Bridging Science and Creativity: AD+PR Double Major Discovers Unexpected Opportunities
How Yuqing Wang Balances Lab Work, Ad Campaigns and Extracurriculars
By: Daniela Del Castillo
Double majoring allows many students to explore subjects that interest them, even if they are drastically different. For sophomore, Yuqing Wang, she found that double majoring in biomedical laboratory sciences and advertising creative helped her pursue a career in STEM while also learning more about something she loves.
Creative Breaks & New Career Paths
Wang chose biomedical laboratory sciences because she enjoyed the experimental side of STEM. She says her major in advertising creative is more hands-on. She says she can freely express her ideas and finds solace in her advertising creative work while the workload from biomedical laboratory sciences is intense.
“I use my advertising class assignments as a little break from my biomedical class assignments because they calm me down,” said Wang. “Drawing and thinking about creative ideas are kind of like hobbies for me in my free time, so I guess you could say I put my free time toward using those skills for an advertising assignment.”
There are also career intersections between biomedical laboratory sciences and advertising creative that Wang did not see until she spoke with her advisor.
“It’s interesting because I talked to my advisor, and she told me that I could do something related to design for a laboratory,” said Wang. “It opens a lot more opportunities for me than I realized.”
Finding Time for All
Balancing two contrasting majors on top of life and extracurriculars may be challenging for many students, but Wang says she can handle it all. During her freshman year, she discovered CTRL+A, an Asian-interest dance club at MSU. She joined because she did K-pop covers in high school and wanted to keep dancing in college.
Now, she is the performance chair for CTRL+A, where she is responsible for reaching out to dancers, organizing their choreographers’ materials, and finding new performance opportunities. She finds that her advertising creative work has helped her develop her problem-solving skills.
“We had this lesson where we had to think about the bad sides of our projects; what the disadvantages were and how we could fix it,” said Wang. “This helped me when there’s a performance problem or when I’m talking to someone who is having an issue with another person, it helps me identify the problem and what possible solutions could be.”
Work Hard, Stay Positive
Wang knows juggling two contrasting fields in school alongside life and extracurriculars may be demanding. However, she has some advice for students wanting to pursue a double major while balancing everything else:
“Be ready to put in double the number of hours that other students are putting in, especially while trying to balance an extracurricular on top of it all,” said Wang. “Having a hopeful mindset and being ready to work through those few years is going to be important. Don’t stress yourself out and think positively.”