Minors
benefit students future career, plans
By Matthew Wilkinson
and Bradley Zint
Online Forty-Niner
As graduates proudly stroll across the stage at graduation this week, many will
receive minors with their degrees. Although the minor has become a common practice
here at The Beach, not many students are sure what it is or how it will help
them in the future.
Many in society have accepted things that they are told. Students do this as
they have chosen majors and professors and looked for courses because an advisor
or friend told them. This also applies to minors.
“
Rather than filling the undergraduate degree program with electives to reach
the required minimum of 120 units, [the minor] allows students to pursue a
secondary field of study,” Sharon Olson, director of Academic Projects
said. “Many times students will have a broader major, like communication
studies or international studies, and pair that with a ‘professional’ minor,
like journalism, fashion merchandising or entrepreneurship. It allows
them to customize their degree.”
The minor is a “structured selection of courses by which a student can
enrich his“or her academic preparation” and it “complements
the major by broadening the student’s academic experience,” according
to the California State University,
Long Beach Catalog of Graduate and Undergraduate Studies.
Many students find that after taking a general education or introductory class,
they like the subject enough to pursue a minor in it. Andrew Pauling, a sophomore
pre-film major, plans to add a minor in philosophy to complement his film education.
“
I just took one of the introductory classes in philosophy and it was something
I had never seen or taken before,” Pauling said. “It really just
caught my attention. I just found it extremely interesting and I’d like
to pursue it.”
Jonathan Sury, a recent graduate with degrees biology/physiology and music, also
obtained a minor in chemistry. However, taking the minor courses was not out
of the way.
“
You automatically get a minor while completing the physiology requirements,” Sury
said.
“
Having a minor gives students much more career flexibility over their lifetimes,” Olson
said. “It also shows a prospective employer that the student has had
a ‘plan’ for her or his degree. It allows them to sell ‘themselves’ to
different employers in different ways. It also means that if students
change career objectives in the future, they have more options.”
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