Student Spotlight: APSU helped Skylar Smith find the next steps in her field

In her sophomore year, Smith found her true passion and decided to change her major to criminal justice.

(Posted on Friday, March 4, 2022)

Smith described the major-changing process to be “seamless."

Many students struggle when choosing a major as they prepare for college, and Skylar Smith was no exception.

“At first, I thought I wanted to be an English major, but I changed my major to communications on Govs R.O.W. because I wanted to do international relations.”

However, it did not take a long time for Smith to figure out that communication was also not something that she wanted to do.

“Neither of them (English or communication) was my passion,” she said. “They were great programs, but I just didn’t enjoy them as much as I thought I would.”

In her sophomore year of college, Smith finally found her true passion and decided to change her major once again, to criminal justice. Even her family and friends agreed that it was better suited for Smith.

When recollecting her memory, Smith described the major-changing process to be “seamless” with the help of her professors.

“Whenever you are entering different majors, you feel like you don’t know what you are doing, and my professors have been more than willing to help me understand the next steps I must take to go in the direction of the field I want to go in,” she said.

After Smith changed her major to criminal justice, she also added a minor in psychology and is now pursuing a new dream to write novels about criminal psychology, which allows her to still follow her love for literature.

There still might be students who question if the major they chose is the right one for them. To those who are thinking about changing their major, Smith encourages them to believe their gut feeling, and that it is never too late to find what they are truly passionate about.

“Students should switch to another major if they don’t like the one they are currently enrolled in,” she said. “It isn’t a tough process, and it doesn’t matter if it adds a year or two because it is better to go an extra year to college than to start another four-year degree because you don’t like the first one.”

Name: Skylar Smith
Major: Criminal Justice
Graduation: May 2023
Hometown: Greenbrier, Tennessee
Campus Involvement: Chi Alpha, Korean Culture Club

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