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Jack Johnson '01 Anthropology Hometown: Grinnell, Iowa |
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"My time at Iowa has helped me mature as a thinker and a student. It's changed the way I think about the world around me and my place in it. . ." When Jack came to the UI, he was planning on earning an engineering degree. But then, like most undergraduates, he took General Education classes in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences -- and his studies took off in an unexpected and exciting direction. Having always been interested in religion, philosophy, and history, he found that all three come together in the discipline of anthropology. The breadth of the college's offerings has allowed Jack to move freely among disciplines, fashioning a unique program of study, while the depth of the anthropology program has allowed him to work extensively in his chosen field. That combination of interdisciplinary education and departmental specialization is the hallmark of a UI liberal arts education, and Jack's been supported in his work there by contributors to the development funds of the college and the department. He's been able to take part in national conferences that happen on the UI campus, and he's had the opportunity to learn from and talk with some of the greatest living anthropologists, who are regularly brought here to lecture and teach. The UI faculty with whom he works conduct important field research of their own, and he worked on a dig of Plum Grove in Iowa City, the 19th-century home of Iowa's first governor. These are just a few of the kinds of efforts that annual gifts from friends and alumni support. That support has a distinct impact on the quality of education for students like Jack. And it's students like Jack who go on to have a big impact on our world.
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