A STEM Major in a Communications Club
Before coming to UCLA, I thought I had charted a decent plan that would last throughout my four years and after graduation. As a now third-year Biology major/Cognitive Science minor looking back, the internal debate to pursue a health science career or “try something else” seemed like a foregone conclusion – but at the outset of applying to college, I chose to semi-blindly set my sights on becoming a veterinarian. That plan consisted of a pretty standard pre-vet workload: maintain your GPA, get your clinical hours, volunteer in another medicine-related club, land a research lab position, etc. There exists the quintessential checklist of the habitually pre-health professional, a back-of-the-mind roadmap leading towards graduate school, clinical rotations, board certification, and eventually a position at a vet hospital or a private practice.
Communications as a major, or as a career, did not initially appeal to me. I was only vaguely aware of there being a communications club on campus by the end of my freshman year, so it was as much of a surprise to me as it was to anyone else when I joined UCA’s board last year. Frankly, I didn’t know what to expect upon joining a space of predominantly humanities majors. There was nothing special I expected to gain from organizing networking nights geared towards non-science majors, or planning company tours to communications agencies I had no immediate professional stake in. There were no specific skills that I believed would add to my repertoire of marketable qualities.
It sounds painfully reductive to frame my perspective at the time in this way, but as any UCLA student knows, there is somewhat of a “friendly” rivalry between North Campus and South Campus majors — what, at its core, is a proxy intellectual tension between those in the humanities and those in the hard sciences. Part of the conflict stems from the perceived difference in workload and difficulty, a difference that has some merit in certain curricular aspects, but is for the most part irrelevant in the wider scheme of building a career. Getting a STEM degree and/or having a STEM background can correlate to higher-paying jobs, but is not, in itself, a guarantee. There are plenty of English majors that become stellar corporate lawyers or college professors.
Point being: no matter the college major, the definition of one’s success and professional happiness is largely dictated by yourself. But in terms of personal growth, I’ve learned that it is essential to take advantage of opportunities that don’t necessarily align with the perfect trajectory of your career path, such as, say, joining the board of an undergraduate communications club.
What did I “get” out of my experience serving on the board of UCA?
I learned how to sharpen my presentation delivery from watching fellow board members present at workshops, how to network more efficiently at conference events, how to organize company tours, how to gain basic fluency in industries like economic redevelopment and entertainment that I wouldn’t have had access to otherwise. The communications field, not surprisingly, is mostly about handling communication between different parties. More importantly, it’s about working with people, communicating your thoughts to them and learning how to pool the collective reservoir of skills and perspectives of others to yield a solution.
Through these experiences, I’ve branched out my career interests, taking a closer look at industries like healthcare consulting that combine market analysis and life science – in ways that I wouldn’t have considered within my purview prior to this year. UCA encouraged me how to be flexible and embrace more interdisciplinary career paths, and while embracing that is an ongoing journey, it’s a path I enjoy exploring. Sometimes all it takes to regain purpose is a little exposure.
The rest is up to you.