“Majors in Minutes” senior helps exploratory students find their passion
“Majors in Minutes” senior helps exploratory students find their passion
When Jacey Ordal first came to UNI, she hadn't yet chosen a major and declared in the exploratory program. Three years later, she’s a senior in public health who is determined to help first-year students looking for a major find a program they’re passionate about through the upcoming Majors in Minutes event.
“Majors in Minutes was such a pivotal part of my journey at UNI and finding public health,” she said. “It solidified my major and then also my future career. Going back and being able to help younger students who are not quite sure what’s going on or who are freaking out is very meaningful to me.”
Majors in Minutes is often described as “speed dating for majors.” The two-hour event welcomes exploratory students, anyone questioning their current major and students who may want to explore adding second majors or minors to talk to two or three upperclassmen for every UNI major represented.
As a first year student, Ordal visited the event with a list of six majors that sounded interesting to her. In addition to public health, environmental science and public administration made the list. At each table, she asked about career opportunities, classes and more. She walked away believing public health was her best option for a profession that would fit her likes and dislikes while allowing her to help others.
“Everyone says you want to love your job or have some kind of passion for what you do,” she said. “It makes it a lot easier to go to work, to make it through the long hours and work weeks. So I feel like finding that is just really a burden off my shoulders.”
After the event Ordal enrolled in an introductory public health class to see if she enjoyed the area of study. She did, and promptly declared public health as her major at UNI.
Since then, she’s been able to get involved with student organizations related to her major and work with a faculty advisor from the program. “It’s been really nice to get involved with the public health community,” she said.
Majors in Minutes is just one way exploratory students can get connected with the 90+ majors offered at UNI. Like with any exploratory student, Ordal was assigned an academic advisor when she first came to UNI and met with her early on in the semester. Together, they would review plans of study and career outcomes for different majors. Through these experiences, she was able to compile a shortlist of programs, and Majors in Minutes helped her make that final decision.
“It’s really important to hear firsthand experiences from the students as opposed to getting that information from a video or an article.”
UNI’s exploratory program was actually one of the main reasons Ordal chose to come to UNI in the first place. Her brother had a positive experience at UNI as an accounting major. But, as someone who didn’t know exactly what she wanted to do, the idea of a program created to connect her with the right major was very attractive.
Although she sometimes felt self-conscious in those early days telling people she hadn’t yet chosen a major, she learned to enjoy sharing details about the program she was part of.
“It was a little bit different when people asked what my major was, and I would say, ‘Oh, I'm exploratory. So I'm trying to figure it out,’” she said. “I think a lot of people also understand how common it is to change your major. It was cool to tell people what being exploratory meant.”
Ordal is excited to help people who were in the spot she was as a first-year student and hopefully make finding a major easier for them.
“It can be a little overwhelming, but I did it, and now I'm back on the other side of things,” she said. “I’m a Majors in Minutes success story you might say.”
Majors in Minutes will take place on Tuesday, Oct. 28 from 4 to 6 p.m. in the Maucker Union Ballrooms.
