This summer, I noticed that half of our 10 fellows have double majors. That's more than we've ever had, though it's not uncommon for folks in the program to have two majors. I was curious about those who have more than one major, so I asked a few of them questions.
Victoria Lefler, from Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, is a dance and history major. "I have always loved to dance," said Victoria, "and cannot see my life without dance being apart of it, but I also loved learning about history in grade school." That's why she chose to do both.
She has noticed links with classes in her two majors. "There has been some overlap between my classes in both departments," she explained. "Seeing these connections has helped me understand certain topics better because I had prior knowledge from a different perspective."
Ryan Collins, from Pomona College, also majors in two fields. " I decided to pursue a double-major in Africana Studies and Political Science," he said, "because I found that my work in either field was intimately informed by the other which led me to embrace my passion for both fields of study."
According to Ryan, "the benefit of having two majors is definitely being able to get to know the faculty within two different departments. I’ve been able to take classes with amazing professors in both departments, and I’ve enjoyed being able to enjoy the department student programming events for both of my majors as well."
Sokeyra Francisco has a double major at Swarthmore College. "When it came time to declare my major," she said, "I looked back at the courses I had taken and saw that I was most interested in the ones in both the fields of History and Peace and Conflict Studies." For her, a benefit of pursuing the two majors is that the learning is "both unrelated and interconnected."
She explained that "All of your classes can be about different things but there are core connections that can be made."
Sokeyra, Ryan, and Victoria also noted some challenges to pursuing double majors. Sokeyra noted that because of the required courses with both fields, "you aren't able to take as many classes outside of your majors." Ryan said that completing two different senior assignments is challenging. "Finding the time to study sufficiently for each course can be a challenge at times as well," said Victoria.
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