{"id":1799,"date":"2020-05-18T18:08:25","date_gmt":"2020-05-19T01:08:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/soc.wsu.edu\/socnews\/?page_id=1799"},"modified":"2025-07-03T10:22:16","modified_gmt":"2025-07-03T17:22:16","slug":"spring-20-undergraduate-highlights","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/soc.wsu.edu\/socnews\/spring-20-undergraduate-highlights\/","title":{"rendered":"Undergraduate Highlights"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\r\n\t\tUndergraduate Highlights\t<\/h1>\r\n\t\t<\/header>\r\n\n\n
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Interviews conducted by Alana Inlow<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alexandra (Alex) Donnici<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Sociology and criminal justice major
Currently serving as a Washington State Senate intern for the 2020 legislature in Olympia<\/h3>\n\n\n
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\"Alex
Alex speaking during a mock Senate Floor Session among the intern program. Alex was introducing and advocating for an amendment that she proposed (and successfully passed) on a bill relating to student athlete compensation.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Alana:<\/em><\/strong> I want to ask you about your internship. Monica Kirkpatrick Johnson, the chair of our department, mentioned that you were doing this internship and that it was a pretty prestigious thing, so I was wondering if you could tell me a little bit more about it and how you became interested in it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alex:<\/em> <\/strong>Every intern is assigned to a member office. So, I was assigned to Senator O\u2019Ban out of the  28th<\/sup> legislative district, so that\u2019s Tacoma, a little bit of Pierce County, Steilacoom, that area, and I do a lot of work here reaching out to constituents, writing talking points, just basically doing whatever I can to make the member\u2019s life as easy as possible so that lots of legislating can get done. I found out about this from my adviser, and at first, I was not even thinking anything about it. It seemed very political science oriented, definitely not something that I would have thought I\u2019d be doing. But, the more I got to thinking about it, the more I realized that my interests with sociology and the criminal justice system aligned really well with the legislature and making laws, because that\u2019s how all of that happens. So, I looked at when the information session was, and I attended that, and I was really interested there because I\u2019m a fan of things that are very hands-on, real-world practice, that sort of thing, and this was exactly that. So, I looked into the application process and it was fairly straightforward, so I decided to just give it a shot and apply. After I applied, I got more and more and more interested in it, and next thing I know, I was really, really hoping that I would be able to get in. So, here I am!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alana<\/em><\/strong>:<\/em> Awesome! Congratulations, it is a big accomplishment. And what year in school are you?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alex<\/em><\/strong>:<\/em> It\u2019s my second year in college, but I\u2019m a junior credit-wise. But this was actually my first year at WSU because I\u2019m a transfer student.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alana:<\/em> <\/strong>Wow, that\u2019s a lot of different things going on for your first year here. The other thing I wanted to ask you about, and this is not switching gears entirely, but a little bit, is how you did you get interested in majoring in sociology?<\/p>\n\n\n

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\"Alex
Alex acting as page on the Washington Senate floor. Interns are instructed to walk on a set path without interrupting action or being seen on TVW (WA State Public Affairs Network). Here, Alex was making sure she wouldn\u2019t accidentally appear in a TV shot as the Majority Floor Leader stood to make a motion.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Alex:<\/em><\/strong> I\u2019m from Colorado, and in my high school there was this semester program where you did a half-year psychology class and a half-year sociology class, and it was only available your senior year. Before that I wanted to be a criminal justice or psychology major, but neither of those totally fit what I wanted to do. So, when I took the sociology class, I found that I was really good at it, I really enjoyed it, and it just kind of clicked for me. So, I did a year at the University of Colorado first. Their sociology program wasn\u2019t as developed, but I still found myself really liking it. So, I decided to make the transfer up to WSU and started investing a lot more energy into it here. It just is something that I think really clicks for me and I really enjoy it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alana:<\/strong> <\/em>So, you\u2019re interested in criminal justice and that route? Have you taken any criminal justice classes from the CJ department?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alex:<\/em> <\/strong>Yeah. UC Boulder didn\u2019t have any type of criminal justice department at all, so, unfortunately because, of credits I had to wait to become a criminal justice major. Last semester I focused mostly on sociology and I took basic intro criminal justice classes. But hopefully next semester when I come back, I\u2019ll be able to take more of those.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alana:<\/em> <\/strong>This might be a difficult question, and you can take time to think about it, but what I like to ask our undergraduate majors is, what does sociology mean to you? And what does being a sociologist mean to you?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alex:<\/em> <\/strong>Sociology, to me, is understanding people and understanding how people influence each other, and it\u2019s beyond the obvious level of social institutions and things like that. But also, a lot of it for me is\u2014why is this world that I\u2019m living in the way that it is? And these things that I want to see changed in it, how can I do that, being a person, living in this world, interacting with other people? So, I think that\u2019s kind of what it is for me\u2014kind of getting to recognize those patterns and use them to your advantage. To me it\u2019s kind of like, especially here in the political realm, I\u2019ve noticed a lot of times that skill, and watching people who have that skill, it\u2019s kind of like a game of chess, kind of getting to use those patterns to your advantage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alana:<\/em> <\/strong>That\u2019s a great answer! Are you looking to stay in the political realm, or do you have an idea of what you want to do after college?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alex:<\/em><\/strong> Before I came here, I thought for sure that I was just going to go work in the criminal justice field and maybe pursue a PhD or that sort of thing. But since being here, I\u2019ve found that I really love it. And there is a lot more that I want to do here and there are so many more positions that I want to try and involve myself in and different projects I want to work on and things like that. So, before this internship I would have said straight to grad school and the criminal justice system, but now I don\u2019t really have an idea because there is just so much that interests me. You know, I\u2019m just not quite sure what to choose at this point.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\"Alex
As an intern, Alex had the opportunity to act as a Senate page during late night floor sessions. Here, she was passing a copy of a new amendment draft to Senator Wilson.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Alana:<\/em> <\/strong>Well that\u2019s a good problem to have!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alex:<\/em> <\/strong>Exactly! Yeah, I\u2019d love to stay in the political realm, but I\u2019d also love to work in the criminal justice realm. Hopefully, those things can merge, and I\u2019ll be able to do something with both of those.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alana:<\/em> <\/strong>So, last thing I want to ask is, do you have any favorite sociology classes or sociology professors that you\u2019ve had here, at WSU, yet?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alex:<\/em> <\/strong>Oh, that\u2019s hard because they\u2019re all so good! That\u2019s so tricky. I\u2019m really into statistics so for me the research methods course was really cool because we got to do a lot of research and that class has helped me a lot in my internship here. So, I think that one is definitely one I liked the most. Even though the class itself was sometimes challenging and the group project aspect was challenging, but what I took out of that class has definitely helped a lot here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One thing I was really afraid of, coming into this internship, was the fact that I had no political experience. I was somewhat into politics a little bit, civic engagement was a thing for me growing up, but I\u2019ve never taken a political science class in my life, definitely not economics either or anything like that. So, I was so worried that coming into this internship, I was just going to be that intern who didn\u2019t know anything, and that one girl who didn\u2019t belong here, and my office was going to realize how underqualified I was. But I\u2019ve discovered that my unique experience here is actually a strength and it sets me apart from the other interns because I\u2019m not coming at this from, \u201cOh, here\u2019s all these political science classes and here\u2019s what my professors said about political science,\u201d and that sort of thing. But I\u2019m coming at it from the people perspective which is very effective in a people-based arena like this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Erika Dvorak<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Sociology major
Math, German, and At-Risk-Youth minors<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Alana:<\/em> <\/strong>Tell me about your minors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Erika:<\/em> <\/strong>I have three minors. I was originally a physics major so I kind of just picked up a math minor in doing that. When I switched to sociology, I had one math class left to finish my minor, so I thought, \u201cmight as well!\u201d And then I have a German minor, that was for the Honors College; you have to take two years of language, and I wanted to study abroad so, I kind of knocked that out pretty quickly. I did a summer study for that. And then I have an at-risk-youth minor, which was easy to just fit into my sociology major without taking any extra classes. I accidentally ended up with a lot of minors!<\/p>\n\n\n

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\"Erika
Erika Dvorak with her dog, Acacia.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Alana:<\/em> <\/strong>Where are you from and what made you decide to come to Pullman and get into sociology?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Erika:<\/em> <\/strong>I\u2019m from Vancouver, Washington. I applied to a few really prestigious universities for undergrad, and I didn\u2019t have a lot of direction, so I didn\u2019t get into any of them because I thought I was studying physics and I obviously was not passionate about it, but I thought I was. I think they could kind of read through my essays that I didn\u2019t know what I was talking about and wasn\u2019t super into it. So, this was the only place I got into because I applied to Brown and Columbia, and the crazy ones, because I was, you know, being really smart about it [*sarcasm*]. But yeah, I have family who work here. I have family who are professors in the biosciences\u2014so way not what I\u2019m doing. But it was kind of nice to come here and have a support system already. So, that\u2019s kind of how I ended up here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How I ended up doing sociology was, I mean, I was studying physics and I was realizing that there was so much sexism in the physics program, and I was encountering a lot of that, and then I thought, this isn\u2019t what I want to do. And I realized if I went forward with my STEM major, I would really only be happy if I was working in a woman-run lab that was also working on things that had an activism bent to it, like environmentalism or something. And I thought, \u201cOh! I must not actually be passionate about physics.\u201d I\u2019m mostly passionate about people and changing the world. I was asking all these sociological questions already because there was so much sexism going on, and I was thinking \u201cWhy are these things happening?\u201d So, it was kind of a logical step for me to switch out of that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alana:<\/em> <\/strong>What are some of your favorite sociology classes and professors?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Erika:<\/em> <\/strong>Oh, my goodness. I am not a criminology person really at all, but I LOVED Dr. Jen Schwartz\u2019s criminology class. She\u2019s so cool. And I also love working with Dr. Julie Kmec, she\u2019s my Honors advisor. So, I\u2019ve worked closely with her. She\u2019s super cool, she\u2019s always supportive, she has a lot of knowledge base for what I want to do. She\u2019s a great resource. I took a class last semester in the CES department\u2014it\u2019s not really sociology but related. It was a prison industrial complex class, and the professor studies racism so all his classes have a bend towards that, specifically racism against black people. That class was really cool, so I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to get into that stuff.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alana:<\/em> <\/strong>What does sociology mean to you and what does it mean to be a sociologist to you?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Erika:<\/em> <\/strong>I feel like at its core it is open-mindedness. Because I feel like people who don\u2019t think sociologically look at things very black and white and kind of think, \u201cOh, you\u2019re making this choice, you must be at fault for your situation.\u201d And sociology takes the broader context and it\u2019s kind of like radical forgiveness almost. I feel like it\u2019s the kindest study that there is because people are so much put into the context of their situations, and it\u2019s just trying to understand people from the basic idea that nobody is doing awful things because they want to do awful things. Which is kind of an optimistic look at things and I kind of like to have that worldview.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alana:<\/em> <\/strong>Do you know what you\u2019re doing next?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Erika:<\/em> <\/strong>My current plan is grad school. I got into a couple sociology programs so far; there are three more that I\u2019m waiting to hear back from. But I got in here [WSU], I got into UC Davis and the University of Delaware. I\u2019m going to visit Delaware in a couple weeks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alana:<\/em> <\/strong>Have you ever been to Delaware? Have you ever been to the East Coast?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Erika:<\/strong> <\/em>No, I haven\u2019t ever been to Delaware! I\u2019ve been to New York for a couple days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alana:<\/em> <\/strong>Well, it\u2019s somewhere over there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Erika:<\/em> <\/strong>Yeah, it\u2019s in the region (laughter).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alana:<\/strong><\/em> Well, maybe you\u2019ll fall in love with it!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Erika:<\/em> <\/strong>Yeah, I mean it\u2019s five years. I didn\u2019t think I could survive four years here [in Pullman] because I\u2019m from Vancouver, Washington, Portland is like my home town, I was really not jazzed about going to the middle of nowhere and being here for four years. But I ended up finding a really great community and I\u2019m really happy here, so I\u2019m not afraid anymore about picking a place that I think I hate. Because I thought I hated Pullman and I actually really love it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alana:<\/em> <\/strong>Do you have an idea of what you\u2019re going to study or what kind of research area you\u2019re interested in?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Erika:<\/em><\/strong> Gender is my big thing. I\u2019m looking at a lot of different facets of it right now, so I\u2019m not fully locked down. But I\u2019m really interested in sexual assault from the perspective of the perpetrator more. I think a lot of studies ask, \u201cHow do we decrease sexual assault by doing things differently for the victims?\u201d Which is good, but, also, the perpetrators are really the people who need to be addressed because they\u2019re the ones doing it. So, I would like to study that area. I am really interested in gender socialization as a concept and how the power structures of the patriarchy are upheld. So, it\u2019s cool stuff!<\/p>\n\n<\/div>\r\n\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":2119,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"wsuwp_university_location":[],"wsuwp_university_org":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/soc.wsu.edu\/socnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1799"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/soc.wsu.edu\/socnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/soc.wsu.edu\/socnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/soc.wsu.edu\/socnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2119"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/soc.wsu.edu\/socnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1799"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/soc.wsu.edu\/socnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1799\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4168,"href":"https:\/\/soc.wsu.edu\/socnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1799\/revisions\/4168"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/soc.wsu.edu\/socnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1799"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"wsuwp_university_location","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/soc.wsu.edu\/socnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wsuwp_university_location?post=1799"},{"taxonomy":"wsuwp_university_org","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/soc.wsu.edu\/socnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wsuwp_university_org?post=1799"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}