In addition to celebrating the achievements of graduating seniors, the UCF College of Undergraduate Studies (CUGS) commencement on May 2nd will mark an impressive milestone for the college itself. Among the students being honored at the ceremony will be the 2,800th recipient of the college’s Bachelor of Integrative General Studies (BIGS) degree.
Launched in 2019, the BIGS program enables students from all fields of study to design their own curriculum based on their multidisciplinary course work, helping them complete their educational journey and earn a degree. The 2,800th BIGS degree graduate, Rithika Aluvala, exemplifies the kind of exceptional student for whom the program was intended.
From the beginning of her college career, Aluvala embraced the idea that UCF was a place to find her passion and prepare for a career in it. Faced with so many options, however, she found it impossible to settle on one field of study.
“At the same time I was exploring what I wanted to do with my life, I was also trying to figure out what kind of adult I wanted to become. The stakes felt very high and that made my college journey harder to navigate,” said Aluvala. “I ended up switching majors five times, and after a while it felt like I was having an identity crisis. I couldn’t make a decision, and that caused me a lot of stress.”
That stress reached a crescendo as Aluvala approached her final semester. While she had enough Health Sciences credits for a minor in that concentration, she still had no major. Aluvala finally found the answer to her problem in the form of the BIGS program, which allowed her to apply the credits she had earned in other disciplines toward a degree.
“The BIGS program didn’t view my history of changing majors as a bad thing, and it gave me the opportunity to explore different directions at the same time,” she recalled.
Aluvala has spent the past semester taking courses focused on leadership, an essential element in preparing to pursue a career in healthcare project management.
“Working with a team of people and leading them towards a shared goal sounds like a wonderful thing to do,” said Aluvala. “By allowing me to combine my background in health sciences with my coursework in business, psychology and now leadership, the BIGS program has given me the tools I need to move forward with a career that inspires me.”
The honor of being the 2,800th BIGS graduate is made all the more special for Aluvala because of how she learned about it. Throughout her final semester, Aluvala was guided through the BIGS program by Dr. Amanda Pacheco, instructional specialist for the General Education Program and faculty for the Interdisciplinary Studies and Integrative General Studies programs. Pacheco broke the news to Aluvala via e-mail.
“Dr. Pacheco emailed me one morning to congratulate me, and it was just very sweet,” explained Aluvala. “It was nice that the news came from her, because she’s such a good teacher and she’s been so encouraging. So, it was great to be able to share that celebratory moment with her.”
While the encouragement from Dr. Pacheco may have helped Aluvala stay motivated down the home stretch, she had also gotten pretty good at encouraging herself. In response to the stress and negativity she felt about not being able to commit to a major, Aluvala had embraced a few techniques to maintain a positive mindset. She started seeking out and sharing positive affirmations, like “rejection is just redirection. Aluvala also started keeping a gratitude journal, in which she kept track of her daily accomplishments and milestones. But her biggest motivator was the person she hoped to grow into.
“I’d be studying for a test and just feel like I couldn’t do any more, then I’d think to myself, ‘What will happen to my future self if I don’t pass this test, if I fail this class?,’ and that would keep me going,” explained Aluvala.
So, what does Aluvala see her future self doing after graduation? In the short-term, she’s busy applying for positions with the goal of putting what she’s learned over the past four years to good use in a job or internship. Beyond that, Aluvala would like to earn her project management professional certification and potentially go to graduate school.
For now, though, she’s happy to celebrate her graduation and the unique honor of being the 2,800th BIGS graduate, and to look back at an undergraduate career that was both rewarding and challenging.
“There’s a lot of beauty and opportunity in recognizing that there are multiple paths for you that are completely different, multiple paths that you could thrive in,” said Aluvala. “People act like uncertainty is a bad thing – ‘Oh, she doesn’t know what she’s going to do, she doesn’t have direction.’ But I found that reassurance in myself that no matter where I went, I would be able to be okay.”