I’m an international studies major. I’m about to finish my first year at university, and I absolutely adore my major. Unfortunately, it seems not everybody does.
I don’t mean that other people don’t like their majors, I’m sure they do, the problem is that people don’t seem to value mine.
I attend a university where the top five majors are all STEM majors. Now before I get too far into this, my point is not to discount the importance of STEM majors. I applaud all my friends majoring in biomed or nursing, you guys are going to be saving lives and creating jobs in the future and that’s fantastic. I’m also not saying that every single STEM major has this sort of negative attitude or sense of superiority towards their non-STEM peers.
As someone who did well in high school, I constantly had to defend my choice in major. Well-meaning adults would say things like, “Oh, a smart girl like you could be a doctor!” Or “Don’t you want to major in something that’ll definitely get you a job?” And I appreciated the concern, I really did, but for me the end game is not to be a doctor.
It seems to me that we’re in a system that emphasizes STEM in schools more than anything else. Even in elementary schools, kids are getting a lot of science, which is great! I’m all for encouraging young people (especially young girls) to be curious about their world and how it works. Unfortunately, it seems a little like if you aren’t curious about science or math, it’s not as important.
Not every single person has an affinity for art. We accept that. I can feel free to say “I’m terrible at art” and nobody bats an eye, but if I were to say “I’m terrible at science,” people would tell me that I’m not trying hard enough or that I need to study harder. Why is it that we’re told that one thing is based on some kind of natural ability while the other thing is something everyone can get if they just try?
I think it’s really important to encourage people to pursue their passion; it’s also important to understand that not everyone wants to be a nurse or a doctor or a physicist. These things are obviously important, but if everyone became a doctor, who would teach them how to read? Who would create the art that we enjoy?
With my degree, I want to work in either a non-profit or for the federal government. I want to ensure that people are afforded their human rights and that those who deny them to others face justice. I have done the research and determined that this path (one that doesn’t require me to take advanced calculus) is the best one for me.
It just gets tiring to constantly have to defend the validity of my field. I know that what I’m doing isn’t black and white like so many people want life to be. I also believe that people are only questioning me because they have been led to think that all intelligent people want to go into a STEM field and that those fields are just better than others.
When asked, I always tell people that I want to make the world a better place. That’s really all I want to do, be it through volunteering or through my future career (hopefully) in a field relating to public service. Some of my classmates want to work abroad or in news or become teachers and everything in between. What makes these choices any less valid than a career that someone who majors in engineering will find?
