For the final installment of the Senior Spotlight series this semester, we interviewed Thalia Valdes about her undergraduate experience at Florida State. Thalia is a fourth-year student majoring in English and International Affairs, with concentrations in Editing, Writing, Media (EWM) and Public Administration. Additionally, she is pursuing an Arabic Minor, and certificates in Emergency Management and Homeland Security as well as Teaching English as a Foreign Language. EWM provides the flexibility to choose skills she wants to focus on while also improving her writing and digital skills. The International Affairs major allows her to learn about history, languages, religion, cultures, and power structures. Thalia sees both majors as intersecting and accentuating each other: “I often use the communication and digital skills I’ve learned in the Editing, Writing, Media major to act on the information I’ve learned in International Affairs.” These skills and information have also helped her in other areas of her undergraduate career, such as when she studied abroad in Valencia, Spain in summer 2021 with FSU’s International Programs.
During her time as an undergraduate student, Thalia was able to meet and work with many talented and knowledgeable professors. When asked about her favorite class, she responded that it would either be Peer Tutoring in the Reading-Writing Center and Digital Studio (ENC 3493) with Dr. Kamila Albert or Writing and Editing in Print and Online (ENC 3416) with Dr. Ellen Cecil-Lemkin. Thalia stated that “both instructors were phenomenal; the work assigned encouraged me to be creative, develop hard skills, and gain relevant experience.” These classes also served as great opportunities, allowing her to gain unique experience for the future: “I provided tutoring to students and created media content for ENC 3493 and created the ePortfolio I still use today and media content for a non-profit for ENC 3416.”
Her favorite professor overall is Dr. Ross Moret. Dr. Moret was her professor for a Religion and Freedom course she took in the Honors Program during her first year. For the first couple of years at FSU, Thalia studied Islam and the Middle East, leading her to Dr. Moret’s class. She described the class as informative and felt that Dr. Moret was “invested in our understanding and applying the material.” She also helped edit and revise a dissertation written by Dr. Moret and updated it to fit the conventions of a book for FSU’s 19th Undergraduate Research Symposium in 2019. Thalia spoke highly of the experience, stating that it was an “invaluable opportunity to develop my editing and research skills, especially with Dr. Moret as a mentor.”
Building on her many great accomplishments so far, Thalia has big plans for her future after graduation. She currently works as a Media Undergraduate Assistant for the City of Tallahassee’s Office of Diversity & Inclusion and aspires to continue making positive impacts on the people around her. In the future, Thalia hopes to find a job that provides her with creative freedom as well as new media and communication skills.
Thalia’s time as a student, job holder, and intern enables her to deliver advice to students both new and seasoned. She recommends students graduating next year to “use all the resources given to us as students.” She specifically mentions subscription discounts for services such as Adobe Creative Cloud and services that are free to FSU students, like LinkedIn Learning: “Use this to better yourself, develop skills, and learn more about your interests.” Thalia also recommends that students try to schedule their classes for either only Monday, Wednesday, and Friday or Tuesday and Thursday. This has helped her manage working two jobs and taking 15 credits the last two years. The few free weekdays without any classes makes it easier to schedule work and internships.
Thalia advises new students to take the difficult classes early on. She took a mix of upper-level and lower-level courses when she first came to FSU, and it helped get her interested and involved in her majors very early on. This became particularly helpful for her International Affairs major because some of the upper-level courses that she took in her first year prepared her for other classes she took down the road. She also believes it is important to “take the initiative to share your passions with others. It could make you a new friend or connection. A GroupMe group chat can do a lot for you.” While Thalia is close to graduating herself and is still figuring things out like the rest of us, she does feel that it’s important to remember that your first job out of college isn’t going to be your last, which can help alleviate some of the pressure students may feel when they are close to graduation.
When asked if there was anything she would’ve done differently during her undergraduate years, Thalia said she would plan less and explore more. She believes “it would’ve been easier to decide my major if I had committed myself to a passion and purpose instead of a specific end goal. I feel that this would’ve taken much of the pressure off my first two years and allowed me to explore other passions.” Despite this, Florida State has truly turned Thalia into a well-rounded person. Her experience at FSU, including being a Resident Assistant in Wildwood for two years and a receptionist/virtual project assistant for the Honors, Scholars, and Fellows House on Campus, led to many opportunities as well as genuine friends, mentors, and professors. FSU provided her a community to call her own along with life-long connections and helped put her in a position where she can help others feel the same support and sense of community.