Major Maps

Team Name: Simplified Educational Pathways

Team Lead: Max Broooks

Team Members: Lee Ayers, Gabriel Braet (student), Lea Griess, Larry Locke, MaryAnn Neely

The Major Maps initiative emerged from an RFY team looking to simplify the pathways of first-year students through the University Studies curriculum and into their majors. It quickly became clear that simplifying the general education curriculum was beyond the scope and responsibility of a project focused on first-year students. The team therefore focused on ways to make navigating the existing pathways easier, as well as make those pathways more meaningful for students. As developed by Queens University, Major Maps identify coursework, career development steps, community connections, and global engagement on a year-by-year basis to help students understand how curricular, co-curricular, and professional activities are connected for each major.

The Major Maps team worked with faculty in several programs to identify categories that would be meaningful for their programs and for SOU. In the end, four categories were selected: courses, co-curricular activities, careers, and a custom category for each program to use as it sees fit. This will provide students with a template they can use to compare majors, while giving programs flexibility to present themselves however they wish.

Major maps will give first-year students a better understanding of the major selection process and what they have to do year-by-year to pursue a particular course of study. Perhaps more importantly, they will help students understand that in order to be successful, they need to engage outside the classroom, and tie those experiences together with what happens inside the classroom. Finally, the development of major maps will create opportunities for the academic and student affairs sides of the house to better understand how each supports the work of the other. Implementing major maps does not require a special outlay of funding or staff time. Thus far, faculty have been eager to develop major maps for their programs and Student Life and Career Connections staff are excited to collaborate with faculty. Here is a draft major map being developed for Sociology and Anthropology.