Shannan Mattiace
Something that’s unique to our university system in America is that we have two years of broad, general education. Our system is essentially designed for students like that, to let them not know what they want to be for a while, and instead to focus on learning how to think and learning how to solve problems.
Some students really want a plan, though. They tend to worry most about their major. We encourage them not to do that. Students often change their minds once they’re at school. Job markets change. Students find themselves losing interest in their original choices. When this happens, if they don’t have a far-ranging, curious mind, it will be that much harder to stay motivated. Without the ability to reinvent themselves and reimagine, they’ll get stuck.
Shannan Mattiace is a professor in the Political Science Department at Allegheny College and chair of the International Studies Program. She has published two books and many articles on ethnic identity and political mobilization in Latin America.
