Last Tuesday, UNK held Major Discovery, a conference for students who are undecided on a major. At this event, representatives from many of the majors and minors that UNK offers set up tables to introduce undecided students to their departments or convince them to join.
Emily Beaman, assistant director for career development, said an event like this hasn’t been hosted for a couple of years.
“This is a good opportunity for students to learn about all of the different majors and minors that we offer on campus in a really short period of time,” Beaman said.
Beaman sees many students come into her office to change their major or get in contact with ones that they are interested in. Usually, it’s a long process of emailing departments back and forth and setting up appointments. But with events like this one, undecided students can meet and learn about many at once.
“Students should take advantage of opportunities like this to learn what’s out there,” Beaman said. “There’s so many more choices than what students are even aware of.”
According to Beaman, undecided majors tend to face negative connotations that other majors do not. Because of this, many students get pushed into choosing a major that they don’t like because they were pressured into choosing too fast.
“Some people might think that undecided students are just unable to commit, and that’s not a problem,” Beaman said. “It’s not a bad thing to kind of take your time and figure it out along the way.”
Hudson Regier, a freshman with an undecided major, was recommended to go to the event by one of his advisers. He came out of it with an interest in construction management and health sciences.
“I don’t really know what to do, so this is kind of helping me get out and see all the different options that I can go into,” Regier said.
Another student who attended the event was Mayra Ticas Flores, an undecided freshman who said that they wanted to further explore their career options.
“This is a good way since there are many people with different careers and you can just talk to them and learn more about their careers,” Ticas Flores said.
By the end of the event, Ticas Flores said she was interested in pursuing a major in finance.
