This year, Covenant College announced the addition of three new majors: Christian ministry, health sciences and worship leadership. These new offerings sparked interest in new students and current students alike since they have allowed these students to pursue majors that better suit their interests.
Kate Veerman ’28, who was previously a biology major, explains that health sciences “allows for flexibility for each individual student and the area of health care that they specifically want to go into.” She points out that the major grants students the freedom to take classes that will benefit them in the long run and to skip classes that will not.
Many freshmen have also benefited from the addition of the health sciences program. In fact, the majority of the students studying health sciences are freshmen. “The nice thing about a health sciences major is that you can go a lot of different directions … I’m not put in a box,” Anna Everett ’29 comments.
Another new Covenant major is worship leadership. This major trains students to lead worship both skillfully and faithfully. Karis Tilden ’29 explains the benefits of studying worship leadership, expressing that since this major requires theology classes, it enables worship leaders to “know what they’re doing and understand on a deep level,” which “will help an environment of worship to be fostered.”
Tilden appreciates how, in worship leadership, Covenant “flawlessly combines music and theological studies.” She also acknowledges that the major “can be used for many … things.”
Nathan Randall ’28 considered worship leadership but ultimately decided not to pursue it. He expresses his disappointment with some of the aspects of the major, saying that “the major changed from what I thought it was going to be.”
“I wasn’t really happy with some of the courses that were added and what was not included,” Randall says. “All the hours … went up from what I initially thought it was going to be.”
Although Randall decided to pursue another major, he also recognizes that there is room for growth for the new majors. “I feel like there is some revision … new majors are going to get revision … It’s going to change,” he concludes. Randall, like many others, knows that the majors will be refined to produce an outcome that allows students to better serve God through their studies.