Center for Exploring Majors
Studies show that nationwide over 50% of college students will change their major at least once, so major exploration is critical for any student from any college. According to Tim Fitzgibbons, director of Center for Exploring Majors USI had 174 undecided freshmen, going into the 2020-2021 academic year. It generally takes about two or three semesters for a student to declare their major.
Patty Beagle is the Coordinator of Special Populations, primarily working with the 21st Century Scholars population, helping to navigate through confusing financial aid and academic requirements. Beagle also oversees the AmeriCorps member who helps with outreach, programming and mentoring of the Scholar population. During the stresses of the pandemic, Beagle's advise to her students is to stay in close contact with your advisor. "I see students who 'shut down' creating a deep hole that they have dig themselves out of. With some work, what looks like a difficult academic situation is not as impossible as it seems. Talk to your advisor! Deadlines, scholarship requirements and University policy can appear non-negotiable but ignoring the requirements can lead to larger problems." Beagle also advises Veterans, international, non-traditional, high risk, and high school agreement students.
As she completed her degree, JoEllen Bush was one of the first student advisors in Academic Skills back in the 80's. Working with students is always about relationship building. "In taking the time to listen to the student, you open the way for some really amazing conversations. Once you develop that relationship, you can nudge them to really look at what they enjoy or why they’ve picked a particular major. As they progress along their career exploration process, I give them tools to use and add to their toolbox. I serve as their sounding board as they explore their options. I absolutely love it when they have their 'AHA' moment."
In his Career Exploration class, AaronAdkins encourages our students to embrace being explorers. "I think our society put a lot of pressure on new college students to know exactly what they want to do for the rest of their lives, and I don’t think that’s realistic. To start this oftentimes daunting process, I encourage them to be introspective (i.e. explore themselves). What are you like? What do you like? What are strengths? What are your challenges? What is important to you? What are your goals? On the surface, these seem like fairly simple questions, but they require students to dig deep. And, if they’re willing to do so, they gain tremendous insight into what they’re hoping to get out of their educations, their careers, and, ultimately, their lives."
The Center for Exploring Majors has specially trained peer advisors to work with undeclared students.
Supervised by Joellen Bush and Kayla Crowe, they participate in a rigorous training process that includes learning USI's schedule planner, degree works (4 year plans) and major and career exploration resources.
Once they successfully complete training, they begin acting as advisors. The peer advisors are also certified as academic coaches.