By Menatalla Shawky
UNIVERSITY CITY, SHARJAH – Students considering changing their major should be aware that it is “completely normal to not know what you want” in college, an American University of Sharjah senior noted in an online student lecture series Nov. 15.
Lena Khalifa, an active member in the student leadership program, talked about her experience in changing majors multiple times before deciding to major in International Studies and a minor in Psychology.
As a freshman, she studied biology for three weeks before dropping the course, then considered other colleges like business, engineering, and architecture, but she knew they were not for her.
However, after meeting and liking people from the International Studies Department within the College of Arts and Sciences, she declared International Economics and International Relations as her concentrations.
Khalifa then dropped International Relations and continued with Economics.
She declared a minor in Psychology and decided that she wanted to major in it, but the department offers some courses at specific times, in which she had to wait, which would prolong her graduation.
To avoid the delay, she decided against majoring in Psychology, but she still took the extra courses.
Khalifa said she attended conferences abroad for the Student Leadership Program, where she went to the New York Model United Nations and Harvard Model Congress.
She added that she used the principles from NMUN and HMC in the AUS Model Congress.
Khalifa ended her presentation with a summary of her personal development, where she learned several things that included obtaining high tolerance levels and managing to adapt to situations.
