Best practices when choosing the right major recap

The Academic Support Center at Southeast Missouri State University sponsors seminars every week this semester. These sessions are a beacon for students in need of academic and career guidance. The latest session, held on March 5, was titled "Best Practices When Choosing the RIght Major."

Michele Tapp is the director of academic advising and career services at Southeast. She said, on average, college students change their majors about two to three times throughout the duration of their academic career on a national level and 70 percent of all students will change their major at least once.

In 2006, an average of 344 freshmen at Southeast were undeclared in the first semester. Fortunately, this number has decreased to 193 in fall of 2013. While fewer are coming in without a collegiate path, many are still bouncing around majors throughout their academic experience.

The panel leading the 14 Academic Support Center seminars is made up of academic advisers and a career adviser. They are held every Wednesday from noon to 1 p.m. While choosing the right major was the main goal of the seminar held on March 5, it is not the only topic that was discussed. Also covered in the seminar was a thorough explanation of how Degree Works operates and how to interpret the information given from the program.

During the session, the panel gave advice on how to make a plan for potential career paths and how to network within that field as well as how to find the right internship. Along with their career advice, the panel members are also available to assist with developing resumes and cover letters.

Rashaun Henry is one of four academic specialists at Southeast. Henry said that generally these seminars have a turnout rate of between 15 and 30 students. Henry's best advice for indecisive students is to be well informed, consistent and ask questions.

"Find out what's not going to pay the most money or what your parents or your mom, dad or brothers want you to do, but find out what you're going to love to do despite whatever," Henry said. "... You really have to be passionate about what you're doing because if you're going for money, money won't last."

Other seminars this semester include a session on debt management, in-depth explanation of financial aid, graduate school opportunities and much more. For one of the seminars, Money Matters, Henry will be bringing in former banker Kim Ferguson to speak to students. Henry said he tries to include real-life professionals as much as possible for the seminars. The Academic Support Center is also available on a regular basis for individual assistance.

"When I meet with students, I can talk with them about just how school is going for them and overall help them with their internships," Henry said. "We help with forming students' resumes and cover letters, make sure they get linked up with Career Linkages. We actually had Career Linkages do a presentation already on Red Connect and how to prepare for an interview and other things, so we try to make sure that they have access those resources."

The next seminar on March 12 is titled "Organizational Leadership" and will discuss four frames of organizational leadership and how they can be beneficial to student leaders and organizations. All sessions are free of charge and can be found online at the Academic Support website as well.