By Jordyn Fouts
Jasmine Campos is a triple major in Political Science, Journalism, and Honors Humanities. When she visited APU as a senior, she was able to sit in on a colloquy, and even contribute. In high school, Jasmine was always the student who spoke up in class, asked the most questions, and led discussions, so when she experienced Honors for the first time, she knew she was meant to be in the Honors College.
What does your major bring into your experience with Honors? For Jasmine, one of the most interesting things about Political Science is that it is essentially a study of how we as human beings live in a community together. On the other hand, in Honors, we study how human beings operate on an individual level, morally, spiritually, and relationally. By examining how human beings work in a group through Political Science, she gains insight into understanding how we operate as individuals.
Journalism, on the other hand, is all about the search for the truth of every story, and the goal is to make a story relatable and appealing. Jasmine looks at every story and tries to find the truth in it. That’s what Honors is all about too--finding the truth. Journalism gives her an opportunity to write a story, whereas Honors has taught her to see the story and take a lesson out of it.
What does Honors bring into your experience with your major? Honors has affected Jasmine’s experience with journalism in that it has helped her understand the human element of journalism more fully. Journalism values objectivity, but Honors has helped Jasmine see not only what is objectively true, but also what is deeply personal. Jasmine reflected that “Honors has forced me to reckon with what it means to tell a human story.”
In Political Science, Jasmine reads many of the same books she has to read for Honors; however, the approach to reading the texts is drastically different. In Political Science, she studies how the author’s ideas relate to politics or government, but “in Honors we get to the why question we don’t get to in Political Science.” Honors asks if the authors were correct, or if they were wrong and demands that we learn something about life from the texts. For Jasmine, Honors adds a layer of depth to everything she does in Political Science.
How do you think Honors will help with your career goals? Honors has prepared Jasmine to engage in significant dialogue about multidisciplinary subjects that she would not have been exposed to otherwise, and Honors has given her a toolkit to be able to engage in these conversations.
How has Honors impacted your college experience overall, especially as a triple major? Jasmine comments that being a triple major “requires a lot of hard work, time management, and dedication, but it’s definitely worth it if you truly love what you’re doing.” However, despite the challenge, Honors has been the deciding factor in making Jasmine’s college experience as rich as it has been. She reflects that “living in a dorm with people who read the same stuff and go through the same life crises is an incomparable joy.” These people have remained Jasmine’s friends throughout her time at APU, and those friendships have been an incredibly formative part of her college experience.
What books have particularly impacted you in Honors? Jasmine points to St. Augustine’s Confessions and St. Athanasius’s On the Incarnation as being particularly formative during her time in Honors. As a practical, logical thinker, the deep considerations of the inner workings of God’s will have been “a one-two punch in getting my faith together.”
Overall, Honors has shown Jasmine the incredible importance of discussion. She recognizes that “a conversation is impossible if you don’t even know where the other person is coming from.” For Jasmine, understanding why people say what they say is a foundation for how we interact as a nation, a people, and a community. Jasmine believes strongly that everyone’s voice deserves respect. We hope Jasmine’s experience with Honors has given you an insight into why Political Science, Journalism, and Honors work so well together. If you have any questions, please email or call us! We hope you decide to apply.