Major: Psychology
Rebekah Wanic was unhappy with the college where she spent her first year and turned to College of DuPage.
She planned to focus on her general education requirements, knowing she wanted to transfer to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) and major in psychology. What she discovered at COD was a wide range of courses that provided thought-provoking content.
“After taking an ethics course from the Philosophy program, I contemplated a double-major,” she said. “I ultimately decided against it but ended up taking several philosophy courses, one of which led to the submission of my work for a small scholarship award that I won.
“I was also able to take two interesting one-unit courses—one on serial killers and one on the JFK assassination. These courses stimulated my curiosity and helped me to see that as an academic, you have flexibility to explore topics that pique your interest in more detail. This led me to seek to continue my education beyond a bachelor’s so I could gain the skills and be in a position to do that moving forward.”
After transferring to UIUC, Wanic graduated as a Bronze Tablet honoree, the University’s highest academic honor for students in the top 3 percent of their class. She moved to Southern California and worked for a year while completing her application to graduate school, after which she earned a master’s degree and Ph.D. in Psychology from the University of California San Diego.
In 2007, Wanic started teaching courses at local community colleges and at the university which ultimately led her to change from a research-based career to a teaching-focused one. She taught full time at the University of San Diego in the Department of Psychological Sciences and maintained courses at community colleges. She also supervised student research, served as the adjunct liaison for the Center for Educational Excellence and served on various university committees.
In 2021, she took a new position as senior lecturer at National University of Singapore and, after several years abroad, returned to the Chicago suburbs and started her own mindset coaching business. Wanic moved back to San Diego in 2022 to resume her work at USD, while also teaching a few courses at other universities. She continues to publish articles on higher education, self-improvement and workplace issues for several online outlets and her novella, “Nobility,” was published in 2024.
As for COD, Wanic advises students to take more classes than just what is required and figure out what stimulates them.
“I had an economics professor who I remember telling the class that he had the best job. Now that I am in the same position, I wholeheartedly agree,” he said. “I feel like a lot of the wisdom I gained pursuing my education was not necessarily from the course material itself but what was shared through classroom interactions. Therefore, don’t take only online courses and avoid engaging. Challenge yourself to be present and learn all you can.
“I can fondly remember the insight into critical thinking that I gained from my philosophy and history professors, the lesson I learned about enthusiasm in the classroom from my biology professor, the push to pursue a career as a college educator stimulated by both my econ professor’s comments and the extra-special topics courses I took. Thus my experiences at COD were quite impactful in helping me to get where I am today.”
Learn more about the Psychology program at College of DuPage