Angela Maranville:
learning that matters, learning what matters
Sociology-Anthropology BA '07
Environmental Studies MA
Angela Maranville, fresh from high school, enrolled in a college in Missouri as an 18-year-old and soon decided it wasn’t for her. “I was too young. I wasn’t prepared for it being as difficult as it was.”
So she “stopped out” of college. In the next years, she spent time
- in the military
- as a coal miner
- in the hotel industry
While working in a Springfield hotel, Angela decided accounting might not be a bad career, so she decided to get an associate’s degree from Lincoln Land Community College. While there, she happened to take an introductory course in anthropology.
She was hooked.
She thought,
“Wow, I think like this. I like the holistic view and looking at the whole picture without taking sides. As you get a little bit older, it’s easier to see the broader picture without seeing the black and white to everything. It really resonated with me.”
So Angela came to UIS, and after talking with Dr. Lynn Fisher, decided she would go ahead and get her bachelor’s degree—but in anthropology, not accounting. On her way to graduation, she worked as an intern at the Illinois State Museum, at the archaeology site in New Philadelphia, Illinois, and with Dr. Fisher in Germany.
“Dr. Fisher is one of the smartest people I know,” Angela says. “She is willing to go the extra mile to be sure the student knows what is going on.”
Along the way she also took a course from Dr. Tih-Fen Ting, an environmental studies professor. Dr. Ting inspired Angela to pursue a master’s in environmental studies, which she will finish soon. Her sociology degree, she says,
“teaches about the basic fundamentals of how our world works, how people work, how we are socialized as children to believe certain things.”
That background is absolutely necessary to create the changes necessary for the environment:
“You can talk about changing our fuel and all these other things but until you change those basic fundamentals you can’t ever affect the changes up on top.”
Sociology gave her the fundamentals, Angela says. Environmental studies has become the arena where she wants to apply that knowledge.
Some Thoughts from Angela
On the importance of cultural anthropology:
I am of the opinion that every world leader should have to take a cultural anthropology class…or even two or three. Seriously, it should be required. “Okay, you just got into politics. Here, you need to take these classes. You need to know this stuff before you can ever be a good leader.” They need to understand that they are culturally relevant.
On making a difference in the world:
I think I have a solid basis for making a difference in the world, especially with a soc-anthro degree. Because of that I have a solid basis for learning
- how the world works
- why people do what they do with their lives
- that how I grew up as a child affects how I think as an adult and
- that to change I have to make conscious choices, which can be very difficult.
On study-abroad:
Soc-anthro gives you an idea that other cultures are important. We are raised to think that Americans are number one, we’re the best, that we’re the only culture that matters in the world, because "Hey! we kick butt."
That’s how we are raised. That is how we are socialized. It is quite an adjustment for a lot of freshmen coming in taking an Intro Anthropology class to realize that there are other cultures out there and that they are equally important as America’s culture.
Study abroad emphasizes that. It lets you go into another culture and say, “They do it this way, and that’s kind of cool.” The experience you get by living somewhere else—I don’t think it can be replaced. You could go to all the classes in the world and watch foreign films or whatever but until you live it, I don’t think you can ever replace that kind of experience.
Give because of students like Angela
Your generosity will help students like Angela, students who so perfectly represent one of UIS' very best qualities--the ability to welcome non-traditional students at whatever point in their life they want to come to college. So many, like Angela, take their life experiences, add a UIS education, and produce success and service and so many valuable contributions.
Please, especially, give so that we can offer returning students like Angela, students who have "stopped out" for a time, more scholarship support.
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