Jessica Bendzick/ Winonan

Students will have the chance to connect with faculty and alumni to learn more about available majors, minors and other career programs next week at the sixth annual Major and Career Exploration Fair.

Academic and career advisor Amy Meyer said the fair will have options for everyone.

“It will be geared toward students of all sorts, including students looking to add a minor or second major, wanting to learn more about careers in the major or considering changing majors,” Meyer said.

New this year will be the student and alumni “Meet and Greet,” where students can talk with Winona State University alumni in their career field.

Meyer said Career Services has confirmed alumni for nursing, business administration, mass communication, accounting/finance, computer science, special education, criminal justice and are hoping to add more. Almost every department is represented at the fair each year by faculty, students or both, Meyer said.

“I think a lot of students struggle with defining who they are,” Meyer said. “From a career perspective, this is a big decision, and students can get stuck and become very stressed out by not having the right information about the right process.”

Every year about 25 percent of Winona State’s incoming first-year students do not have a major declared, and nationwide about 75 percent of students change their major at least once, Meyer said.

“We see students who come in their late sophomore or junior year, and they’re struggling because they realize that they are not in the right major. They have so many credits and so much money invested in a degree that they no longer want to pursue,” Meyer said.“We want to get rid of the stress, reduce the cost and help students fit that four-year graduation time frame by helping them as soon as possible in their college experience.”

Meyer said the fair, which will be held from 10:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 29 in McCown Gymnasium, can help students better prepare for the workplace and compete more effectively for jobs when they graduate.

Another new component to this year’s fair is, “Focus2:” a career self-assessment.

“Focus2” consists of five assessments, based off of career and personality interests. Upon taking the assessments, students will receive instant results of what kinds of careers are best suited for them, Meyer said.

Two Fitbits will be given away in a drawing, which are valued at $99 value each.

Dezi Prinzing, a sophomore at Winona State, attended the fair last year, and it helped her to select a new major.

“I wasn’t exactly sure what I wanted to do, and I was pondering between a couple majors,” Prinzing said.

Prior to the fair, she was a communications studies major, and after attending she switched to human resource management and business administration.

“It was really nice how they welcomed everybody in. They have prizes and food, and everybody gets to take something away from it,” Prinzing said. “It was just nice to meet with people from all different academic areas and be able to talk with them.”

Prinzing said she also plans on attending the fair this year to help her continue with her new major.

Prinzing encourages students who “have a declared major and want to look into what you can do with your major, look at career options, or talk to students who have already gone through the whole process and figure out what steps you should take to get there.”