Meet Adelyn Chan! A fifth year sociology major, her passion for what she does is infectious.
When talking about how she came to choose sociology as her major Adelyn admits that she didn’t even know what it was until her first class in second year. In search of an elective in second year Adelyn decided to take a sociology 100A. Her professor, Bruce Ravelli, was one of the most passionate and inspiring people she had ever met. Adelyn remembers leaving that class every day feeling like her whole world had been turned upside down. It wasn’t until Adelyn was in the middle of writing a paper about the disproportionate amount of black males in American prisons that she recognized sociology was her passion. She recalls running to her roommates every time she found a new piece of information or a new fact. At that moment she realized that for her sociology wasn’t school, work and studying, but something that she was truly interested in doing.
For her sociology is all about learning to think critically and learning to look and analyze the world around you. She jokingly said that for her “the longer you take sociology the more you realize you don’t know anything.” But in all seriousness, she does believe that sociology is extremely important in this age of constant information overload. Adelyn says that she thinks its amazing that information can be accessed so easily but we need to be careful when assessing what is fact versus fiction.
This year Adelyn is the social event coordinator for the bureau of sociology students (BOSS). She recently put on the event sweater weather that featured live bands at Felicitas. The event raised money so that BOSS can continue to put on monthly dinners for the youth shelter Out of the Rain. She says it was a huge success and that they raised enough money to continue the dinners for the next year.
Adelyn is set to graduate in June, and when she reflects back on her years at Uvic, she cites the friendships that she has made as the most memorable part of her post secondary education. She says that the friends she made in her years at Uric have helped her grow personally and influenced who she is today. Adelyn also had the opportunity to go on exchange in the second semester of her fourth year and highly recommends that everyone try a semester abroad. She says that it really allows you to explore a different culture and take different classes that Uvic doesn’t offer. And of course Adelyn recommends that everyone take a sociology class, even if its just 100A. Critical thinking is a skill everyone should learn at some point in their life.