Undiscovered territory: the global studies major
Junior Dan Sandberg remains only major at St. Michael's

Emily MacKenzie | staff writer

St. Michael’s College offers 34 minors and 29 majors to its students. Global studies is an increasingly popular minor with 32 students involved in the program, according to John Sheehey, Registrar.

Junior Dan Sandberg says he helped to establish the global studies major after realizing no other major available at St. Michael’s quite had the global perspective he desired.

Dan Sandberg is the only global studies major at St. Michael's this year. He designed the program last spring. Emily MacKenzie, photo

A man with a mission

Sandberg designed the global studies major last spring and is currently working to fulfill the program's requirements. This fall, he has been taking courses from five different areas of study: Spanish, language and linguistics, philosophy, political science and music.

“That’s the problem with this major,” Sandberg says. “It is really quite broad. That’s definitely a good thing for me, but it’s also kind of bad that it’s not as specific as say business or accounting.”

Sandberg is currently taking three courses that count toward his global studies major and two classes for liberal studies requirements (LSRs). His next three semesters are carefully planned out to fulfill the global studies major along with a double minor in environmental studies and Spanish. 

Kathleen Mahnke, professor of applied linguistics and global studies, helped Sandberg design the major while she was head of the department. She is also his academic adviser.

A new major is born

Many students begin to design majors but find that another area of study can mostly fulfill their needs, Mahnke says. Sandberg, who began his undergraduate education as a biology major, was interested in more areas than one single major could fulfill.

“I’m most interested in environmental sustainability,” Sandberg says. “So biology kind of made sense for that, but it wasn’t really the way I wanted to approach things—through the sciences.”

Sandberg’s interest in global studies began to outweigh his interest in a biology major, he says. After expressing his concerns, Mahnke thought designing a major was a great opportunity for him.

Professor Kathleen Mahnke helped Sandberg design his global studies major. Emily MacKenzie, photo

“Given his interests and lack of enthusiasm for any of the other conventional majors that we offer here, I thought it was in his best interest,” Mahnke says.

Several students have tried creating a global studies major in the past, but Sandberg was the first to complete the process.

“Dan is a self-starter so he did almost all the work on his own,” Mahnke says. “Because he’s a good student, I wasn’t worried that he’d get into it and not be able to complete it.”

A student who wishes to create a major must go through a long process of designing their area of study. They must write a letter explaining why they believe a self-designed major is necessary, create a comprehensive course plan, and present their proposal to the curriculum committee. This committee is made up of six faculty members who approve new courses, majors, and examine the current LSR program, Sheehey says. Furthermore, the student must compare the courses they choose to those of other colleges or universities.

“You have to find other programs in the nation that are comparable to what it is you want to do,” Mahnke says.

Sandberg looked at courses in the global studies departments from St. Lawrence University, Emmanuel College, San Jose State University and the University of California, Los Angeles. He created his major by looking at global studies from a governmental, political, economic, cultural, and geographic perspective and presented his program of study with courses from each of those areas.

“For each course I had to show that someone else also thought that was a legitimate course for the major, and why,” he says.

Sandberg didn’t only choose courses he thought would be fun or easy.

“I wouldn’t say I’m hugely interested in economics,” he says. “Those probably wouldn’t be courses I would take for fun, but those are courses that are really important to, and drive, globalization. If [I] made a major in global studies without economics, it just wouldn’t work.” 

Sandberg feels as though he is now pushing himself harder with this major.

“I feel like I can actually do something tangible and meaningful with what I’m learning,” he says.

The major took about two and a half semesters of on and off work to complete, Mahnke says. She applauds Sandberg’s efforts, but also thinks students should think wisely before jumping ahead and creating a new major.

“If you’re already happy with your major there’s no reason to design your own," she says, “But when you really can’t quite find your niche, it seems to me like St. Michael’s has this great option, and you should take advantage of it.”

Inspiration for global studies minors

The global studies minor was born at St. Michael’s five years ago and interest is growing, Mahnke says.

“Given what’s going on in the world, it’s no surprise that the interest is just exploding,” she says. “It’s wonderful. It opens your eyes to how interrelated everything is and how we can’t just study about ourselves and our own little world.”

Richard Kujawa, professor of geography, says the global studies minor has a great deal of breadth in the electives that students can take. Because of this range, he is skeptical towards creating a major within this field.

“It would be a challenge to create that major without having more core courses in global studies itself rather than just a loose set of electives,” he says.

Mahnke says she disagrees.

“I think we have enough courses and enough faculty interested and enough student interest to move forward in that direction,” she says.

There are 32 global studies minors at St. Michael's College, according to John Sheehey, Registrar. Emily MacKenzie, photo

Junior Mary Beth Jenssen, who is currently a global studies minor, has expressed interest in a global studies major in the past.

“I think it definitely should be a major,” she says. “The professors that I’ve taken courses with that count towards global studies or anthropology are very supportive of it and I think it could absolutely work here.”

Jenssen says she tried to create her own global studies major but she was unable to find enough courses that she was willing to take.

“It just was trying to fit too many things and trying to manipulate them to work with it,” she says.

Sandberg hopes his model for a global studies major will inspire and help minors in the future. He says he has offered his proposal to other people if they’ve been interested.

Sandberg hopes to either go on to graduate school, volunteer or join a non-governmental organization (NGO). Currently he is undecided in his career path.

“I think it’s the perfect precursor to grad school because it’s so broad,” he says. “I don’t think I could get a high powered job with this degree, but that’s not something I’m interested in, so it’s not an issue.”

Mahnke remains an advocate for the program Sandberg has created.

“It’s a great program and it’s important that students realize that we’re not citizens of just the United States anymore; we’re really citizens of the world,” she says. “It’s a good idea to be ready for that.”