General Education Reflection

In my college experience, I never thought that my general education classes would make a big

impact on how I think or change my perspective and help me grow as a person. However, they

helped me understand my purpose and the goals I want to accomplish in the future. Two classes

in particular helped me gain a better understanding of not only myself but what I really want to

do once I graduate and start my career as an engineer.

One of the general education classes I took was LD ST 322, Leadership Styles and Strategies in a

Diverse Society. This class covered different types of leadership styles as well as learning and

defining what our own leadership styles were. On top of that, it also covered the different kinds

of leadership over the years and how that changes how we as a society sees leaders. I took this

class as a sophomore, it was really helpful in helping me gain a better understanding of

leadership and how it’s not necessarily all the same, since everyone can have different

perspectives and definition of what they define as a leader. This was an impactful class not only

because of what I learned about leadership but also about myself. Some of the activities we did

in this class helped me reflect and understand how I lead and how I want to improve and lead in

the future. It provided different perspectives, such as intersectionality of identities and how our

identities can help shape us as leaders. This class had helped me in my own leadership when I

took on the role of President in my sorority. It had helped me gain a better understanding of

others’ perspectives and what my members expect of me as their leader. Through these

experiences, it has also helped me during my internship when working with my co-workers and

how to work together as a team and communicate with each other effectively.

Another class that had also helped me was HD FS 276, Human Sexuality. Before taking this

class, I had not known much about what this class would entail and how this would help me in

the future. In this class we talked about how society perceived gender and sexual orientation over
time, what was considered “normal” and what was not. It was a very knowledgeable class, I

learned so much about the diversity of genders and sexual orientation. As well as the prejudices

society had placed on both women and men to the society we have today. This class had helped

me understand better about the experiences people go through when what they feel is normal is

not accepted in society.

These classes have both help me be more aware of how diverse we are as individuals and instead

of creating prejudices to fit as what a majority wants as “normal”, that instead we should be

understanding of our individualities and how those individual characteristics we all have should

be respected and acknowledged. What I have learned from these classes will be beneficial when I

start working at Northrop Grumman full time starting in Summer of 2021. Before taking these

two classes I thought I was open minded, but I truly was not. I still think even now I still have a

lot to work on with myself in letting go of certain biases and prejudices I have of others so that I

can better myself. I think through this, I have learned that most people do not like change, and

even if change is necessary, most would rather stay in comfort. I’m hoping that just like how I

went out of my comfort zone with these classes, that as an engineer, I can go out of my comfort

zone and see multiple perspectives so that when I work on designing potential solutions, I can

look from all possibilities even ones that may seem impossible.