Why I Study Communication at Concordia

Micayla Bitz ’21, Mandan, N.D.
Major/Minors: Communication Studies; English, Political Science

Choosing a college major is a daunting decision, to say the least, and I was terrified to start my four-year journey without an end goal in mind. Because of this, I declared double majors in English education and communication studies.

To be completely honest, I did not put much reasoning behind this choice. I enjoyed my English classes in high school and one of my English teachers talked about double majoring in college, so following in those footsteps felt like a sensible path forward. But within the first month of classes, I had decided that English education most definitely was not for me. Yet, I could not shake the idea that I needed to double major. I have always been an overachiever and my college major did not feel like it should be any different. I sat down with the course catalog and made myself circle all the courses I wanted to take during my time at Concordia, and most of those circles were found in the communication studies and theatre art department.

My first semester, I took Introduction to Communication Studies (COM 111) with Dr. Cindy Larson-Casselton. I was pleasantly surprised by how relevant and exciting this discipline can be, so I decided to drop my English education major and focus on communication studies exclusively.

Watching myself struggle to declare a major I was confident about while my peers seemed to have everything figured out was hard. I have always been a planner, so the ambiguity of my future was hard to accept. However, now that I am entering my fourth semester at Concordia, I think I am finally starting to figure out my place. More than this, it has been a great learning experience simply acknowledging that not knowing is OK – and even normal.

One particular communication class that really challenged me as a student was Fundamentals of Communication Research. We spent the entire semester crafting and conducting a research study. This past fall, I created a study to measure and compare the fear of missing out in young adults who use Snapchat and Facebook. While it was definitely a lot of time-consuming work, ending the semester with a completed research study was incredibly rewarding and exciting. Also, I presented my findings in Omaha to communication professors across the Midwest this spring.

I am still figuring out exactly where I want my degree to take me but, with each curve in the path, I am learning more about myself and what I want to do. This past summer, I interned in a state office for one of North Dakota’s senators. This experience showed me the integral role communication can play in politics. These two seemingly unrelated fields have so much more overlap than I ever would have thought, and I think using my communication degree to work in politics at the state or national level would be a really neat way to become responsibly engaged in the world. Regardless of where I end up, I am confident that my experiences at Concordia have prepared me to be successful anywhere.

^{Published April 2019}