Story by Sam Kunkle | Translation by Victoria Escobedo
Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi has a reputation as one of the nation’s greatest universities by the sea, which surely must mean that it possesses some of the most impressive and effective programs and classes dedicated to educating any and all that are interested in learning more about our planet’s only ocean and ways we can continue to preserve it.
Luckily, Dr. Joseph Felix, head director of the Coastal and Marine System Science program (CMSS), has an answer to this question. The program itself is considered “highly interdisciplinary”, meaning it was built to effectively incorporate and integrate any and all extra specialties, being able to create a much more versatile variety of studies for those who seek specific goals in their future. However, the program itself is designed for those seeking Masters’ and PhD degrees.
“I think right about now we have about 15 Masters’ students, 45 PhD students, and about 30 faculty members,” Dr. Felix said. “It’s highly interdisciplinary, so it’s not just marine science or I think when people think of marine science and marine biology, things like that. You know, our students get a background in policy and it might be oceanography or it might be atmospheric science, but it all gets tied back into this CMSS program.”
Now, unlike possessing one hyper specific source of research or learning such as only focusing on marine biology, the CMSS program includes many other sciences such as geology, physics, and chemistry, which are implemented to help not only teach students to become well rounded and mildly skilled in all fields of their work, but it also inspires them to choose which path that the program offers for them to become a master in.
“Well, I can tell you that our placement is very good; everybody leaves here with a job, whether it be in academics or government or private,” Dr. Felix said. “We’re placing people in EPA and NOA and R1 universities, so beneficially I think they can get this great interdisciplinary experience; they end up well rounded and I think our program is now known for that and employers are seeking out students with that done.”
However, even though the program’s classes and interdisciplinary studies are extremely varied and diverse, the full endorsement of the program isn’t to become a “jack of all trades”, but rather, as Dr. Felix puts it, “still a master of one, but still understand that the people around you are also masters and that you know how to draw on that.”
“That’s what I hope that you learn through this program is that ‘I’m working with all these different students’,” said Dr. Felix. “Or ‘I’m working with all these different faculties who are good at something’. ‘I’m good at something, but they are good at something and I can learn how to work with that’.”
This reveals one of the cornerstone traits that anyone can benefit from if one participates in this program. That of leadership and teamwork, both of which are absolutely integral for Islanders to forge their future and generate meaningful relationships. The CMSS program’s apparent successes in building the attributes and skillset of Islanders is a testament to TAMUCC’s reputation as a whole. TAMUCC’s reputation is known as being a foundation for not only a place to study and learn about the importance of coastal and marine sciences but a place where people can effectively grow in both character and discipline to better shape what kind of people the future needs and deserves in order to continue progressing.