LIBERAL ARTS

Rachael
Abstract
Bryant
Liberal arts not as useless as it seems it has more use now more than ever. It is highly being
sought out by employers and has long term benefits. A liberal arts degree is key for up and
coming business owners.

The Degree That is Actually Your Key to Success

 “For some students, especially in the sciences, the knowledge gained in college may be

directly relevant to graduate study. For almost all students, a liberal arts education works in

subtle ways to create a web of knowledge that will illumine problems and enlighten judgment on

innumerable occasions in later life.” This was said by Derek Bok. The thought of getting a liberal

arts degree probably never crossed your mind as a plausible option. However, you should think

twice about it because a liberal arts degree has a variety of benefits that it can provide you in the

long run. Also, another reason to think about it is because it is highly sought out by employers,

and it is very useful especially if you want to start your own business.

“The most important element of a liberal arts education is that it isn't concentrated on

technical development but instead on a general education (from the Greek artes liberales) over

several disciplines ranging from math and geometry to logic and rhetoric in order to foster

freethinking in citizens who can engage purposefully and thoughtfully in public engagement and

decision-making.” The reason for liberal arts education not being highly favored was the result of

many factors such as “The economic downturn which began in the fall of 2008, the election of

economically and socially conservative governors and legislative majorities in a number of states

who have dramatically cut funds for state colleges and universities.” (Jay, 2015)

In the Grand Rapids Business Journal Lou Glazer states that “Although liberal arts

majors start slow, they gradually catch up to their peers in STEM fields. This is by design. A

liberal arts education fosters valuable ‘soft skills’ like problem-solving, critical thinking and

adaptability. Such skills are hard to quantify, and they don’t create clean pathways to high-paying

first jobs. But it is they have long-run value in a wide variety of careers.” Which they want to

emphasize that you should take liberal arts classes along with STEM classes. This view is also

supported in an article posted by Harvard Business Review which states that, “Consistent with
findings from six earlier surveys commissioned by AAC&U as part of its ongoing Liberal

Education and America’s Promise (LEAP) initiative, employers overwhelmingly endorse

broad learning and cross-cutting skills as the best preparation for long-term career success. The

college learning outcomes they rate as most important are oral communication, critical thinking,

ethical judgment, working effectively in teams, written communication, and the real-world

application of skills and knowledge.”

In the article “Yes, Employers Do Value Liberal Arts Degrees” by Lynn Pasquerella. The

author states that, “A liberal education for the 21st century mandates learning opportunities that

engage every student in solving unscripted, real-world problems across all types of institutions,

within the context of the workforce. Business executives and hiring managers find ePortfolios

containing artifacts of demonstrable skills more helpful than college transcripts and resumes

alone when evaluating and hiring recent graduates.” Paul Jay express his opinion regarding how

sought out liberal arts degrees are by employers in his article “Tradition, Innovation, and the

Value of the Liberal Arts”. In his article he states that, “Anders reports that “throughout the major

US. tech hubs, whether Silicon Valley or Seattle, Boston or Austin, Tex., software companies are

discovering that liberal arts thinking makes them stronger.” A similar article from last August on

the website Fast Company caught my eye. It’s by Elizabeth Segran and it’s entitled “Why Top

Tech CEOS Want Employees with Liberal Arts Degrees.” Segran writes that “while the tech

boom is partly responsible for the spike in students majoring in science, technology, engineering

and math, many tech CEOs still believe employees trained in the liberal arts add value to their

companies.” She cites as an example Steve Yi, CEO of the web advertising platform

MediaAlpha, who, according to her report, believes “that the liberal arts train students to thrive

in subjectivity and ambiguity, a necessary skill in the tech world where few things are black and
white. “‘In the dynamic environment of the technology sector,’ he’s quoted as saying, “there is

not typically one right answer when you make decisions’ . . . ‘there are just different shades of

how correct you might be.’"

Liberal arts can even help you start and maintain a business which is demonstrated in

Chris Allison’s article “A Liberal Arts Approach to Business: Beating the Competition Through

Constant Adaptation” “Where the authors father asked him to take over his telecom equipment

business and at that point in time the author had no formal business training. So, when he was

given this problem, he went to the library and checked out books on management, finance,

accounting, electrical engineering, manufacturing, and telecom trade rags and read.” (Allison,

2019). “In addition, a 2017 New York Times essay argued that liberal arts colleges "are the most

appropriate institutions for training future business leaders.” When stating how the author

prepared for business pitches, he stated the liberal arts classes he had taken in college that gave

him the tool and experience necessary to be successful. “How did I prepare for these pitches? I

drew, for one, on my undergraduate film course. I remembered how one of my English

professors, Lloyd Michaels, showed that effective dramatization and visualization were some of

the most powerful forms of communication. I also remembered how my creative writing

professor, Alfred Kern, taught me to weave a narrative that people--whether lovers of literature

or customers, investors, suppliers, or employees--could embrace. Kern showed me that great

writing is not a gift but a skill that needs to be doggedly practiced. He taught me perseverance--

invaluable, since building a business is a race for the steady more than the swift. Another lesson

that served me in my business endeavors was history professor Jay Luvaas's admonishment that,

as Shakespeare wrote, the "past is prologue" and that many ways exist for exploring the nature of

history. This led me to study past economic trends in order to separate the wheat from the chaff
in the modern business problems I face daily. I learned, too, the importance of applying lessons

from philosophy and ethics courses. Aristotle, Plato, Thomas Aquinas, and others set moral

principles to govern human behavior. Those principles also make good business sense and should

be part of every future CEO's business education. For example, on more than one occasion, my

company chose to be up-front about a defective batch of our product and eat the cost of replacing

it. We ended up forging even stronger relationships with our customers. In another example of an

ethical decision that turned out to be a wise financial move, at the end of 1999, we turned down a

merger transaction with a much larger company. Not only did we realize that the valuation did a

disservice to our shareholders, but we also saw that the incoming owners sought to displace some

of our best managers. Six months later, our market capitalization soared to $2 billion.” (Allison,

2019)

In conclusion, A liberal arts degree does take a while to show its worth, but it is definitely

worth its return on investment. For those who are looking to start their own business and don’t

know where to start, try getting a liberal arts degree, its essential for any up-and-coming business

manager. And it’s in high demand from employers. So why not go with the liberal arts degree

especially if you’re considering continuing into business.

 References

Allison. (2019). A Liberal Arts Approach to Business: Beating the competition through

constant adaptation. Liberal Education, 105(3-4), 12–17.

Bok, Derek. https://www.azquotes.com/quotes/topics/liberal-arts.html

Glazer, L. (2019). There’s nothing useless about liberal arts degrees. Grand Rapids Business

Journal, 37(45), 12–12. https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?

direct=true&AuthType=shib&db=bwh&AN=139778667&site=ehost-live&custid=cfcc

Jay, P. (2015). Tradition, innovation, and the value of the Liberal Arts. Loyola eCommons.

https://ecommons.luc.edu/english_facpubs/89/

Pasquerella, L. (2019, September 19). Yes, employers do value liberal arts degrees. Harvard

Business Review. https://hbr.org/2019/09/yes-employers-do-value-liberal-arts-degrees