By: Paige Scofield
Campus Life Editor

Western offers a wide variety of degrees that students can major in, many of which students don’t know are offered, or know next to nothing about. This week in “Get to know a major:” receiving a Bachelor of Arts in social science with a history focus.

Max Norr, a senior, is working towards receiving a Bachelor of Arts in social science with a history focus, and a minor in visual communication design.

“I want to work in a museum as a museum exhibit designer, like a graphic designer for a museum specifically,” said Norr. They came to Western because it was small and affordable, “I’m all about small schools because I like having that closer relationship with my professors, and being able to talk to them about things.”

Originally Norr was a history major but then later changed their mind. “I was a History major, but I switched because the social science with a history focus is non-thesis track. Social science has more anthropology and language classes. It’s more all encompassing than just focused on history,” said Norr.

Western’s social science major has many different foci that include: sociology, political science, history, geography, criminal justice and anthropology.

There are many career fields that social science can put students on the right track to pursue.

According to Western’s website, those careers include: social work, high school teacher, education and working with nonprofit organizations.

The major is described as, “A general social science perspective with a specific discipline focus. The program thus prepares graduates for a specialized field as well as giving mobility across fields.
Students learn the methods developed by their discipline to understand both the past and the present. Graduates apply these methods to resolving local, national, and international issues.”
Specifically, a focus in history “… not only explores the past in interesting and challenging ways, it also develops research, communication, and critical thinking skills. In our society of dramatic change, most people change careers numerous times during their lifetime. Historical imagination and research skills provide students with a variety of options as jobs and technology change. Those who learn to understand the clockwork of the past, can use this knowledge in planning for the future.”

When asked what their favorite class was that’s offered for their major, Norr responded, “There are a lot. The intro to historical research class is really, really good. They introduce you to all sorts of different ways of researching, like oral history, researching newspapers, researching monographs,” explained Norr.

“Basically all the things that go into research. That class was really, really good.”

But that wasn’t their only favorite class, “Right now I’m taking a museum studies class. This class is only one night a week and it’s from 4 to 8 p.m. at night but we go to all of these different museums. We’ve gone to five and we have one more to go to.”

Since social science is such a broad field, it gives Western’s students the opportunity to explore the different fields they can pursue while still being part of the social science major.

Contact the author at journalcampuslife@wou.edu