I was a patient not long ago, and it allowed me to value my team of doctors much more and learn from them. As I became healthier, I began furthering my interests in medicine and patient care by volunteering at hospitals. I am incredibly thankful to now work at Los Robles Regional Medical Center as a Certified Nursing Assistant where I am surrounded by a great team of professionals and focus on direct patient care.
I chose psychology with an emphasis in sports because I have been a competitive athlete my whole life and realized that there is a big mental side to the sports world. I also am very interested in the mind and how it works with dealing with stress and performance, so this major was the exact area for me. I chose a sports management minor to gain another part of a sports background for my sports psychology studies, and to help get my foot through the door in the sports world.
I chose to major in psychology because I am fascinated by how the brain processes information and how it rebounds from injury and disease. Exploring multiple topics within psychology through my classes and working with professors on research teams has allowed me to discover my passion for clinical psychology. My dad graduated from Cal Lutheran in 1989 with a German minor; my whole life he spoke highly of the program with Dr. Walter Stewart. My minor has been helpful, especially when studying the history of psychology and the founding German psychologists. I am currently working as a German department assistant and am excited to help tutor students as they learn the language.
I chose the communication major due to my interest in publicity, social media, and it has allowed me to pursue different jobs roles while gaining expertise and knowledge about many communication topics. Last year, I took a few courses related to public relations that further affirmed my interest in a PR career. My current internship for CLD PR has also helped me identify my career path since I am working closely with celebrity and influencer teams to carry out PR-related disciplines.
As a department assistant in the Visual Arts department, I’ve gotten to work closely with a lot of the different professors who are encouraging me to do the best that I can. I came to Cal Lutheran with very low confidence in my work and ability to create and I am leaving knowing that I have the power to determine everything I want to accomplish. If art is something you’re interested in, you should look more into it and see how you can incorporate it into your life more.
Psychology offers a very broad educational experience where you can find many specific avenues of interest. Taking Adult Development and Aging (PSYC 305) helped me narrow down my future career. I chose a religion minor because I love how religion can be applied to numerous settings and how it can open doors for people to meet and learn from one another. Religion can be interpreted in many different ways and therefore offer much to us in everyday and scholarly discussions.
Studying philosophy not only laid the foundation for my critical thinking skills, but it has also allowed me to think about the law in a broader way. Even more practically, studying philosophy was extremely useful in preparing for the LSAT and succeeding in rule-based reasoning that is inherent in legal practice.Through the political science department I was able to participate in the Lutheran College Washington Semester in D.C. and the Oxford program (virtually) as well as work in various internships like with the United States Attorney’s Office and the Los Angeles County Public Defender. All the professors in the department helped me identify my passions and pursue my goals by encouraging me to do things that I never thought I could do.
This major has a range of career options and will help with personal growth. I am interested in working within the juvenile justice system to make a positive impact on young lives and help them navigate their challenges. I have identified this path by taking courses such as Child and Adolescent Development (PSYC 304), volunteering my time at local schools and joining ride-alongs with the local sheriff’s department.
I would recommend biochemistry for any student that wants to understand more about the basic building blocks of life. Learning some of the concepts at first can be frustrating, but it is really rewarding to be able to apply them in a lab setting outside of lectures. I am also an applied scientific computing minor and am learning science communication skills that can be applied to many career paths, such as medicine, science journalism and quality control. This will allow me to have more options for career paths after I graduate and aid me in my further studies as a biochemistry major.
I believe biology is a universal degree that covers pretty much everything, there are so many career paths to explore such as pharmaceuticals or zoology. The thing that intrigued me about the environmental science major was the types of labs that were offered under it. Many of them involve field work, like the water resources lab. And this summer, I participated in directed research with Dr. Megan Fung. Through that I gained laboratory skills as a first-year and an amazing opportunity to begin my journey toward my dream career.