{"id":74305,"date":"2024-02-09T12:32:56","date_gmt":"2024-02-09T19:32:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/?p=74305"},"modified":"2024-02-09T12:32:56","modified_gmt":"2024-02-09T19:32:56","slug":"sait-open-studies-allows-flexibility-and-exploration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/2024\/02\/09\/sait-open-studies-allows-flexibility-and-exploration\/","title":{"rendered":"SAIT open studies allows flexibility and exploration"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The <\/b>Open Studies Program at SAIT allows students to proceed with their post-secondary education while still trying to decide their major, says academic chair Sandie Cheney. (Photo by Daniel Janson\/The Press)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

T<\/span>he open studies program<\/a> at SAIT allows students to take introductory courses in a variety of programs, allowing prospective students to test out their major before committing to a definite path.<\/p>\n

Going to university or college is often what young adults choose to pursue after high school, but some students struggle when it comes to picking a major.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe do entrance surveys at the beginning of every semester, and students will tell us that they know they want to go to school and they want to come to SAIT, but they don’t know what program they want to go into,\u201d says Sandie Cheney, academic chair of the open studies program. \u201cInstead of having to make that big decision right away, they can just ease into taking a few interest courses.<\/p>\n

“They may want to be a paramedic, but they don’t know for sure. So they can take the medical terminology course and then they can apply to the program.\u201d<\/p>\n

Students across different programs at SAIT pick their majors for a variety of reasons.<\/p>\n

\u201cI never really had an interest in computers,” says Cyril Amat, an information technology services student. \u201cBut my friend\u2019s doing it so he’s like, `why not try it?’<\/p>\n

“I heard it makes good money, so that\u2019s why I\u2019m doing it.\u201d<\/p>\n

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IT Services:<\/strong>\u00a0Cyril Amat on his way to class at SAIT on January 31, 2024. (Photo by Daniel Janson\/The Press)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

For some students, their choice of major is\u00a0 based more on logic than love.<\/p>\n

\u201cI’ve been passionate about electricity since I was a kid and it was a no-brainer,\u201d says Nizar Solo, an electrical engineering student. \u201cIt would have been great if I could have found a way to get into music though with something media-related, since I\u2019ve been making music my whole life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although students in open studies at SAIT can\u2019t get a credential through the program, credits\u00a0 may be transferred to other programs that offer the same courses.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe whole idea is there’s four groups of students that take open studies,\u201d says Cheney. \u201cOne has been waitlisted or they’ve been declined from a program, but they still want to go to school. There’s some students whose programs start in the fall, but they want to get ahead, so they take open studies so they can knock off a few courses in their program.<\/p>\n

“Then other students are unsuccessful in courses in their programs so they have to retake the courses through open studies. Then there’s those students who are in professional designations and the government has said they have to be in a program.\u201d<\/p>\n

The open studies program also offers students to take asynchronous classes at their own pace while focusing on other pursuits or perhaps living outside Calgary.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe also have athletes who need to maintain their athletic status but they don’t want to take evening courses,” Cheney said. “They’re training in the evening, so we set up daytime courses.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Petroleum Engineering:\u00a0<\/strong>Krishi Yadav studies in the Stan Grad building at SAIT.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Open Studies Program at SAIT allows students to take introductory courses in a variety of programs, allowing prospective students ideas of which major they want to take at SAIT. [ READ MORE ]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":871,"featured_media":74366,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_ef_editorial_meta_text_assignment-slug":"S2 SAIT Open Studies DJ","footnotes":""},"categories":[1580,2,1587],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-74305","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-post-secondary","8":"category-campus-2","9":"category-sait-learning"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74305","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/871"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=74305"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74305\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":74689,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74305\/revisions\/74689"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/74366"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74305"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74305"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74305"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}