Interview with Chelsea Welch (Nursing major at YSU)

Chelsea’s interview is at the end of this post, but first I thought I’d discuss how the interview impacted me:

My interviewee is Chelsea Welch. She is my cousin, and I chose to interview her because I am considering transferring to YSU, which is the school she attends. I was curious to see how courses and faculty work at this University, as well as being curious to how she enjoyed the medical field. It made me want to enter the medical field a little bit more—though I’m still on the fence. I have a passion for helping people, just as Chelsea does. So this interview did have a little bit of influence on my career exploration, but I’m still not sure of my choice of major. I didn’t know that Chelsea changed her major. I thought that she had been a nursing major all throughout her college education. Chelsea is always very sure of herself and she loves her major so much that I had assumed this passion was something she always knew about. It relieved me a lot to know that someone so sure and passionate also changed her mind and took time to find her passion.

I feel like I need to explore different majors in the medical field still, which I plan on doing this Friday in fact. I will be attending an informational session about the HIMS major, so this should help me confidently decide whether or not I want to choose this major. This semester, my advising appointments were probably the most helpful to me, or talking in class with our peer leaders and groups. Discussion is the most effective way for me to develop thoughts and opinions about courses, majors, etc. because I can ask questions on the spot and learn by listening to other people’s experiences.

When and why did you choose this major?

  • I chose to become a nursing major in Fall 2013. I chose this major because of my love for helping people and the medical field.

Did you start in this major? If so, did you ever question your decision? If not, what was/were your pervious major(s) and how did you decide on this one?

  • I started out as a business major and took a year of classes to realize it wasn’t for me. I started questioning my decision the end of my fall semester and tried again in the spring to realize that I wasn’t cut out for the business world.

Do you feel you made the right choice of major(s)?

  • I’m extremely happy with my decision to be a nursing major. After doing my first clinical and seeing all that all the work I put into giving my patients the best care they can receive and that’s when I knew this was what I’m supposed to be doing.

What was your favorite major course, and why?

  • My favorite course of my major was patient care concepts aka nursing 101. It teaches you all the basics of nursing which are the staple of my career. The course introduced me to friends who I’m still going through school with today and have become a staple in getting me through these past years in the nursing program.

What was your favorite course outside of your major, and why?

  • My favorite course of my major was patient care concepts aka nursing 101. It teaches you all the basics of nursing which are the staple of my career. The course introduced me to friends who I’m still going through school with today and have become a staple in getting me through these past years in the nursing program.
  • My favorite course outside of my major was history of motion pictures. I took this class as an elective and learned all about how different types of films were made. We watched movies almost every class and learned all the hard work that goes into creating these works of art. It was nice to be able to understand and appreciate the work that someone else does.

How engaged/accessible are faculty in your department?

  • The faculty in my department is very engaged with all of us! They truly are our biggest cheerleaders. They are always available to answer questions and guide you in the right direction.

What kinds of extracurricular experiences (research, internships, co-ops, student organizations, study abroad, etc) have you had?

  • While at YSU I joined Zeta Tau Alpha sorority, Student Government, and Habitat for Humanity. I joined these at first for resume builders but while being in them I held executive positions in all these organizations. I chose these organizations mainly for resume builders but also to gain friends at the time since mine all moved away. I’ve made connections that have landed me with jobs and opportunities I couldn’t have achieved on my own.

Why did you choose those particular opportunities? How have they benefitted you? What are your plans for after graduation?

  • After graduation I plan on working at UPMC in the surgery department. I started in June 2017.

Public Affairs Lecture

I attended the lecture because of interest in the Public Affairs major. I have a passion for helping others and I learned that this major is a very good fit for people with an interest in making a difference. Students are offered a BA and BS track, with the BA focusing on leadership and management and the BS focusing on data analysis and economics. After taking economics next semester, I hope to see which degree would be a better fit for me. The college has a great faculty to student ratio of 15:1, with the professors having real world experience. This is important because they all know what they teach and are passionate about it. Though not required, 86% of students utilize the internship opportunites that are offered in the college. Another thing that was really nice about this major is the program is very broad, which allows students to keep their options open when it comes to careers. This is very helpful because I’m an indecisive person. This confirmed my interest in the major, knowing I won’t be stuck doing anything specific. I don’t have any other questions about this major.

Arts & Humanities

The major in which I was interested in was Philosophy, though not much was touched on it during the lecture. The only major that was discussed that I was intersted in was Comparitive Studies, which does actually seem to be a good major. For me though, I enjoy my intro to Philosophy course that I’m taking right now, and I’d like to continue taking these types of courses. I enjoy being able to think in ways that I’ve never had to think before, and I love being asked to reflect on your own beliefs because I think you learn a lot about yourself while taking these courses. I learned something that I found to be very interesting– that you can create your own personalized study program if in the Art and Sciences program. While it does have to be for a valid reason, and you can’t do it if your goals can be obtained by combining any available major and minor, I think it’s really cool that students have that option. I would still love to learn about a Philosophy major, but I’m thinking that I will do my interview with someone in that major. I also learned that, even though it’s a common thought that the humanities majors don’t often get good jobs, the department has worked to make every major independent and made it possible for students to get a job with only an undergraduate degree. I think this changed my thoughts a lot, because I had the idea that you had to have either more education or a paired degree in order to get a good job.

Natural and Mathematical Sciences

From the Natural & Mathematical Sciences lecture, I was mostly interested in the Actuarial Sciences major. I took Calculus I in high school and I really enjoyed it, while being fairly good at it. Math was always my strength throughout high school, so I thought this might be a good major for me. It was kind of intimidating though, because it’s a very competitive major, and you have to take very high level math and statistic courses. I don’t know if I’m confident enough in my ability to, especailly because I heard that Calc II is rather difficult. The lecture did a really good job about covering any questions I had, and they even shared interesting facts about the major, including the fact that the math programs have their own study room that’s only open to math majors. I thought that was pretty cool. Overall, I’m considering the major, but I’d have to take Calc II next semester in order to be on track, and I’m just intimidated. But I am excited that I found a major I might enjoy!

Engineering and Architecture

Going to this lecture, I was originally only interested in learning about the different engineering majors. However, attending the lecture sparked an interest in the architecture major. It was awesome to learn about because architecture incorporates two things I’m interested in:art and math. I’d never considered this major before, but it seems pretty fun. On the other hand, I didn’t feel like that any of the engineering majors caught my attention. They’re very math and science heavy, w hichI thought I’d be interested in. But I didn’t feel like I learned enough about the majors I was interested in, which was probably because it was hard to go too in depth with all fourteen majors offered in the college. I wish I would have learned in more detail about the majors, specifically about mechanical and chemical engineering. The most interesting thing I learned about the engineering was about their study abroad opportunities. I think it’s really incredible that the students solve the problems in society and get to travel in order to help people. The lecture helped my open up to new possibilities, and I enjoyed it a lot!

Business

I chose to attend the business lecture because I know that I enjoy math, but want to choose a major that isn’t just math. I’m most interested in the accounting specialization of the business major. Any business major involves both data analysis and social skills, both of which I have. I very much enjoy working with numbers, so accounting is a good fit considering the heavier use of mathematics. I learned that the major is a lot more social-skill-heavy than I originally thought, which isn’t exactly my strong suit. However, the internship opportunities and study abroad opportunities were really interesting. The job placement rating was very high, which is always a good thing. Overall, I think business could be a potential major for me, but the social skillset necessary makes me unsure.