A Career for Political Science Majors

Contrary to popular belief, all Political Science majors do not go to law school! How do I know, I was one of them. I spent my entire college career believing and preparing for law school. Then, in my senior semester, with exactly 2 months until I would finish, I changed my mind. I still do not know why I changed my mind. Only, I realized that law just did not make me happy anymore. I decided at that moment, I would teach!

The traditional Education major will allow a new teacher, a lot of flexibility. Fortunately though, an Education degree is not required to teach. In fact, my Humanities degree in Political Science was perfect for teaching English.

Think about this…as a Political Science major, counselors encourage you to minor in something that is core subject specific, like English, Sociology and possibly, a Science. After all, a standard Political Science degree forces students to take about 18 credit hours of English, Sociology and/or Science courses anyway; only 21 are needed for a minor, so it makes sense. Also, there are rules that govern how many upper and lower level courses are needed to graduate. I graduated from The University of North Texas, in Denton, TX. UNT, as they are affectionately known, is pretty strict on the kinds of courses and the levels at which courses can be taken. To graduate in Political Science from UNT, I needed 36 Upper level credit hours, 15 of which had to be in something other than my major. I choose English and Sociology courses. Well, doing this, allowed me to have the requisite amount of classes that No Child Left Behind said were necessary to become a certified teacher. Still, there was one step that I had to take….

All I had to do was find an Alternative Certification program. I did just that! I attended, Texas Teaching Fellows (http://www.texasteachingfellows.org), where all of my credit hours were accepted as suitable to become a teacher of grades 4 through 8. The courses like Advanced Technical Writing assisted me in being accepted to the program as I was able to write an effective Admission’s Contract letter. Likewise, my degree training afforded me resume writing and ultimately, interviewing skills (Mock Court and Criminal Law classes helped with this!)

Lastly, my school district, noticing the large amount of English hours, helped me to become a certified Gifted/ Talented teacher. This certification came on top of my Alternative Certification program’s making me a 4-8 Generalist with ESL Certification!

Thus, my degree gave me the stepping stones that I needed to go into education and be a pretty successful teacher! I taught for three years and went back to school. What made going back so special was the ease in finding campus positions. I already had teaching experience, so getting a Teaching Assistant position, and subsequently an Adjunct professorship was easier than most who have applied for the same jobs. Not only can I teach in public, private and parochial schools, but I can also teach on the college level.

Thus, what has my degree done for me? Everything! I have job stability, experience and necessary skills for success in my future.