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FGCU's New Integrated Studies Major

Integrated Studies Event at FGCU

Florida Gulf Coast University is offering an innovative new Integrated Studies Major. Its goal is to offer students more flexibility in meeting their unique educational and professional objectives. The Department also focuses on FGCU’s core missions of civic engagement and sustainability. We're joined by the Integrated Studies Department Chair, Dr. Maria Roca, and the Director of the Undergraduate Studies Advising Office, Allison Bacigalupi.

The Integrated Studies major allows students to create individually-developed courses of study. This program is ideal for students with a clear idea for a career path that requires coursework from a variety of disciplines. The major also offers students courses that do not fall under a traditional academic Department.

Rachel Iacovone is a reporter and associate producer of Gulf Coast Live for WGCU News. Rachel came to WGCU as an intern in 2016, during the presidential race. She went on to cover Florida Gulf Coast University students at President Donald Trump's inauguration on Capitol Hill and Southwest Floridians in attendance at the following day's Women's March on Washington.Rachel was first contacted by WGCU when she was managing editor of FGCU's student-run media group, Eagle News. She helped take Eagle News from a weekly newspaper to a daily online publication with TV and radio branches within two years, winning the 2016 Society of Professional Journalists Mark of Excellence Award for Best Use of Multimedia in a cross-platform series she led for National Coming Out Day. She also won the Mark of Excellence Award for Feature Writing for her five-month coverage of an FGCU student's transition from male to female.As a WGCU reporter, she produced the first radio story in WGCU's Curious Gulf Coast project, which answered the question: Does SWFL Have More Cases of Pediatric Cancer?Rachel graduated from Florida Gulf Coast University with a bachelor's degree in journalism.