Nicaela Rose

Iowa State University

General Education Reflection

During my time at Iowa State University, my goal was to further my knowledge and gain
experience in all aspects as an engineer that will help me be successful in my future career. In
order to do this, I needed to take courses that are not STEM. Taking general education courses
allows students to gain new perspectives outside of their major. They put in perspective on what
we are solving as an engineer and the significance of the problem and its solution based on the
context. These courses helped me see different point of views that molded my perspective on
how other individuals view problems. The general education courses demonstrated this by not
only different types of issues and topics in the world but by also experience with working with
diverse students and professors whose perspective I would most likely not run into in my majors
core courses. The general education courses I have taken at Iowa State University impacted my
problem-solving methods and how I approach and view them.

Most of the general education courses I took were about subjects that are relative in the
world. I took ANTHR 230 as one of my first general education courses and this course was about
understanding key global issues in the contemporary world. It focused on social relations,
cultural practices and political-economic linkages among Africa, America, Asia, Europe, and the
Pacific. This course had me solve problems not only as an engineer but also come up with
solutions on a global issue which is completely different compared to my core classes. Obviously
problem solving in this class does not require equations, numbers, etc., but I found myself
thinking more in depth that I usually do compared to solving a coding problem. Being able to
have the outside knowledge of the world and its global issues would improve my perspective
when solving problems as an engineer because I now understand that a small event can have a
global impact.

Another general education course I took at Iowa State University was CJ ST 240. I have
always been interested in the criminal justice system and I thought this course would benefit me
to gain more knowledge in it since I was and still am interested in specializing in digital
forensics. This course was just an introduction to the United States Criminal Justice System
which provides a systematic overview of law, police organization and behvaior, prosecution and
defense, sentencing, the judiciary, community corrections, penology, and capital punishment. It
also demonstrated the role of discretion and sociological influences of age, race, gender, and
social class. This course had me solve problems in terms of the criminal justice system and gain
further knowledge in this field which can help with my goal of specializing in digital forensics.
This is just another course that gave me a different perspective in the world today.
 PHIL 310 is another general education course I decided to take. From what I remember,
during this semester I did not have that many 300+ credit general education courses that I can
choose from in order to fit my schedule and so I took PHIL 310 out of convenience. Courses that
are similar to this has never been my strengh nor really interested me. I have always despised
English courses and writing papers and this course was just that. This course was about Ancient
Philosophy where we focused on the pre-Socratics, Plato, and Aristotle. We would have
discussions and papers due that focuses on the concerns of being, knowledge, language, and the
good life are treated in depth. Being and engineer, I like straight forward answers and solutions.
However, in this class there really is not a right answer because it is all about sharing individuals
view and takeaway on various topics. With “solutions” being words rather than computations,
this was challenging because it forced me to answer questions with words. This course really
helped me gain experience in analyzing my thoughts into words and also listen to others
perspectives which will benefit me as an engineer in my future career.

The last general education course I took was ANTHR 354. I was overall satisfied with the
past Anthropology course I took in the past so I thought I should take another one for my 300+
credit general education course. I remember this was the most impactful courses I have taken
during my time at Iowa State University. This course was about War and the Politics of
Humanitarianism. We discussed humanitarianism as a system of thought and a system of
intervention in conflict and post-conflict situations. We also looked into the role of humanitarian
organizations and actors in addressing human suffering caused by conflict of war. I did not know
that we really were going to go in so much depth in human suffering from real world events and
this class really hooked me in emotionally. This class was also very different from engineering
core courses because we took the time discussing and writing papers based on our opinion and
thoughts in a real world problem rather than solving an equation. Again, taking this class really
benefited me by getting used to sharing my thoughts not only in paper but to others especially on
a very sensitive topic as this one.

I always want to further my learning and knowledge as much as I can as an engineer and
also as a person. I want to learn more about the world around me and solve various types of
complex problems. In order to solve complex problems efficiently, engineers need to know all
the context to the problem and also its environment to put into perspective the various problems
they are attempting to solve. Overall, I learned that in order to be successful in our field, we must
be able to understand why the problem exists and how people view it based on the societal,
economic, and global context. All the general education courses I took at Iowa State University
taught me how to do just that and use it in my career as an engineer that no other STEM courses
could have done.