Another Perspective on Comps
Jacob recently attended a comps talk on the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society.
Jacob recently attended a comps talk on the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society.
The senior comprehensive project, commonly referred to as comps, is a graduation requirement for all Carleton students. Specific requirements vary by department, but every student must complete some sort of capstone project that relates to a topic within their major. Next year, I will complete the physics comps, which includes a 7500 word paper and a 60 minute presentation.
On Thursday, I had the pleasure of attending my friend Will Yetvin’s comps talk. He is an American Studies major and completed a research project on the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS). His talk summarized the work he had done and written about in his paper, the main part of the American Studies comps. His work focuses on the ways in which HIAS presents its mission and its history, often portraying its current mission of providing aid to all immigrants as the same mission it had when it was founded over 100 years ago. This portrayal is not completely accurate, as the organization was founded to provide aid primarily to Jewish immigrants, but it serves to appeal to a wider audience in today’s society. I found his talk and the information he presented to be very interesting and relevant.
I also saw two other American Studies seniors present their work. Adrianna Castillo ’18 presented on the cultural role of Mi Tienda within Hispanic communities in Texas, and Allison Tucker ’18 discussed the concept of community, focusing on the marketing strategy of Sofar Sounds. Again, these were two very interesting topics that I had never learned about or thought about before attending the talks.
By attending comps talks across many departments, I have learned about so many new topics in areas such as physics, cinema and media studies, and American studies. I look forward to completing my own comps next year and sharing what I learn with everyone!
Jacob is a junior physics major interested in environmental science. At Carleton, Jacob enjoys going on outings with CANOE, the outdoors club, and playing ultimate frisbee with the Gods of Plastic, Carleton’s Division III men’s ultimate team.