Specialization Spotlight: Language and Culture
What‘s your year in school, specialization, and position?
Amaya Mali: I am a third-year student. I am the Logistics Chair at CSSA and I’m specializing in Language and Culture.
What’s a fun fact about you?
AM: I’m left-handed and born in Dubai.
What got you into Cognitive Science and your specialization?
AM: I was a junior in high school and I was really confused with what I wanted to do. I really wanted to combine creative thinking but I really liked art and using analytical skills. So, I was thinking of triple majoring in film effects, psychology and engineering. However, I took Physics C, which made me not want to take engineering. I was also working at this startup, which allowed me to talk to other people at the company. There was this one guy who graduated from Rice University in cognitive science. He explained what cognitive science was and I was like, “okay, that’s what I’m going to apply for when I go to college.” During my freshman and sophomore years, I was specializing in design and interaction. However, I realized my real fascination was human behavior, like why do people do the things that they do and what are the ways that we interpret information? I chose language and culture because I wanted to understand how humans behave towards products and how we use the theory of design into the application of products. I still decided to minor in design.
What’s the most important thing you have learned in this field?
AM: I’m looking to go into the design field and the biggest thing I’ve learned is that people do not like change. It’s very important to understand that because while we are supposed to change, we aren’t comfortable with change. So, one big thing that I’ve learned in design is: how can you make a change to make people have a better experience, but not make too big of a change? It is important to find that balance. And I think language and culture really helped me understand how we can make people more acceptable to change.
What COGS classes did you find the most useful?
AM: I use the COGS 101 series a lot because it helps me understand how we use information. I’m also in COGS 127 right now and that’s a new class. You’re basically redesigning an app, which is a lot of what you do in design internships.
What’s your favorite COGS class and why?
AM: It’s COGS 101C (Language) taught by Koeppenwriter. That class also helped me confirm that I want to be Language and Culture. It was his first time teaching that class and he did a great job. He’s very sarcastic, and in the class itself, you learn information about different languages, how we perceive things differently, and how language differs in different places. Another favorite of mine is COGS 101B (Memory and Attention) taught by Davis. I really liked the topic we were learning and had a lot of fun studying for the class.
Who’s your favorite COGS professor?
AM: I really liked Joshua Davis. He’s a grad student so he’s still trying to become a professor. I went to office hours I think every week and he really tries to answer all of your questions during office hours.
What did you do last summer?
AM: I did an internship this summer at a nonprofit, AI Global, as a design intern. They are trying to find ways to promote ethical uses of AI, which was pretty interesting.
Are you involved in any research or other activities on campus?
AM: Outside of CSSA, I am also apart of Design for America and am the Design Education Lead. Also, since April, I have been a graphic design intern at CADA (Center for Applied Internet Data Analysis). So I’m creating logos for their different research projects. This past month, I just started at the ProtoLab under Steven Dow.
What advice do you have for first years and people starting in the specialization or cognitive science in general?
AM: I think people are taken aback with Language and Culture because it sounds like you’re going to go to grad school. It really depends on how you brand yourself and I think that you can work yourself into a niche and enter the workforce. You can brand yourself into the field of content strategy, UX design, or behavioral analysis. My advice for first-years is to just talk to people and take any opportunity that you can. You may get overwhelmed, but try to take advantage of opportunities and just make the best out of it. Just know you’re a freshman and you can change your specialization or major anytime. Your specialization doesn’t really start hitting you until the beginning of your junior year when you start to take your specialization courses for language and culture.
What’s your favorite part of CSSA?
AM: I joined CSSA because I wanted to be able to help other people in my major. It’s super to define cognitive science because you can get so many different definitions. So that can be really confusing for other people because there are different ways to use Cognitive science. And I really like being part of CSSA because it gives me the opportunity to help other people if they need advice. A few weeks ago, I helped this girl who just transferred as a computer science major and she was debating if she should switch to cog sci. I helped her go through that whole process and gave her advice and resources she could utilize.
What would you do differently if you could go back in time?
AM: I would probably get a good study habit down. I think the biggest thing in freshman year is that it’s so different than high school or middle school. The way that you cope with it really affects how you do performance-wise and socially. So it is important to just get a good routine going. Also, if you fail in something, just don’t worry about it and learn from your mistakes.
What are your future plans after graduation?
AM: Get a job to pay off debt. I’m trying to look for internships right now in UX design, user research and then hopefully get a full-time offer. I really want to start working in the tech industry. And then if that goes well, I would keep maybe go into more strategic roles. Eventually, if I ever get bored and not in debt anymore, I’d go to grad school.
