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When it comes to choosing a major, many Virginia Commonwealth University undergraduates decide that two is better than one. Roughly 1,000 VCU students take on a second major.

Sometimes it’s because they have two competing passions. Other times, they feel a need to get a degree in something more practical but don’t want to give up on another lifelong interest that they feel is less likely to result in a stable career. Sometimes it’s because the two disciplines complement each other and will give them a leg up in acquiring a job or getting into graduate school. And in some cases, it’s required.

But whatever the reason, and despite the extra challenge of adding a second major to an already busy college schedule, these students leave VCU with a richer academic experience and a broader skill set. And sometimes they discover that their two majors intertwine in ways they did not foresee. The six students below share the reasons they chose to double major and discuss the interesting crossovers between their two areas of study.

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Seamus McDaniel
Biology, College of Humanities and Sciences
Music, School of the Arts

Science and biology were Seamus McDaniel’s strongest subjects in high school.

“I always had questions about the things around us, the things that we, and everything else, are made of,” he said. “And the answers to those questions are all entailed in the principles of biology. After taking extra science classes and participating in science clubs in high school, I knew obtaining a biology degree in college would be the right thing for me.”

But McDaniel, who is from Ashburn, Virginia, had another interest that he was even more passionate about.

“Guitar had always been the biggest hobby or pastime in my life,” he said. “I’d been playing the guitar since I was around 10 years old and was beginning to get very serious about music before coming to VCU.”

He had, in fact, considered majoring in music. So much so, that one reason he chose VCU was that he knew there’d always be an opportunity to take music classes — specifically guitar — alongside biology.

Within two years at VCU, he realized he could do both.

“After taking music classes and getting to know the excellent faculty and opportunities I’d have with VCU Music, I switched to be a double major with biology and music,” McDaniel said. “The guitar and music have always been my true passion, even if I didn’t realize it at first. … I know now that I have made the right choice in choosing both biology and music.”

Majoring in two such disparate fields can be polarizing, said McDaniel, currently a junior. Aside from the content, the general ambience of the two domains are on opposite sides of the spectrum. But the wide variety of careers those degrees offer “will be a very nice feeling.”

Career options range from performing or teaching classical guitar to conducting research or lab work. He’d like to follow both paths to find his calling. Working in a science-related environment and also teaching students or performing solo or with a band would be optimal, he said.

“Taking both science and music classes has really done more for me than I could’ve ever asked for,” he said. “Acquiring extensive knowledge, meeting like-minded peers and learning from extraordinary people has been an unparalleled experience. I owe thanks to VCU and the professors of guitar in the Department of Music for all the opportunities I’ve been given.”

 

Catherine McGuigan
Communication arts, School of the Arts
Environmental studies, VCU Life Sciences

Catherine McGuigan always knew she wanted to combine her love of art with her interest in science.

When the Richmond native was applying to colleges, VCU was her “reach” school. “My plan, if I didn’t get in, was to study ecology at Warren Wilson College in North Carolina. But art was always my priority,” McGuigan said.

The 22-year-old communication arts and environmental studies double major will graduate next May, taking just five years to complete both degrees. She said the most difficult part about being a double major student is switching gears from one discipline to the other. “The biggest challenge is going from reading a textbook for a couple hours to drawing a comic or designing an illustration,” she said. “It takes awhile to get into the right frame of mind for each.”

She manages the two responsibilities by staying active with both. “I have to be strict about time management,” she said, referencing her schedule that includes school and work. “I try to take a couple classes from each major every semester so I don’t drop off from either.”

Her favorite classes have been those that incorporate aspects of both disciplines, such as an interdisciplinary course she took on how to build a green wall with art, engineering and biology majors. “I am a big promotor of STEAM, which includes all the sciences, math and the arts,” McGuigan said. “There is so much to learn from all three and so much crossover, but we like to separate them.”

After graduating, she wants to apply her illustration skills to environmental conservation work. She sees herself illustrating environmental education posters, pamphlets and guidebooks. “I want to illustrate what I have learned,” McGuigan said. “I think right now one of the big issues we face as a society is that people aren’t aware of a lot of environmental issues and what we can do to fix them. I want to spread that information through art.”

She has a head start with a 2017-18 Undergraduate Student Research Grant that she received from VCUArts in January. The grant funds a project to create a series of posters that will illustrate what the Virginia State Parks have to offer as a way of bringing awareness to the conservation efforts that have gone into preserving them. “If we end up selling the posters, I want to donate the proceeds to help fund projects in the parks,” McGuigan said. “I'm pretty excited to see how it all plays out.”

 

John Shutika
Cinema, School of the Arts
Philosophy, College of Humanities and Sciences

When John Shutika was in the seventh grade, he got a flip camera and started making videos. He’s never stopped.

“I applied to a bunch of different schools,” Shutika explained. “I knew I wanted to study film. I visited the cinema program [at VCU] and then I committed the next day.”

Now a senior set to graduate in December, the cinema and philosophy double major from Fairfax, Virginia, is immersed in filmmaking. Cinema majors are required to have a second major, and at first Shutika planned to study English. However, as an Honors College student he had to take a philosophy class and he enjoyed it so much he switched his major in the middle of the semester.

“I’ve been interested in philosophy for a while,” Shutika said. “I was raised Catholic and I always had questions about religion. … So I took a morality class and I really loved it.”

While he wants to make film his career — he aims to start a film company with some friends after he graduates — his philosophy courses have helped him sharpen his focus as a filmmaker.

“I’m learning critical thinking, and I can apply that to everything. Philosophy has kind of helped me focus my perspective, my POV [point of view] as an artist and figuring out exactly what I want to say with the films that I’m making.

“When it comes to reading scripts, writing faster, making quick decisions on the set, [critical thinking] really helps,” he said.

While juggling two majors, Shutika has not found the coursework to be too much of a burden — it’s his activities outside of class that can be tough to balance. He is busy directing a short film — a dark comedy about a cult leader— that he also wrote and is self-funding.

“It’s important to learn how to make movies,” Shutika said, “but it doesn’t really matter if you don’t know what you want to make them about.”

 

Jillian Allen
Mathematical sciences, College of Humanities and Sciences
African American studies, College of Humanities and Sciences

For senior Jillian Allen, the best thing about being a double major is that it allows her to focus her education both inwardly, with mathematics and applied mathematics, and externally, with African American studies.

“My math classes are very much self-contained, while my African American Studies classes kind of reach more out into the world,” she said. “It’s a nice balance for me, honestly, to have these two different types of classes, [which allow me] to think differently.”

Allen, a student in the College of Humanities and Sciences, came to VCU as an undeclared major, but she had always excelled at math and decided to take a number of math courses, as well as a variety of introductory courses. In an introductory African American Studies class, then-department chair Aashir Nasim, Ph.D., now VCU’s vice president for inclusive excellence, encouraged the class to double major in African American Studies, noting the field’s interdisciplinary nature.

“It’s been more difficult than I’d expected,” said Allen, who also has a part-time job as a desk assistant at a VCU residence hall. “But I’ve been working to balance it all in a way that's productive. It’s been worth it. I feel like it's allowed me to see two different worlds and it’s kind of helped round out my experience here at VCU.”

After graduation in December, Allen plans to find a job in mathematics. Eventually, however, she wants to go back to school to become a teacher.

“I’m thinking of being a math teacher, but I really just kind of want to go back to my community and like help students out,” said Allen, who grew up near Richmond’s North Side. “I want to give back.”

 

Eric Agyemang-Dua Jr.
Business, School of Business
Philosophy, College of Humanities and Sciences

Eric Agyemang-Dua Jr. might never have pursued a dual degree at VCU if it weren’t for a “free straw with each drink.”

The sign in a restaurant window caught his eye when he toured the urban university as a 10th-grader and appealed to his sense of humor. He figured it represented how quirky the city of Richmond was.

“Seeing that made my whole day and significantly added on to my interest in coming to VCU,” he said.

Now a junior at VCU, Agyemang-Dua, who hails from Accra, Ghana, is pursuing degrees in business and philosophy. To him, the two complement each other.

“I aspire to be a financial adviser and financial educator so I can help people not go broke, essentially,” he said. “I am more so moved by the education and developmental piece of that course, and I really want to guide people to wisdom that influences their behavior and attitude about, not just money, but the concept of value. That’s where philosophy comes in; by taking on a philosophy discipline, I can best grasp wisdom about money, and the investigation of value beyond what is presented before us.”

Agyemang-Dua thinks philosophical knowledge and thinking is advantageous in any field.

“What I’ve learned in that discipline I have been able to adapt to other lessons I have learned in life, and have also been able to enhance the value of those lessons with philosophy,” he said.

Studying business allows Agyemang-Dua to develop his financial literacy in order to serve as a financial adviser or educator, while researching philosophy allows him to understand how learning works, developing his ability and capacity to influence the attitudes and behaviors of individuals around money.

Both will serve him well in his main goal to educate others, he said.

“I would rather teach someone how to fish than simply give them the fish.”

 

Sneha Krish
Biology, College of Humanities and Sciences
Political science, College of Humanities and Sciences

Sophomore Sneha Krish would encourage any student to tackle a double major.

“They will feel so enhanced intellectually and exposed to different people and different environments. It will be worth it,” she said. “You’ll be happy that you end up taking a risk, and it enhanced you in ways that you couldn’t imagine.”

Krish arrived from Los Angeles as a biology major in the College of Humanities and Sciences, but was captivated by professors from the Department of Political Science, too. After talking with her parents, she added the second major.

“There’s no reason I should give up one interest for another while I’m studying at college,” Krish said. “I really want to pick these professors’ brains.”

Her education is further rounded out as a member of the Honors College, where she is able to access smaller Honors sections that are “tailored to discussions, so you feel free to express your thoughts,” she said.

“It’s a very collaborative environment,” Krish said.

Krish is also in the Guaranteed Admission Program for VCU’s School of Medicine.

Among her two courses of study, Krish finds the intersection in health care policy on the national and international level. She is part of a public policy group in the Honors College, and is organizing a Berglund Seminar Monday, April 30, on the topic of health care under President Trump. It will be held in the Honors College, Room 1303.

“It’s important for all of us to be informed of the direction that policy is going, even internationally,” Krish said.