What Can Be Learned From a Liberal Studies Course

¶ … intended to earn a Bachelor's degree in Biology with a Minor in Psychology. However, soon after I began, my mother was diagnosed with cancer and I was greatly distracted by this. My grades suffered as I attempted to deal with my coursework and my family issues.

Towards the end, I felt I could no longer sustain my commitment to a degree in Biology, so I decided that in order to attain my goal of simply graduating with a 4-year degree I should switch to Liberal Studies, as I already had a wide array of credits under my belt that would count towards this goal. Switching my focus allowed me to relieve some of my university stress and devote more of my time to my mother's needs.

It also exposed me to a lot of interesting classes that I otherwise might never have discovered. Below is a list of the courses I took for the Liberal Studies major: ENC 1101 / ENG 101 (COMPOSITION) ENC 1102 / ENG 102 (COMPOSITION & LITERATURE) UNI 101 (UNIVERSITY PREPARATION)* ENG-331 INTRODUCTION TO SHAKESPEARE 13/FL HUM-101 AN INTRO TO THE HUMANITIES. 12/SP MAT-181 PRE-CALCULUS ALGEBRA CHE-100 INTRODUCTION TO CHEMISTRY PSY-201 INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY 11/FL HIS-201 UNITED STATES HISTORY I...

12/FL HIS-108 THE ATLANTIC WORLD 16/SP PHI-353C BIOMEDICAL ETHICS 14/FL STM-392D RELIGION IN AMERICA 14/FL STM-150 INTRO TO RELIGIOUS STUDIES. 12/S1 PSY-440C ABNORMAL PSYCHOLOGY 13/FL PHI-150D INTRO: PHILOSOPHY 12/SP LST-401 SENIOR COLLOQUIUM I 16/A2 PSY-410 ADULT DEVELOPMENT & AGING.

16/SP STM-392D RELIGION IN AMERICA 14/FL PHI-353C BIOMEDICAL ETHICS 14/FL ENG-331 INTRODUCTION TO SHAKESPEARE 13/FL BIO-345L PHYSIOLOGY LAB 13/SP PSY-300 CHILD PSYCHOLOGY 13/SP PSY-440C ABNORMAL PSYCHOLOGY 13/FL BIO-325L MICROBIOLOGY LAB 13/FL BIO-341L GENETICS LAB 14/SP BIO-345 PHYSIOLOGY 14/SP What I really liked about taking all these different courses was that each contributed in some way to my intellectual development and my understanding of how the world works. For instance, my Introduction to Philosophy course with Dr.

Ferrero allowed me the opportunity to travel to Tennessee and contribute to a sustainable community, where I was able to see how people live without having anything: from the ground up, they built their lives and showed a tremendous amount of innovation and care for one another. It was truly a life-changing experience that reshaped the way I think about myself and the world in which I live. I felt like I was being challenged to do something great and significant like these people, something beyond the status quo.

Other classes gave me a similar experience, though in different ways. For example, my United States History course contributed to my knowledge of American history, which really impressed on me the way that life was in the early days of the country's founding. I could not help but think how things have greatly changed and why. Sometimes I wondered to myself if things were getting better or worse, or if they were running in a kind of cyclical fashion.

My Intro to Religious Studies course also made me wonder about the world: there were so many different interpretations about the spiritual life and different ways that cultures and religions taught. My knowledge of religion was somewhat deepened by this class and I found myself wanting to talk to others about some of the more interesting parts of various religions so that I could hear their thoughts and share my own. This course was complemented by the Religion in America course which interested me even more.

I had always wondered about the different religions in America and where they came from and how they spread. Mormonism for example was one that I had always heard of but never understood. This class was very interesting because it opened my eyes about how religions develop and how they really started in the U.S. and the role that they continue to play in the nation's culture. My Introduction to Shakespeare class was another interesting contribution to my knowledge of English literature.

I had always heard of Shakespeare and had known of a few of his plays, but getting to engage with them directly was an experience that I will not forget. Shakespeare had some very deep and emotionally and intellectually stirring passages that really made me pause and contemplate my own life from a new perspective. It was the same.