In the fall of 2008, following her second year at BMCC, Tonisha Haywood transferred to John Jay College, where she planned to pursue a Bachelors degree in criminal justice as part of the John Jay-BMCC joint degree program. Then she had second thoughts.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat I really wanted was a program that would prepare me to return to my native country and work in the Ministry of National Security,\u201d says Haywood, who was born and raised in Trinidad and Tobago. The problem was that there was no formal curriculum that aligned perfectly with her academic needs.<\/p>\n
A flexible\u2014and challenging\u2014way to earn a degree
\nThe solution lay in the CUNY Baccalaureate for Unique and Interdisciplinary Studies program, which she learned about from her advisor, Professor Rolondo Jorif of the English department, just as the 2008 academic year was about to begin. Established in 1971, the program allows academically strong, highly motivated students to design their own course of study under the guidance of a faculty mentor. Participating students are provided with a flexible, challenging way to earn their degree as well as a major share of the responsibility for the content of that degree.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat Professor Jorif told me about the program immediately sparked my interest,\u201d Haywood recalls. \u201cI spent hours looking through the catalogues of every CUNY school, choosing courses that would put me on track to meet my objective.\u201d She then created a major in \u201cinternational studies and criminal studies for the public sector,\u201d comprising of courses in public administration, criminology, criminal justice and other subject areas. She will graduate with a B.A. in her made-to-order major from John Jay this May.<\/p>\n
You “need to be very directed”
\n\u201cWhat drew me to the program was its flexibility and freedom in course selection,\u201d Haywood says. \u201cWhen you take part in the program, you wind up taking courses because you\u2019re really passionate about them\u2014not just because they\u2019re required.\u201d She was even able to spend a semester at the University of Madras in India, where she took five courses. The credits were all transferable to CUNY. \u201cI don\u2019t think I could have done this in another program,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
To be sure, the special CUNY Baccalaureate program is not for everyone. \u201cYou really need to be very directed and know exactly where you want to go and where you want to end up,\u201d says Haywood. \u201cIf you do, the program lets you take the courses that will get you there.\u201d Applicants must have a minimum GPA of 2.5.<\/p>\n
Haywood is seriously thinking about going on to law school after graduating this spring, but she\u2019s leaving her options open. But one thing she\u2019s certain about is that she\u2019ll miss CUNY.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve had a great experience here,\u201d she says. \u201cIn some ways I wish I could stay forever.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In the fall of 2008, following her second year at BMCC, Tonisha Haywood transferred to John Jay College, where she planned to pursue a Bachelors degree in criminal justice as part of the John Jay-BMCC joint degree program. Then she had second thoughts. \u201cWhat I really wanted was a program that would prepare me to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-306854","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306854","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=306854"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306854\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=306854"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=306854"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=306854"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}