Sams, Kristen. (2009). Evolving Majors

The nation and the world are continuously changing. Among those changes are the types of college education that people pursue. College majors, too, are constantly changing and evolving to suit new needs. Some of these new majors are forensic accounting, new media, and computer game design. Ten years ago these majors did not even exist. However, today they can be studied in colleges across the nation.

Forensic accountants “detect and interpret the evidences of both normal and abnormal phenomena introduced into the books and records of an accounting and the resultant effect upon the accounts, inventories, and the presentation thereof” (Crumbley, 2009). What caused people to need forensic accountants? Corruption, thievery, and embezzlement could be the likely causes for a major such as accounting to evolve a new branch, forensic accounting. Accounting students now have the opportunity to choose a major proven to evolve as necessary. Their choices are no longer limited to traditional accounting. In forensic accounting, not only can students work as accountants, but they can work as “money detectives” (Kulla, 2009). I plan on becoming an accountant myself and the thought of possibly becoming a forensic accountant sounds extremely enticing.

Similarly, the computer media industry is developing and changing every day. Luckily, for students interested in pursuing media jobs there is now a newly evolved major, new media. According to Indiana University South Bend’s Office of Communication and Marketing, this degree may be ideal for students who “wish to prepare for careers in new media arts such as gallery and installation art; commercial, marketing, training and sales applications; interactive and distance education applications, medical imaging, game design, Web site design, digital filmmaking and applications in digital audio and music.” The new media major opens up countless possibilities for students in the computer media industry. The Internet, just one part of new media, provides many opportunities for advertising and promoting businesses and ideas. That rapidly-growing segment of the industry alone will provide many employment opportunities. College graduates with a degree in new media would less likely encounter hardships in the workforce because there are other outlets beyond the Internet. Media has become an important factor in everyday life and continues to grow and change along with the times, so it is just as important for computer technology majors to evolve alongside these changes.

The gaming industry, too, has grown considerably within the last few years. As technology continues to expand and reconstruct, a new major has come into play: computer game design. Some college programs “like the computer games development program in DePaul University, focus on the programming of games while others, like the game art and design program at the Art Institute of Phoenix, concentrate on the visual design” (Kulla, 2009, np). Gaming students require a great deal of education and must expend much effort to succeed in creating gaming design programs. For instance, designers must attend to minute details in order to create the best games; or those consumers will not buy them. It takes hard work and dedication to become a game designer. The computer game design specialty has evolved greatly from the technological and computer majors that preceded them. The reason they have evolved is simply because of the demand for new games. With such a high demand for new games, the only option left was to create a major that game designers would enjoy and actually work hard to achieve.

All academic majors need the opportunity to evolve and sometimes even reconstruct themselves over time. Sometimes, however, people believe that college majors should remain unchanged. I disagree. Over time, majors must be allowed to evolve in order to adapt to new and changing needs and wants. Thus, all majors should have more room to grow and adapt. Education should not be stuck when everything else is evolving constantly.

Although the nation and the world are constantly changing, college education majors like forensic accounting, new media, and computer game design are in a constant race to evolve alongside. College majors that can evolve and adapt to an ever changing world will never disappear.

References

Crumbley, D. Larry. Journal of Forensic Accounting. 10 September 2009 .

Indiana University South Bend. 9 May 2008. 7 September 2009 .

Kulla, Bridget. Ten Majors that Didn't Exist Ten Years Ago. 8 September 2009 .