�����������

Priyanka Rajapatirana ’27 serves on the E-Board of Afreen: the Bi-Co South Asian Fusion Dance Group, is an active member of �����������’s C.A.R.L.A. (Coalition for Anti-Racist Literacy), and is an undergraduate research fellow through the Mellon Mays Fellowship. In a new Major Moment, she tells us about the academic path that led her to an anthropology major and a museum studies minor.

Which courses helped shape your academic path? 

I discovered the anthropology major in the fall of my sophomore year, when I took “Intro to Cultural Anthropology” on a whim. I had been recommended this course by a friend and ended up loving it. The following semester, I took “Intro to Biological and Archeological Anthropology”, which confirmed that I really loved Anthropology and wanted to pursue it during my time at �����������. As for my museum studies minor, I came to ����������� with the idea of pursuing it, but I still took plenty of time to explore and consider other minors before I decided on museum studies.  

"I am super grateful that ����������� lets you wait until the spring semester sophomore year to declare your major." 

Tell us about a class that sparked your curiosity.

My favorite class that I have taken for my major was: “The Living Primate: Biology, Bones, and Behavior”. This class was all about primates, and was taught by a visiting professor, Dr. Alexandra Kralick, who is a primatologist. It was a super interesting and engaging class. One of my favorite memories was when we took a field trip to the Philadelphia Zoo to observe the primates. We got to apply everything we had learned throughout the semester to real primates and experience a real-life application of our coursework.  

Tell us about a time you were able to put learning into action. 

Many of my classes have included field trips, which are always super fun ways to learn. In my "Museum Studies: History, Theory, Practice” class, we took multiple field trips into Philadelphia museums to meet with museum professionals across a variety of fields. It was super exciting to learn about the different types of museum professions and get hands-on experience with the topics we studied on our class. Throughout the semester my class visited the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Franklin Institute, and the Penn Museum. We met with people who worked in curation, education, and administration of these very different institutions. Not only was this experience super helpful for the class, but it also helped give me some ideas for future careers I may be interested in pursuing.  

What advice would you give to a first year in the process of declaring a major(s)? 

For a first year in the process of declaring a major, my main piece of advice would be: Try everything! You will have plenty of time to explore, and ����������� does a great job of making room for you to safely explore. You might find a love for something that you never expected to find! There’s no need to stress about declaring or being undecided, take the time to enjoy your first-year experience, try new classes, and get used to college courses.