Like many students attending Swarthmore, I, too, had little idea as to what I wanted to study during my four years of college. I came to Swarthmore with one main question lingering through my mind…”Why do people behave the way they do?”

Naturally, I found and fell in love with the Psychology Department. I took many different classes throughout my first two years that provided me with a variety of ways to answer my question. Psychology provided me with an explanation of how human behavior is influenced. I quickly found that human behavior is complex because humans themselves are complex, so there was no set model that could accurately predict behavior based on factors. As I dove deeper into the field I found my original question taking a shift into a more specific behavior exhibited by some individuals, crime.

I was curious to learn more about how individuals are capable of committing and justifying crimes and whether there are any noticeable predictors that can be identified beforehand to prevent crime. With so many questions and theories, I decided that I wanted to find answers at Swarthmore. I went to my advisor and expressed my curiosity and she suggested that I create my own major.

I had only ever heard of students creating a major on rare occasions. With 40 possible majors that students can pursue, most students easily find what they are passionate about. I was unsure where to even start looking or who to ask for information. Thankfully Swarthmore offered me all the resources I needed and ensured that I was satisfied with the final result. I got to choose many different interdisciplinary courses that interested me and provided me insight into the criminology field. I successfully managed to create a criminology major at Swarthmore and I am so excited to continue learning and exploring my passions.