Coming to college can be really confusing, whether you are a new, incoming freshman or a returning senior. It makes it even more confusing when you add in the arrival of a new major and minor. This past spring semester, Northwestern added the new major social enterprise, along with a non-profit management minor. The new major and minor are in place to teach NW students more about being a leader through God’s word using several different business techniques. The major focuses on the aspects of business, and through the minor, students learn to bring the world of Christianity into play through their future careers.
Another aspect students may be wondering about is why these courses were added to NW’s degree audit. The school already has Public Relations and Business, are they not the same thing? Though they may be similar, there is definitely one thing Social Enterprise and non-profit management have that other majors and minors do not: variety.
When talking to Jillian Simon, she explained how crazy busy she had been the year before. “I love learning new things, but that became difficult when it came to choosing something to study. For a while, I was a double major and minor,” Simon said. She continued by saying that the new major and minor were perfect for what she wanted to do, which happened to be a little bit of everything. Simon even specifically said that she changed majors because it “combines three areas of study that were interesting and important to me in creating a successful and fulfilling career.” Through further research, it’s obvious that the new courses have also beneficially helped students with their faith journey and spiritual health. Many students involved with the course path have stated that it taught them to ask difficult questions and pursue answers. “Being interdisciplinary has shown me how all things work together to love God, others, myself and creation while working hard to that end,” Simmon said. Though this obviously plays a large role in why students chose the new major and minor, it is definitely not the only reason. Not only does it aid students’ interests while also furthering their relationships with God, it also helps with creating a new generation of leaders and inventors. After talking to many of the social enterprise students, I learned that several of them are deciding to take their degrees to lead charities that help with certain causes. Whether it be to help a human in need or an animal, it becomes very obvious that these NW students have the ability to change lives, as do all of us.
Although it may be confusing now as the program is just starting off, it can be seen that the new courses have the ability to truly change the world in ways that other courses may not. It truly does not take a genius to see that it has the potential to create great careers for some of NW’s current and incoming students.
