On April 14, Skyline hosted the Meet Your Major Fair, which was one of the opportunities given to the Skyline students to have a look at the majors they are considering.

It is not unusual for college students to enter their first semester as undeclared.

“Our idea initially was to have an event that would allow students to become engaged with the faculty, who actually teach the courses so that the students can have a more clear perspective of the various options that your major can allow you to do career-wise” said Lavinia Zanassi, the main coordinator of the event. “We felt this would be a campus wide activity and that it would encourage students to do more research.”

Zanassi explained that from her own experience as a professor, about eight out of 10 students come to the career center to get clarification on their major and to make sure they have chosen the right one.

Once students enter college, they often have to decide immediately on what to major in or face the stigma of being undeclared.

There have been times where there are programs happening on campus such as paralegal, introducing majors one event at a time.

The event had various booths including one for engineering and one for English literature. Each booth was accompanied by a representative in whichever industry that they were representing. One of the activities was a board that students put stickers on in order to exhibit the reasons they chose their majors.

Not only was the fair a chance for students to realize their potential career, but also for the staff of the career center to focus on what drives students to select particular careers. They chose to do this by keeping a large chart where the students are given three yellow dot stickers to put in certain categories about why they are choosing their major.

“So one of the goals is for students to be able to connect directly with some faculty, staff and programs to find out more about why they might choose one major over another for whatever their educational, career goals are,” Dean of Counseling Angelica Garcia said.

The coordinators, Zanassi and Garcia, saw the event as an opportunity to get Skyline students to connect with the faculty by discussing their interests. This includes helping students to make them successful in their career choices.

Besides the career booths, there was a booth dedicated to the Transfer Center run by Transfer Center Ambassador Vanessa Aragon, who is graduating this semester to transfer to San Francisco State University.

“At this event I think students [are] going to get the opportunity to explore their options and understand that there’s a buffet of options out there for them,” Aragon said. “It’s a very interactive event.”

There was a large turnout and various faculty members, including professors manning the booths, available to inform students about the careers they are interested in majoring in.

This event will be scheduled in the future by having the programs participate throughout the semesters, depending on the school year.