What do our graduates say about IDMA?

Michael K. Chapman (Class of 2001), Frick Museum, Pittsburgh. “One of the things I most appreciated in the IDMA program was the flexibility it grants students. Being able to work with scholars from so many different disciplines provided me with a breadth of experience that would be difficult to duplicate elsewhere. Professors were generous with their knowledge and time, and administrators were always accessible. There are few programs that have the personnel, facilities, and attitude to allow students the kind of freedom I experienced in the IDMA program.”

Lynette Wellington Clemetson (Class of 1994), Domestic Correspondent, NYTimes, Washington D.C. “I enrolled in the IDMA program hoping that it would help me reach my goal of becoming a foreign correspondent -- and it did! The confidence and the skills I acquired through the program helped me to stand out in a very competitive field. Within two years of graduating, I was working for Newsweek magazine in Hong Kong, covering an array of political and social issues throughout East Asia. And my knowledge of Chinese culture and language still serves me well in my current position as a domestic reporter. I feel quite confident that my career would not have developed as it did without the broad and solid grounding I received through the IDMA program.”

Joelle E. Eidsness (Class of 2000), Alcoa Corporation—Corporate Environment, Health and Safety. “With the strong foundation created by a faculty of experts from various disciplines, with a wide array of courses available, and a great diversity among fellow IDMA graduate students, my experiences surpassed my expectations. Within this stimulating environment I achieved my original goals of heightening my knowledge of Asian affairs, developed a greater understanding of disciplinary approaches to Chinese studies and learning, as well as practicing research methodology.”

Robert T. Schuder (Class of 1997), Continental Airlines International Passenger Service Representative. “The IDMA program at Pitt has been a highly relevant factor in allowing me to achieve success in my professional life. Working with a team of highly motivated and experienced faculty at Pitt enabled me to take part in a well-rounded, fast-paced program, tailored to my needs. I was able to complete my MA degree in 19 months while taking time to round out my thesis with a three-month internship in Japan.”

Christopher Schob (Class of 2004), Currently working in an international law firm in Shanghai. Due to the strength of the IDMA curriculum, and especially the language program, I was able to quickly raise my level of proficiency in Mandarin and knowledge of China. During my tenure at Pitt, I made time to take an internship at a Sino-American joint venture in Anhui Province, China, undertook summer language programs in Taiwan and Beijing, and spent two years (one as a Blakemore language fellow) at Tsinghua University in Beijing. Through my coursework at Pitt, I benefited from professors who pushed me to think and write at a higher level, which is benefiting me now in my work at a major international law firm in Shanghai. There are tremendous academic resources in the IDMA program and Pitt in general, and my advice to incoming students is to seek out these resources and the many student-oriented professors to develop your areas of interest and strengthen your research.
2007 Update on Chris: He worked for almost a year at Xiamen University at the semester abroad program for American college students. He also teaches a Chinese history survey course. He's been accepted there into a PhD program and will be focusing on Christianity at the end of the Qing dynasty. He plans to come to Pitt during the summers to use our East Asian Library.

George Sipos (Class of 2002), Ph.D student, East Asian Languages and Civilizations, University of Chicago. The IDMA in East Asian Studies was my first contact with the US graduate education system and it taught me numerous valuable lessons, not only on my topic of study: Japanese literature, but also on living and learning in the United States. I benefited enormously from being able to take courses anywhere within the University of Pittsburgh, and took full advantage of the opportunity I was given to expand my knowledge on such fields as Japanese cinema, East Asian religion, Chinese history, or Korean language, but also in general theories of modernism, anthropology and other fields not so obviously related to my own field of research and interest. Shy at first to be working so closely with them, I later found myself greedily absorbing knowledge from famous scholars of Japanese studies, who are faculty members in the Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures and whose classes I could take thanks to being a graduate student in the IDMA program. More than that, during my two years in Pittsburgh, I have learned a plethora of valuable lessons from all the wonderful people who work for the IDMA program, and who have never stepped back when they had to help me, or any of the other students, not only in school, but also outside of it. I consider the IDMA to be one of the most important stages in my academic evolution, integral part of my formation both as a scholar, and as an individual.