Student Spotlight October 2016

Jared Colston

 Jared received his Bachelor of Science degree in Secondary Education with concentrations in English and Social Studies from the University of Louisville.  He is now working towards a Master’s degree in the department of Educational Leadership, Evaluation, and Organizational Development at the University of Louisville.

I was born and raised in Louisville and came to school here for my undergraduate degree because of the location. I stayed for my Master’s degree because of the excellent faculty members that I have come in contact with in my previous and current departments, as well as departments I didn’t even have much to do with.  Aside from being very friendly and welcoming, they were premier in their fields and I was interested in working alongside them.

I am interested in Economic Education. I became interested in this field because of my own experience navigating the swamp of financial aid and tuition rates and wanted to do something to ease the confusion of the high school to college transition. I am also interested in the Sociology and Philosophy of Higher Education; I chose to research these topics because I enjoy theory work, as well as seeing how theory transforms into informed practice.

I want to change the policies in colleges and universities so that the education can benefit everyone in society.

I was always interested in education, so it was a short leap from my studies in teacher preparation to college administration and theory. I realized I loved theory and wanted to apply it to education and pedagogy.

I graduated summa cum laude in undergrad.  I am currently working to publish my summa cum laude paper, The Economics of Prolonged Adolescence, in a graduate student journal.

I want to eventually be a faculty member/administrator at the university level, and focus on educational theory and policy.

Being able to work closely with faculty members who are excelling in their fields as well as being thoughtful mentors.

The greatest challenge that I have faced as a graduate student is also something that makes graduate school better than undergraduate: internalized responsibility. You have the freedom to complete the assignments where you like, and you have freedom with how you do it; the problem comes with how you deal with that freedom and the added stress an open policy can bring. I deal with it by giving myself relatively strict deadlines, and sectioning off time each day to work on projects.