Having a college minor always seemed a little silly to me. It was like officially declaring a hobby — here’s something I’m interested in only enough to take six classes in it. But a just-announced program at Johns Hopkins may have changed my mind.
Because now you can minor in space. Yes, space. Not physics, or Earth and planetary sciences, or engineering, or astrophysics, or whatever. Space! More broadly, “space science and engineering.” Space-minors will have to take an introductory course, plus four extra classes that fit around a particular theme. (The program’s website offers a few awesome-sounding ideas: exoplanets! exosolar biology! spacecraft design!) To cap things off, students will find an internship that allows them some hands-on practice with all their cool new space knowledge.
Hopkins students have reacted to the new minor with predictable, endearing, nerdy enthusiasm. “Dinosaurs and space are my two passions,” said Hopkins sophomore Jessica Noviello, who gets to take dinosaur classes as part of her Earth and planetary sciences major. Now that she can be a space minor, she is, as she says, “living the dream.”
