Madison Machen came on her first UL Lafayette campus tour as a junior in high school.
“I immediately knew that UL Lafayette was where I belonged,” she said. “I was really impressed with the wide variety of academics that the University offered, and I thought the campus was beautiful.”
After her first semester as a biology major, Madison realized it wasn’t a perfect fit. After looking through the programs offered, she decided on an anthropology major.
“I chose to study anthropology because it is the perfect blend of the biological and social sciences,” she said. “Studying anthropology gives me the opportunity to go into a wide array of fields after I graduate and to find a profession that I really love."
The anthropology major paired perfectly with her new minor: criminal justice forensics.
“I chose a minor in criminal justice forensics because it is based in the biological sciences and is something that I have found myself being interested in as I have gotten older,” she said.
“You see so many shows like CSI and Bones on TV, and you never think that you can pursue a career like that in real life,” she said. “The criminal justice forensics minor is exactly that!”
When she graduates, Madison is hoping to get a job with the FBI or a state crime laboratory where she can apply the things she’s learned in her classes. Until then, she is enjoying her time here with the community and people on campus.
“The University truly has felt like home in the huge transitional period in my life from high school to college,” she said. “It is also helpful that UL Lafayette does not have a large population of students, so in most classes, you have the opportunity to have one-on-one interactions with your professor and have them remember your name.
“The Department of Sociology, Anthropology, and Child & Family Studies has truly great professors, and I have yet to have a professor within the department that was not really good at what they do,” she said. “It makes my experience so much easier knowing that I will be supported in each of my classes by the professors teaching them.”
