Professional Golf Management
Florida State University
Tallahassee, Florida
At FSU, students who love golf can earn a Bachelor of Science degree in Professional Golf Management (PGM), which is a mixture of business, recreation and tourism studies, and, of course, golf. It is a fully accredited business program and only one of 20 in the country recognized by the PGA. According to Florida State University, PGM graduates earn 22% more than golf professionals that have not attended a PGM university, and they attain their first Head Professional and Golf Director positions at a younger age and with a higher median salary than non-PGM graduates.

Zoo Science
Friends University & Santa Fe College
Wichita, Kansas & Gainesville, Florida The Zoo Science degree is a four year Bachelor of Science degree that is divided between two schools—Friends University in Kansas and Santa Fe College in Florida. The curriculum consists not only of the traditional biology courses and general education requirements, but also includes five consecutive semesters spent at a teaching zoo in Florida where students learn about animal husbandry, habitat care, exhibit construction and maintenance, all the while working as a zookeeper for the onsite teaching zoo. Santa Fe has agreements with two other schools, SUNY-Oswego and University of West Florida. At SUNY-O, students earn a B.S. in Zoology, and at UWF, students earn a B.S. in Interdisciplinary Science with a concentration in Zoo Science. Since all three degrees require the five semesters of hands-on training at the teaching zoo, all are excellent degrees for future zookeepers, veterinarians or animal trainers. Emily Haasch is a Senior Dolphin Trainer at Discovery Cove in Orlando, Florida and a graduate of the Santa Fe Community College Zoo-Animal Technology Program. She says, “Becoming a dolphin trainer was my lifetime dream. SFCC helped me make my dream come true. While attending the animal technology program at SFCC, I gained the hands-on training and education that helped me stand out from the rest.”

Historic Preservation
and Community Planning
College of Charleston
Charleston, South Carolina
Renovating old buildings (and usually turning them into modern condos or lofts) is big business for builders these days, and based on the amount of “pre-sold” condos in the area, this trend will likely continue for years to come. And not only are young professionals and growing families moving back to the brownstones in the city, they are paying premium price if the buildings are renovated with “green technology.” This can include incorporating community rooftop gardens, water barrels and other water conservation design, solar panels for living “off the grid” and, most importantly, reusing materials from previous structures—reclaimed hardwoods, recycled denim insulation and antique furnishings, to name a few. If construction or architecture is your passion, not only will the College of Charleston’s Historic Preservation and Community Planning degree suit you, the city itself will be a classroom all on its own.

Student Personnel Services
MacMurray College
Jacksonville, Illinois
The Bachelor of Science in Student Personnel Services is for students who wish to pursue a career on a college campus. While several graduate programs exist in the field, this undergraduate degree is the first of its kind. What I find most interesting about this program is that students who enroll in this program are living it and learning about it from a theoretical standpoint at the same time. For instance, in this program, students take a course that teaches them how to recruit, manage, develop programming, and maintain safety for a residence hall. While taking this course, the students may actually be living in a residence hall. Students also take a course called Theories of Student Development, all the while going through the stages of student development at the same time. Most of the courses will have some type of mirror-effect on students, since college students is what this major is all about!

These majors are just a few of the thousands of majors offered by colleges around the country. Though some of these may seem enticing to you, you may not be up for the distance or the tuition involved with moving to Kansas or Illinois. A great way to deal with this is to find a major that you are interested in and then find a closer or less expensive school that will let you design your own major by combining majors and courses already taught with perhaps a semester of specialized study elsewhere. Sounds confusing, but it’s really not. And, the University of Tennessee will do this if you can propose a well thought-out plan and find a professor to oversee it. Email me at Kristin.Ferguson@gmail.com if you have questions about it, and I can put you in touch with the correct people. Have a great month!

I’d like to share a story with you from when I was an undergrad at the University of Tennessee. One night, after exhausting the then less-developed Internet for information on topics such as fun jobs and exciting careers, I had resigned myself, tearfully, to a life in retail. It seems funny now, but at the time I was a junior in college, failing miserably, with absolutely no idea what I wanted “to do with my life.” Everyone around me, my roommates, my boyfriend, his roommates, all were content with their major and their career direction. I, on the other hand, was a basket case, hopping from major to major, terrified of making “the wrong choice.”
While the Internet did not have enough information when I needed it then, it can seem to have too much information now. When you Google “unique majors in college,” there are reportedly 80,200,000 hits for you to look at. That could take some time, so I have sifted through the results and come up with a summary of some of the more unique majors (and subsequently the more unique careers) and the colleges that can get you started. Oh, to be young again…