Alex Palmieri – News Writer
The Majors Expo held on Nov. 2 allowed students to explore all majors and minors that Southern has to offer. On Southern’s website, it says students can also discover career choices as they relate to their major and ask questions to connect with faculty, staff and alumni.
There were professors of different departments that discussed possibilities for students. Kalie Mavricz, a freshman nursing major, said she wants to build a network since she can not apply to the nursing program for another year. With the Majors Expo, Mavricz said it is good to come to the event and ask questions to get a head start.
“It’s good to get someone you can go to,” said Mavricz, “if you ever have questions when you’re finishing your prerequisites and what you can do to have the best resume to get into the program because it’s super competitive.”
Since Mavricz said the nursing program is very difficult to get into, she said the Majors Expo was a good start for her. She said the qualifications to get into the program include having a minimum of a 3.5 GPA. Mavricz added there are over a 1,000 applicants but they only accept 80.
“I think this is awesome,” said Mavricz. “They do a lot of things like this and I think it’s awesome they’re helping us build our network because I don’t really know where to start. So this is a good place because they help you out in the process, especially with the freshmen.”
Jazlynn Rodriguez, a freshman marketing major, said she wanted to gain more information on minors that Southern has to offer. She said because Southern hosted this event, it can help students plan where they want to go.
“When you first come in,” said Jazlynn, “you have a mindset of, ‘I want to do this,’ or you’re undeclared. So this really opens your eyes to see more.”
Ben Yambao, a junior social work transfer student, said he first wanted to major in nursing. But after he looked at Southern’s website, Yambao said Southern has a very good social work program. He said he is not sure if he wants to do social work as a career, so Yambao wanted to learn about all the different majors that Southern has to offer.
“I come here to learn about the different majors,” said Yambao. “I want to find a major that involves helping others; I learned about public health and other departments too. So here I really want to clarify my goals.”
Yambao said it was a great move by Southern to have a Majors Expo since a lot of students don’t quite know what they want. He said he wanted to find other majors that might intrigue him into another direction. When he got meet different directors of different departments, Yambao said that helped him tremendously as well.
“Getting one-on-one interaction,” said Yambao, “then they can help me figure out what I can do.”
If students go to different buildings to attempt to find different majors, Yambao said it can be frustrating. With all of the directors for several different majors in the ballroom, he said it was very convenient.
“It allows students,” said Yambao, “better access to what they can possibly do.”
Photo Credit: Palmer Piana – Photo Editor
