Let's Dialogue

What is worthwhile to study? As a professor, I see students struggling with finding their career paths and wondering what major might be a good fit for them. With a third of college students changing their majors at least once, it’s normal to wonder what might be a worthwhile major.

My freshman year was a journey of finding something worthwhile to study. I registered for different courses that allowed me to be introduced to different fields; however, my interest in many areas and lack of direction led me to prayer – prayer for God’s leading and clear calling.

Principles of Communication with Dr. Dewitt Jones, the chair of the Division of Communication, was that answer to prayer. The class was both frightening and exhilarating. I would tuck myself far away in the back of the room and hope that the professor wouldn’t call on me. Everything was new to me.

The topic. The style of teaching. The expectation to interact with the professor.

But I kept going back even though I could feel my heart loudly beating every time Dr. Jones asked a question and no one answered. Maybe today he will call on me. I sure prayed that he wouldn’t.

If someone saw me that year, a missionary kid and immigrant from Jerusalem, they probably wouldn’t have guessed that I’ll end up in the communication profession-let alone get a doctorate and eventually become the chair of the Division of Communication. 

But God can pick an unlikely person to do his will.

So, what happened? Why did I keep coming back? Simply, the topic of communication fascinated me. It made me think deeply. It made me curious. It brought me joy. The class wasn’t the easiest, but learning – learning is what brought me back. New content every day. Theories. Principles. Models. Practices. By the end of the semester, I realized that communication is a worthwhile study as it touches on every aspect of my life both privately and publicly.

But what can you do with a general topic such as communication? What skills would you gain? What job will you be doing in 5 or 10 years? Honestly, I didn’t know how to answer those questions. I just knew that the discipline would never bore me and that I’ll always have something new to learn.

Communication studies has a rich interdisciplinary history.

For someone who liked so many areas and couldn’t find what I should study, I felt that I finally found an area that allowed me to explore different topics from rhetoric to mass communication, from intercultural competence to organizational leadership.

Even the research and application of the communication discipline varied as historically it straddles between the humanities and the social sciences and borrows from different fields such as the study of linguistics, psychology, and sociology with applications in business, healthcare and technology.

I enjoyed studying prominent figures like the father of rhetoric, Aristotle, and Marshall McLuhan, a media theorist, and practical journalism and media courses.

And through it all remembering, God created humans to communicate, to commune with him and each other.

So, what is more worthwhile to study than a topic that touches on so many areas? I have become a better wife and mother because of my discipline, a better teacher and colleague, a better leader, and a better person.

So, the next time you meet someone majoring in communication, please pause before asking them what they will do with their degree (and there are lots of things to do) and instead commend them on choosing a worthwhile discipline.