My Majors
Starting college I was the typical green eighteen year old with big goals. I specifically remember meeting with an advisor and she asked me “what do you want to study and eventually do after college?” I replied with “I want to be the CEO of a hospital, be fluent in Spanish and practice orthopedic surgery at the hospital.” Believe me when I tell you that her eyes damn near popped out. At that moment I realized I really had to zero in on something, and not necessarily what I wanted to do but more focused on what I was good at.
I had to take a step back from myself and pinpoint my strengths. For starters, I was a natural leader. I couldn’t ignore all the organizations and clubs I was in and the leadership positions I held. But what was I supposed to do with leadership? That still wasn’t enough to pick a major. My mom continually mentioned how versatile a business degree was. I was apprehensive at first because I thought studying business meant that I would learn how to start a business and that was far from what I wanted to do. I knew one thing was for sure and it was that I wanted to study Spanish. So shortly before I started classes in the fall of 2015, I picked a major in Business Management and a minor in Spanish.
After my first semester, I realized I wouldn’t graduate in 4 years if I kept my Spanish minor, so I dropped it and picked up a second major in Marketing. It wasn’t until I started getting further into college and taking fewer core classes and more classes focused on Management and Marketing that I realized business was the exact right path for me. I think the first course I took that made me click with my choice of majors was MRKT 428 – Sports and Event Marketing. I had taken a handful of marketing and management classes leading up to Sports and Event Marketing but none of them struck me as much as this one did.
This class was taught at 7:30 am (yes, you read that right). Attendance was mandatory because let’s be real, everyone would skip if it wasn’t. But it also was mandatory because there was a long wait list for this class. Those of us in this class were lucky to get in because they only offer it once a year and it’s highly sought after. We learned about everything that goes into event planning but with a twist – sports. This wasn’t about planning a birthday party or a donor event, it was focused on planning and promoting events that occur during a sporting event. For our final project, we had to hypothetically create and promote an event during a Saltdogs Baseball game. Our presentation is uploaded in my projects tab, check it out.
The best part of the class was when a specific company came in to lend some advice about how to get hired with a company like them. Throughout their presentation I thought to myself, “this is definitely a company I could work for.” That day they told us that we should create a personal brand, project that on social accounts, and own a blog. I kid you not, I walked out that day, created this blog, a business profile on Instagram, and started building my personal brand. Today, I intern for that exact company.
Thanks to that class, I finally figured out the direction I wanted to go after graduation. I found new strengths I never knew I had since studying business. I won’t lie and say it’s been all sugary sweet because there were a few times I wanted to give up and change majors and colleges all together. The College of Business puts its students through (what seems like) hell taking classes like economics, finance, accounting and supply chain management. A lot of students can’t hack it and change majors. I am forever proud that I stuck with it and in the end, I’ll come out with the exact education that will make me a successful professional. I will graduate in 4 years and with a double major, and even though I won’t be a Spanish speaking Orthopedic Surgeon who moonlights as a hospital CEO, I have never felt more sure of my choices leading up to this point.
