General Education Reflection

Adam Runde
In my time here at Iowa State I have come to appreciate the value of enrolling in courses
outside engineering and my intended career path in general. These classes make students more
well rounded and marketable as individuals. Although my general education classes may not
have given me my technical skills that I will use in my future career. I can attribute the honing of
some of my soft skills such as formal debate, discussions, and essay writing to some of these
classes.
The first course that I want to highlight is Russian 375. This classes material
encompasses the history of modern Russia from the late 1800s to the present day. The content
covers Russian national and international politics from economics to foreign affairs. Taking this
class was one of the first times I got to see how people from the other side of the globe live
their lives as well as draw similarities and differences in those topics. Opening up one’s eyes to
what happens politically in another region of the world really helps to understand how people
from Russia come to be who they are. This aspect will be helpful in practicing engineering
because understanding where different cultures stem from is one of the first steps forward for
diversity and equitable inclusion in the modern workplace.
Another next general education class I took is AMD 366x. This class covered the history
of menswear. This course made me dive deep in the psychology of fashion and how society can
manipulate how the people of different time periods dressed. Not only did this class look at
fashion and how different pressures would affect every day dress. but we used fashion as a lens
to see what was happening in society through a broader scope. Some of the topics included
renaissance, Industrial Revolution, and several different social shifts through the decades of the
late 20th century. In this course I was able to think critically about how fashion choices were
related to the social events happening during different periods in time this elevated my writing
skills by ensuring I was precise with the facts to accurately represent what societal pressures
could have affected menswear in history. The writing and critical discussion skills I gained from
this class will be of great benefit in practice because being able to effectively articulate your
skills and products through multiple means is of high importance in engineering consulting.
My last general education class that I want to reflect on is Music 102. The majority of
the content in this class was used to expose students to music of different cultures that we may
or may not have ever heard. This class was another that really let me see into different societies
and cultures by analyzing lyrical melodies and well as different musical elements such as
harmony and tempo. By using the skills that made me succeed in this class such as analyzation
of fine details in music, I will be able to translate these skills to engineering problems. When
looking into a problem I will be able to consider all the aspects in a finer detail to find the best
and most efficient solution
 During my time at Iowa State, I was able to find value in every class and use all the skills
that I have acquired to make me a more well-rounded individual. Taking courses that are
outside of the scope of one’s major is an important part to exploring one’s interests as well as
finding practical technical and soft skills that may have gone under-developed or unused
entirely.