The sociomedical sciences major, which was approved by the college in November 2019, is now available for students to declare. The major blends various subject fields into a comprehensive program that aims to enable students to pursue a broad range of opportunities in the medical field after graduating.
The new major offers students the ability to navigate the medical field under their own terms, something that makes it unique when compared to similar majors. Its ability to offer a variety of classes enables students to “choose their own adventure,” which creates an exciting and more enticing major.
Sociomedical sciences major junior Angel Alejandro said that prior to the new major, there was a lack of options for students interested in allied health professions.
“Before this major was added on, there was really no major for people who want to get involved in the allied healthcare fields,” Alejandro said. There was biology for doctors and there was chemistry, but there was no major for people like me who want to get to healthcare administration and public health.”
Sociomedical sciences program director Melanie Medeiros said that the major gives students interested in allied health fields the opportunity to become accustomed to different aspects of health.
“This major offers students the opportunity to become acquainted with the social determinants of health,” Medeiros said. “Any student who is interested in entering the allied health fields, whether that’s going into medical school, graduate education in public health or looking for employment directly in the health field right after graduation, there’s now an interdisciplinary approach to understanding the social determinants of health.”
Currently, the major consists of only five required courses, four foundational courses and one capstone course—along with elective requirements. These foundational courses include three anthropology courses and one sociology course, while the capstone is an anthropology course. Along with these, there are numerous electives within different departments students have the option to choose from.
According to Alejandro, the vast amounts of electives allow students to take courses that they are interested in taking and make pursuing their major more enjoyable.
“Before taking this major, a lot of the classes I was taking I just took because they were requirements for my major, I didn’t really enjoy them,” Alejandro said. “I can honestly say that all the major requirements for this major I’ve actually loved so far. That’s why I changed my major.”
Despite being the newest major and already having numerous electives, there are currently attempts to add more courses to the sociomedical sciences elective requirements list.
“We’ve just put in a proposal to add more courses to the curriculum so that students have even more options on what courses they can take to fulfill the elective requirements,” Medeiros said.
The new major has already gained traction, bringing in 35 students to its ranks only weeks after being approved. This is something that Medeiros said was noteworthy.
“The major had 35 students declare, and it was approved the week before Thanksgiving and then we had been to break. So, the fact that 35 students have changed majors in what amounts to just a few weeks is pretty incredible,” Medeiros said.
Alejandro expressed his satisfaction with the new major.
“I think it covers so many fields, so I think it’s perfect the way it is because it’s just covering so many aspects of different career paths that kids want to join that Geneseo didn’t have to offer that now they do,” Alejandro said. “This major saved my life because now I’m in the right major for what I actually want to get into.”
According to Medeiros, the anthropology department looks forward to the new major being present in the current curriculum.
“The department of anthropology is really excited to host an interdisciplinary major so that students are getting a solid foundation, anthropology and medical anthropology, but also exposure to other disciplines that they can really integrate together into the field of the allied health fields,” Medeiros said.