Through my time at Iowa State, I have had the opportunity to take multiple general

education courses. While these courses may not all have applied directly to my study of electrical
engineering, they have helped set a fundamental base for my education and have also expanded
my knowledge into previously unexplored areas. These general education courses have helped
me to improve my communication skills, gain a base understanding of global economic
circumstances, and learn about the history of human society.
Many of the courses I have taken outside my major were courses within the English
department. I took these courses to help me gain literacy skills and learn how language can be
used to clearly convey your message. The first course I took was English 250, a course in oral,
written, visual, and electronic composition. This course focused on how to critically read the text
and then emphasize our ideas in a rhetorical or persuasive analysis. After this course, I was able
to take more from the text than just information and begin to discover the hidden meanings and
ideas that the authors intended the reader to receive. I also learned different methods on how I
too can organize my writing to make it more clear and direct the reader to the points I am trying
to make. While I may not be writing a rhetorical analysis as an engineer, this class has helped me
to be more critical about my reading and to clearly portray my ideas.
I wanted to build off this course and decided to take the course Speech Communication:
America Speaks. In this course, we dove into historical speeches within their political and
cultural context. While we also talked about the meaning behind the literary devices that the
speaker used, we also researched the current events in America at the time of the speech. After a
first read, I would have a certain idea of what the speaker meant by the text. However, when I
researched the era of the speech or listened to it live, I was surprised at how most of the time the
meaning would be different that my first thought. It taught me that often I need to take the whole
picture into consideration to fully empathize and connect with a person’s intent. This can be
applied to almost any social setting and helps me to be mindful of other factors when
communicating with others.
Another area of study that I pursued was Macro Economics. When I first began this
course, I was just surprised at the simplicity of the math compared to the other engineering
courses that I was taking. As I got further into the course, I began to realize that it wasn’t the
math that is the focus, but how we are using this math to observe social and economic changes
on a large scale. I was introduced to topics such as “scarcity” and “supply and demand”. While
none of the topics are too complex to grasp, I really began to see the importance of economics in
the world. I saw that these “easy” topics are what large businesses use to make decisions and
affect everyone’s daily lives. I began to see that although engineering was my main interest,
knowledge from every field can help me thrive in the workplace.
I also took the pleasure of taking some courses just for pure enjoyment. One of these
courses was Hospitality Management: Wine & Spirits. When I found out that I could take this
course to satisfy a 300-level Gen Ed requirement, I was one of the first to sign up. While I admit
I did not know much about the course other than I got to taste test wines from across the world
(what college students would not jump at this opportunity), I have learned a lot about the process
of making wine and the history of wine drinking. I have learned skills on how to properly taste
wine, which areas produce what kind of wines, and also how the social norms have changed
around wine drinking over the years. The instructor taught about how these skills are important
to any person in the industry since it is important to wine and dine our customers. While this is
true, I took particular interest in how even some of the simplest things like drinking a glass of
wine have an art and craft to them. It helped me appreciate much more the time and effort that
people have put into their work to help make the everyday person’s life more enjoyable and have
a fun time doing it.
The classes I took to fulfill my general education requirements at Iowa State were very
diverse and all had their own lessons that came with them. I was introduced to new ways to
communicate and explain my thinking to others. I also saw how the simplest of topics can
influence events on as large as a world scale. Moreover, I found classes that I could take for pure
entertainment to break up the stressful class load and learn how to enjoy some of the simple
pleasures of life. These courses were more beneficial than I could have hoped and I am glad to
have taken them.