Majors: Biology and Chemistry What is your current position/career? I am currently a Biomedical Science PhD graduate student at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, where I have been studying the basic science of cell death and how this can be translated for better cancer treatments. How did Cal Lutheran and/or your biology/chemistry program set you up for […]
I would absolutely recommend biology, especially for students who are curious about how life operates at its most fundamental levels. If you’re detail-oriented, enjoy hands-on work, and want a career where you are constantly learning, it’s a great choice. My best advice is to find great professors who are passionate about what they teach, it makes science much more engaging!
I chose my business administration major because I have always been drawn to business and entrepreneurship. When I created a Poshmark account and started selling my clothes, I quickly became obsessed with sustainable fashion and seriously considered chasing my dream of having a brand of my own. It wasn’t until I got the Steven Dorfman
Scholarship at Cal Lutheran that I finally felt like it could become a reality. I’ve been lucky enough to receive validation and support from an entire team of faculty, expressing their strong faith in me and my career ambitions.
Growing up, I struggled with my health as a result of severe food allergies and a lack of culturally and language-proficient providers. Biochemistry provided me with the means to make sense of the molecular reactions governing the makeup of the body. To think that the allergic reactions I had growing up were chains of chemical reactions within my cells. Today I use the knowledge of my degree to help others with their understanding of the molecular mechanisms that make the world.
Right after graduating, I started working in venture capital, with impact funds that invest in underrepresented founders. The environment at Cal Lutheran gave me the confidence to pursue my interests in venture capital, with a particular focus on supporting the Latino community.The strong presence of the Hispanic community at Cal Lutheran reinforced my desire to make an impact by deploying capital into Latino-owned businesses.
Cal Lutheran has a very distinct and developed criminal justice department that offers a variety of networking opportunities through clubs and required internships. The major also implements a structured curriculum that pushes and encourages students to be the very best they can be. The psychology department is built to provide you with foundational knowledge as well as routes to take based on your interests, some of them being biopsychology, child and family development, and law and criminal behavior.
The criminology & criminal justice program at Cal Lutheran incorporates an internship as part of graduation requirements, which pushes students to gain work experience and helps them stand out from the rest upon graduating. The political science program also has interesting travel seminars and experiential learning opportunities like Model United Nations and Urban Politics in Washington D.C.
I am so happy that I chose to be an English major because it has shown me how much I love and appreciate writing, on a deeper level than I had before. Taking the creative writing workshops has provided me with a great amount of feedback and structure that I now consider when I am writing anything.
The communication department was a great way to catapult into the work that I do. My main job function is recruiting, which requires a lot of marketing techniques. I have a lot of social media marketing experience now, and I really learned a lot about corporate communications through my JonesWorks and College of Arts and Sciences internship I had at Cal Lutheran. These skills have helped me increase our recruiting outreach over the last few months, which I am very proud of.
All the Spanish professors are super sweet and helpful no matter what your other majors are. Criminology and Criminal Justice is a major where you are well-supported by everyone in the department. I have met some of the best people in this major. There are also so many different areas in a psychology major that one can learn and study. It’s always something new.