

How did you move from that first job to your current position?

Once again, because I just graduated, my first job out of school is my current job. I was able to go, however, from a job in retail to my current job as a phone interviewer because of my degree and experience at Rutgers.

Looking back, what classes or experiences at Rutgers would you point to as contributing to your successes?

The class that I would say was the main contributor to my successes would be the Honors in Sociology program. This class gave me a taste for research and helped me realize that Sociological research is what I want to do.

What advice do you have for our current Arts and Sciences students?

The main advice I would give current students is this: get close to your TAs and your professors. Be close enough that you feel comfortable asking them questions and asking them for help if and when you need it. Your questions and your comments in class are not a nuisance and will only help you in the long run.

Name: Marimar Suárez

Major(s) and Minor: Double majoring in Linguistics and Sociology

Year: 2020

How did you choose Sociology as your major?

I took a sociology class when I was in high school as an elective and I fell in love with the class. When I came to Rutgers, I took Introduction to Sociology with Professor McLean to fulfill a core requirement. However, I enjoyed the class so much that I decided to double major in Linguistics and Sociology!

What is it about your chosen field (and the department) that appeals to you?

I just love the idea of being able to analyze a problem as a structural issue instead of viewing it from an individualistic perspective. Through my sociology classes, I have been able to understand that many social, economic, and political problems can be traced back to structural, society-wide trends that impact people on an individual level. Sociology has also taught me how important and impactful the process of socialization is on the development of human beings. The way we act, speak, problem-solve, and even the way we process information has been molded by our upbringing and by environmental, social, and economic conditions. Finally, I find sociology classes fascinating. I am able to take classes on such varied and important topics. I have taken classes that have focused on law, on drug use, on race relations, and even on our health. They are all so different, but they are equally important.

Do you have a favorite class/professor within your major?

Honestly, all of my sociology professors have been engaging, passionate, and student-oriented. If I had to pick my favorite class so far, it has to be Race Relations with Professor Wilhelms. I genuinely looked forward to this class. The racial relations and implications have shaped the American history. However, high school history classes don’t tend to focus on the underlying racist policies that have shaped what the United States is now. This class was extremely eye-opening. We focused on how race plays a role in housing policies, in the education system, in college admissions process, and even in the way people view taxes. The scary part is that even though our what we learned in class happened more than 50 years ago, we can still see the same trends occurring nowadays. Professor Wilhelms makes the class even more entertaining. He is so knowledgeable and he is able to grasp our attention so easily. He relates the course material to his life which makes it much to understand. I encourage you all to take this class!

What are your favorite academic experiences outside of your major?

I was a research assistant for the Graduate School of Education and I worked for Professor Dake Zhang. Her research project was titled the Improving Student Performance in Math Problem Solving. As a research assistant, I had to go to a school in South Plainfield and tutor students with learning disabilities on fractions and proportions. I want to be a teacher, so this experienced directly related to my career path.

What are your other Rutgers activities?

Getting involved is extremely important! I am currently the Secretary for the Rutgers Union Estudiantil Puertorriqueña, which is basically the Puerto Rican Student Association. We plan meetings and events to unite the Puerto Rican community at Rutgers. Additionally, I am the Liaison Officer for Rutgers BuildOn. BuildOn is a non-profit organization that focuses on ending the cycle of poverty through education. I am also involved with the non-profit organization called Institute for Domestic and International Affairs. We plan Model United Nation Conferences for high school students such as Rutgers University Model United Nations and Philadelphia Model United Nations. During my freshman year summer, I was an Orientation Leader for incoming students and during my sophomore year summer, I was a Logistics Intern for the Department of New Student Orientation and Family Programs. Finally, I am a Scarlet Ambassador. This is just a fancy term for tour guide that works for the Rutgers Visitor Center!

What are your plans following graduation?

I am planning on applying to the English as a Second Language Five-Year Master’s Program in the Graduate School of Education. After graduating, I hope to go back home to Puerto Rico and become an English teacher or continue my studies in order to enter academia. Sociology is a great field to major in if you are going into the education field because it allows you to understand student’s individual and collective needs. I am hoping that everything I have learned in my sociology classes will help me become a well-rounded teacher.

Name: Diana Cruz

Major(s) and Minor: Major in Sociology and Psychology

Year: 2019

How did you choose Sociology as your major?

I have always been interested in working with others and knew that I wanted to pursue a degree in occupational therapy. After taking Introduction to Sociology as a prerequisite course for graduate school, I realized how interested I was in social interaction and behavior. Therefore, I began to take various sociology and psychology classes as a way to further understand why people act the way they act and what impacts feelings and thoughts. I took a particular interest to sociology after taking so many interesting courses with great faculty who were passionate and always open to discussion. The different theories and research methods allowed me to further understand and want to dive more into how the world around us works and how it all shapes who we are today.

What is it about your chosen field (and the department) that appeals to you?

Research within the field was what really appealed to me. More specifically studies on poverty and wealth really appealed to me because it has such a huge impact on individuals and communities, and influences the way one can understand people around us.

Do you have a favorite class/professor within your major?

My favorite class was Introduction to Social Research with Professor Phillips because not only were we able to learn about research within sociology, we were also able to work on our own survey project where we implemented what we were learning in class into this project. It really expanded my research goals and interest and led me to go on to become a research assistant at Robert Wood Johnson’s Child Health Institute. This course really prepared me for this position, and if it weren’t for this course I would have never explored any research opportunities.

What are your favorite academic experiences outside of your major?

My favorite academic experience was a Culture and Community Health study abroad program I participated in, in Oaxaca, Mexico. I was able to fully immerse myself in the culture and learn more about the health care system in Mexico while also connecting what I learned in various sociology courses to the anthropology courses I took abroad. As I was volunteering at a horse farm that provides horse therapy for children with disabilities, having a background in sociology definitely enhanced my experience abroad.

What are your other Rutgers activities?

Through the Rutgers Youth Empowerment Club I volunteered as a tutor and mentor at Roosevelt Elementary School in New Brunswick, NJ in the Spring 2017 semester. I also volunteered as a S.T.E.M Ambassador from February 2016-2018. I am currently an executive board member for the Rutgers Allied Health Professions Club. I am also a research assistant at Robert Wood Johnson’s Child Health Institute.

What are your plans following graduation?

Following graduation I plan to go to graduate school for Occupational Therapy.

Name: David Arbit

Major(s) and Minor: Sociology, minor in biology

Year: 2018

Why did you choose Sociology as your major?

I was always interested in our social environments and analyzing aspects of our lives that we take for granted. When I took intro to sociology, I realized that I could study a subject that involved both of those things, and I loved it.

What did you like most about it?

I really liked the way it made me consider things from a completely new perspective. In a way, the major makes you adapt a meta-social perspective in which you analyze even the way that people think and conceptualize things.

What is your current position, what do you, and what do you enjoy most about it?

I am in my first year of medical school at NYU. I enjoy the learning process a lot and the social life. Beyond that, it is an incredible privilege to work with patients to help them heal. That is the work that attracted me to medicine in the first place, and although we do less clinical work in the first year, it is always special when we do.

What was your first job after Rutgers and how did you get it?

I went straight to medical school after graduating, but I was a non-traditional student and had military experience before I started my undergrad at Rutgers.

Looking back, what classes or experiences at Rutgers would you point to as contributing to your successes?

I really think the ability to think about things in unconventional ways is a skill that helps whenever it is important to think creatively or deal with tough questions. I think the sociology classes really helped me with that. Interestingly though, sometimes out-of-the-box thinking can receive some pushback with people. For example, once in an interview I started discussing how we as a society decide what count as “bad” drugs and what are “good” drugs. The interviewer did not seem ready for such an approach and reacted as though I was advocating for drug use. I realized that I have to be more careful with what I say to people not familiar with sociological lenses, or at least in scenarios that I do not have the time to fully explain my perspective.

What advice do you have for our current Arts and Sciences students?

If you want to work after undergrad, start making connections and doing internships while you are still in school. If you have something lined up early, it will help with the post-graduation transition.