Building a Perfect Major for a Perfect Career
Janelle Johnson Roberts ’10 Any Transy student major in international affairs today, but when Janelle (Johnson) Roberts ’10 pieced it together as a self-designed major in 2007, she had in mind a more specialized version of the traditional political science major. International affairs had been on her mind since middle school, when she found herself frustrated by the divisive rhetoric about the Middle East after the September 11 attacks. Her best friend’s family was Iranian, and she was already developing an affinity for the culture and its people. As she explored the political science curriculum, she kept being drawn by other areas, including anthropology, sociology and religion. So she developed a curriculum with her professors and took Arabic language courses at the University of Kentucky, all to prepare herself for a career in Middle East policy. She studied abroad for a semester in Amman, Jordan, and did a seminar on the Arab-Israeli peace process in Washington D.C. “I was 100 percent certain I would have a career in foreign relations or foreign affairs,” she says. “I knew I needed experience abroad, I knew I needed language training. I was incredibly grateful that Transy encourages their students to broaden their horizons. Everyone was so helpful, from Jeff Fryman and Kathleen Jagger to the study abroad office to the financial aid office.” Roberts went on to the University of Chicago’s Harris School for Public Policy Studies, earning a master’s in public policy, and
