Donald Keough, News Editor–
On Feb. 29, the Curtis Dining Hall’s Provost Room was bustling with students roaming from tables set up by all 39 academic departments as a part of Major Day.
This was the second year Major Day was held, and it focused on celebrating sophomores declaring their majors and informing first-years of their future possibilities for their education.
Students also have to declare their major by the end of their sophomore year, so the event is intended to help them in the process of deciding.
Oghap Kim ‘26 declared as a computer science major after much deliberation. She changed her major five times before settling with her current choice, from physics, to biology, to computer science, to data analytics and then back to computer science.
“I took a very long way before learning [that] I wanted to do this major,” Kim said. “During the process of [choosing], it was very scary not knowing what I really like.”
She also said she felt that it was good having Major Day as an event to celebrate her long-awaited decision.
Another student, Meli Gomez ‘26, said that the decision of choosing a major wasn’t as tough for her and she knew that she would declare as a philosophy, politics, and economics (PPE) and Spanish double major earlier in the year. Even though she knew what her major would be, she still thought that Major Day was special.
“It’s nice because, [at] a liberal arts university people get to explore different fields of studies,” Gomez said. “But among those experiences here, [we’re all] declaring a major, I think that’s super cool.”
Amanda Ghiloni ’10, an administrative assistant at Denison, helped run the event this year. She and other administrative staff members hope that this event can become a regular annual event. They have been closely monitoring Major Day for its first three years to see how well it goes.
Emma Baum / The Denisonian
“[Major day] went really well last year,” Ghiloni said. “We want it to always happen for sophomores [because] it’s like one of [those] things to look forward to. So we’re trying to build a new tradition for sophomores at that midway point.”
For the Women’s and Gender Studies, Mia Hennum ‘26 alongside Jiarui Cheng ‘24 helped run the major’s table by describing the major to students. They are both Women’s and Gender Studies majors. Part of the reason Hennum wanted to help host the table was because of her own experience choosing a major.
“I took a bunch of women and gender studies classes my freshman year, but I actually came in as a psychology major,” Hennum said. “I was in my history of reproductive justice [in the United States] class and I was talking to one of the other girls in my class and I was like, shit, I actually think this is what I want to do. I called my mom and I was nervous she was gonna be mad at me for switching my major. But after I told her she said, ‘I’ve been waiting for this phone call this entire year.’ I’ve loved [the major] ever since, and everyone in the department is super awesome.”
She also said that helping run the table was fun as a sophomore.
“I remember being a freshman and being super excited for Major Day to have a department that I felt so akin to,” Hennum said. “So now to be a head of [the table] and getting to look at all of the freshmen I want to pull in, because maybe they need to have the same realization that I needed… it’s really exciting.”
Major Day is slated to run for the foreseeable future, with the hope of continuing to help and celebrate the future freshman and sophomore classes’ major decisions.
“The faculty love it and the staff who support the faculty love being here,” Ghiloni said. “And most importantly the students love it.”