Students from all different majors might be interested in two new minors that may be offered starting fall 2014.
The minors are coaching and management for non-business major students. These minors have been brought up and passed through the Undergraduate Council and are on their way to becoming available for students to minor in.
The coaching minor requires 21 credit hours and the management minor is 18 credit hours, said Sue Houston, vice provost for Academic Affairs and head of the council that created the minors.
“They will move forward but they aren’t totally official yet,” Houston said. “It takes a while to get into the catalog, but they should be available next fall semester.”
After faculty members presented the two minors, the council had a chance to ask questions then vote on whether to approve them.
When the minors were presented, “there were some clarifying questions asked, but in general there was support [in the council] for both minors,” Houston said.
The students who heard about the minors were in support as well, said Kasie Durkit, academic affairs chair for Undergraduate Student Government who was also on the council committee.
“[It] was something the education majors saw as really beneficial because a lot of education majors will become teachers who also as a side job become coaches in high schools or middle schools,” she said.
It’s a nice way to learn the managerial tasks of being a coach and how to communicate in a sports sense, Durkit said.
“It gives you extra skill,” she said. “Because that’s two different things, teaching world history and teaching how to do a free throw.”
Freshman Maddy Garlough is an Inclusive Early Childhood major and is aware of the benefits of having a coaching minor for teachers looking for jobs.
“I’ve considered coaching before,” she said. “It helps you get a job if you’re willing to coach. My parents are both teachers and that’s how they got their jobs.”
The more qualified in different things you are, the better, Garlough said.
“Schools are often looking for coaches so it makes you more marketable to places,” she said.
Junior Renee Modrowski, an Early Childhood Education major, doesn’t think the coaching minor will give her too much of a boost when looking for jobs.
“As a teacher, they are looking for more educational aspects,” she said. “They aren’t looking for coaches.”
Modrowski said it would be helpful for those interested in becoming a coach already.
“It’s a great benefit if teachers want to coach a softball team or something like that,” she said. “They are more than welcome to [minor] in it. A lot of the times, the teachers are coaches.”
The other new minor is targeted for more non-business majors, Durkit said.
“If they do pursue something in the field of business, they will have those skills,” she said. “You could be a manager of a small business or a leader or even if you were just interning and have a business background, you would have fundamental skills and knowledge of managing.”
