Wednesday, Oct. 4, approximately 400 students visited the 9th annual Major and Career Fair held in East Hall in Kryzsko Commons.

These 400 students were mostly comprised of first-year and sophomore students who were looking to find more about the available majors at Winona State University.

The Major and Career Fair is hosted by the Warrior Success Center and is organized to help students navigate the process of selecting a major or minor and gives them the opportunity to connect with people in a field they are interested in.

The Major and Career Fair has every major and almost every minor with over 40 different programs in attendance.

Amy Meyer, academic and career advisor at Winona State, explained the main purposes of the event.

“[The two purposes of this event are] to help students to decide on a major and give them a place where they can ask questions and learn more about majors and minors,” Meyer said.

The event also provided students with the ability to speak with Winona State alumni who were there to represent career professionals within a major.

Some of the alumni that were present worked in fields such as biology, communication studies and nursing and had jobs that related to 16 other majors. All of these alumni were able to get jobs closely related to their majors and work in places ranging from Winona State to the Mayo Clinic and beyond.

Some students attended the event to receive credit for a class, while others were there to learn more about majors or minors they were interested in or to speak to the professionals that completed the same major that they are hoping to receive.

When students in attendance of the event were asked if they thought the event was useful,

students who were deciding a major and/or minor said that the event was helpful because it gave them a central location to get information about every major or minor that they wanted to look at instead of having to separately seek out each department on their own.

Students also found that it was useful having career professionals there that were former Warriors. A few students mentioned that this helped them to see how they could apply their major and degree in the professional world.

Izabel Balk, a first-year social work major, shared why she chose her major. She also mentioned that another reason for choosing this major was because her mother is a social worker.

“[I am] really interested in helping other’s and making the community a better place, so it seemed like a good fit,” Balk said.

First-year Kate Hentges shared how she decided that she wanted to become a special education major.

“[I have] always loved kids and always had an interest in people with disabilities,” Hentges said. “[I felt that] a special education teacher was a great way to combine the two and that I could make a difference in people’s lives.”