No Major? No Problem...

What do Bob Marley, your own beach, an auction, and 25 undecided students have in common?  They were all a part of last Saturday’s “No Major, No Problem” event!  

Students checked in and grabbed some lunch as they listened to the musical stylings of Bob Marley, 311, Sugar Ray, and other relaxing jams.  They were welcomed warmly by The Career Center, and brought to their very own beach…in their mind.  Dr. Daniel Rinaldi from Student Counseling Services led us all through a guided imagery exercise to get us relaxed and ready to have fun.  We wanted to focus on learning about ourselves, the first step in choosing a major, rather than the end goal, which can feel overwhelming.  As one student said, “trying to choose a major in one day is like trying to climb a mountain with one giant step.”

We broke out into smaller group sessions, and students had the opportunity to explore their interests, personality, skills and values with various interactive workshops.  They participated in a gallery walk to help them identify their interests.  They were given play money to bid on values that were auctioned off.  They identified their skills and partnered with other students to learn how to talk about their talents with pride.  Students learned why and how their personality surfaces in their everyday life.  In other words, they got to know themselves, something we don’t always consciously focus on as we go through our daily lives.  The information is already there, and this event allowed students the time and space to access it. 

To bring it all together, we joined for one big wrap up session and talked about the “now what?” of making this decision.  We discussed how they have made other great big decisions before and what made those decisions successful; drawing from the examples students gave, we came up with their very own next steps.  After all, choosing a major is a process, a series of choices, a path of pride; it is not a one-step decision.  After almost seven years of helping many students choose a major, I had one piece of parting advice:  one small step forward is much more effective that one large step never taken.   So yeah, no major?  No problem…

Feeling bad that you missed out on this event?  No worries, The Career Center still has you covered.  Make an appointment with our counselors to start your path of pride today.

Deanna Rodin, Associate Director