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“WILL I USE MY MINOR IN A FUTURE CAREER?”

“I DON’T EVEN KNOW WHAT I WANT TO MAJOR IN— WHY SHOULD I THINK ABOUT A MINOR?”

“IS A MINOR JUST AN AFTERTHOUGHT?”

You may find yourself in a similar thought process, brushing off or undervaluing the prospect of taking on a minor. But the skills, experiences, and connections you gain from minors and formally expanding the scope of your study can be lucrative and enriching for your personal academic journey. Though students may not always have minors on their radar, there are new and exciting minors at Tufts that just might catch your eye and steer you down an unexpected path.

BY VALERIA VELASQUEZ ’23

For the Changing World: Foundations for Future Leadership Minor

The Tufts Gordon Institute fosters leadership, entrepreneurship, and innovation skills for Jumbo engineers. This proactive and visionary Institute is a part of the Derby Entrepreneurship Center which hosts many of Tufts’ youngest minors, including engineering management, entrepreneurship, entrepreneurship for social impact, and now foundations for future leadership. The lattermost, available only to engineering students, is focused on providing real-life skills that will be valuable whether you are interested in leadership roles or want expert mentorship on navigating the professional world. With the help of classes such as Mastering Money: Developing Financial Literacy and Communication Skills for Personal and Professional Life, this minor will give you a leg-up for future internship roles or in pursuing that business idea you have always thought about.

A Compound of Studies: Chemistry Minors

Perhaps you will discover a new interest while fulfilling your natural science requirement, or are a future biology major who will want to look closely at the chemistry behind biological concepts. The Chemistry Department’s new collection of minors is best suited for students who have accomplished foundational coursework in chemistry but may only be interested in some sub-disciplines of the field. Flexibility, variety, and interdisciplinary connections are the names of the game. The computational chemistry and the material and surface chemistry minors are two great examples. The computational chemistry minor is for students with a background in computer science who are interested in how computer and data science methods can assist in answering chemical questions. In the material and surface chemistry minor, you will explore a field that uses chemistry to develop new materials—something that is increasingly important as chemists try to create more sustainable and eco-friendly alternatives to widespread materials.

Focusing the Lens: Anthropology Minors

The reason anthropology is such a rich field of study is that it adds value and perspective to any—yes, any—field. There are five flavors of anthropology minors, and they are all the perfect side dishes to various liberal arts main courses. The minors include biological anthropology, cultural anthropology, medical anthropology, and social justice anthropology. For example, students interested in the medical field can inform their approaches to patient care by understanding how our society and environment are deeply affected by our healthcare systems, how culture shapes healing, and the nature of medicine. For students interested in the non-profit space or activism, the social justice anthropology minor will give them the coursework necessary to dive deep into particular social justice issues they are passionate about—anything from the negative impacts of the meat industry to the practice of decolonization. All anthropology minors must culminate their studies in a capstone project via two pathways: completing an ethnographic practice or an internship or, alternatively, partaking in a higher-level seminar.