USC
If you could develop your own college curriculum based on the USC classes and subjects that most appeal to you, what types of courses would you include?
For students passionately interested in social issues such as myself, I would like to introduce a new component to the USC course offerings -- creating entire semester-long blocks of courses devoted to a single social issue. These block unit would be interdisciplinary and designed to break down artificial disciplinary constructs that prevent students from studying current events in a holistic manner.
For example, a unit on AIDS would be composed of several courses. One course would study the disease from a biological perspective. Another course would study its impact upon American society and sexual practices. A third would examine the international and political ramifications of disease treatment and global pandemics, and the way the media has treated AIDS. As well as requiring papers, essays, and assignments for these different courses, the interdisciplinary course block would also cumulate in a final project, which might involve designing an AIDS education plan for a local high school, designing a fundraising event for AIDS-afflicted people in Africa, or creating a more effective way for a local clinic to engage in outreach efforts to educate and treat people with AIDS and HIV.
This course would be effective because it would expand the horizons of students in the community. It is easy to become too comfortable with the individuals in one's major, but this would encourage students with majors in the sciences, humanities, and social sciences to come together and learn from one another. Also, it would help them find ways to practically apply what they learned in the classroom to the real world. It would also generate more positive feelings about the school in the local community. AIDS of course, is only one example -- other issues that could be studied from a multidisciplinary perspective include poverty, health care, teen pregnancy, or education.
