General Education Reflection

During my college career, I’ve learned more than I thought I could about engineering and
technology. However, I’ve also had the opportunity to learn all sorts of other valuable information
outside of my field of study. While at Iowa State I’ve only been required to take 2 general elective
classes. This is because when I started my freshman year, I already had 32 transfer credits from the AP
and DMACC dual listed courses from high school. This meant that the only requirements left for me
were two 300 level general electives and a US Diversity. So, when I chose my general electives, I chose a
class that was both 300 level and US diversity classes. Thus, two total general electives at Iowa state.
With that being said, this does allow me to break my General Education into 3 parts as I reflect upon
how each aspect affected me. History of the American City, Experimental Film, and my high school
college classes.

In high school I had the opportunity to take college level courses in a variety of subjects.
However, when I think back to the classes I took, three stand out to me above the rest. AP World
History, Advanced Speech, AP environmental science. All three of these classes grew me in one way or
another. Preparing me both for the world and my time at university. AP World History was, as the name
would suggest, a class that ran through a detailed history of the world starting from early civilization to
modern times. I was able to start learning the history of other cultures and nations from around the
world which opened my world outlook. Advanced Speech was similar to any other speech class;
however, it was more involved than you would normally expect from a high school class. It was one of
the first classes where I felt the ability to have literary creativity and heavily influenced the way I gave
presentations going forward and it will continue to play an influence as I go on to give presentation in
the professional world of engineering. Finally, AP Environmental Science, or “APES” as it was known at
my high school, was one of the highlights of my high school curriculum. I have always loved the outdoors
and cared about the environment. When I took APES, it opened my eyes not only to how significant the
current environmental crisis is, but how many opportunities there are to make the world sustainable.
APES gave me a new lens with which I see the world and influences the type of employers I tend to
pursue. For example, this summer I worked for Kum & Go as an I.T. security intern, and one of the things
that I loved about working there was that they cared about the environment and went out of their way
to compost and recycle much of the waste at their facilities. Overall, the college classes I was able to
take in high school changed the way I saw things as I began my college career.

The Fall of my Junior year was one of the most stressful and difficult semesters of education. I
was taking a heavy courseload with some of the most difficult content I’ve covered. However, this
semester, I was taking Architecture History 321. That is, History of the American City. Originally, I took
this class purely because it covered both my U.S. Diversity requirement and my 300+ level general
elective requirements. However, while I was in the course, I really enjoyed the content that we covered.
The instructor gave us generous pacing and time to work on the assignments which allowed me to take
in the class without feeling a need to rush. Throughout the semester I would continually find myself
using the coursework I had in ARCH 321 as a break from my other more stressful coursework. It acted
almost as a reminder that however tied up, I was in computers and engineering, there’s still a world
spinning around and that it would continue to do so even when things were hard. And the fact that I was
learning about American cities and the dense, busy history of them further fed this feeling. Overall, this
class gave me a better appreciation for the culture and history present in US cities and how important
those cultures are.

When I signed up for experimental film, I actually didn’t know it was an experimental film class.
Not because I was too lazy to read the name or description of the class, but because the content
changes from semester to semester. Engl 335 is listed as “Studies in Film” and the content changes from
semester to semester. However, as we progressed through the class, I became invested and interested
in the content even though experimental films had never piqued my interest before. The professor for
the class cared more about the content he was teaching more than I had seen from most professors
before (That being an indication of the great amount that he cared rather than how little other
professors did). Because of his love for experimental film, he had a lot of thought-provoking dialog that
he focused on using to start class wide discussions about films. In the end this class showed me how
much there is to discuss and consider at the edges and in the details of the different fields of study. This
class gave me a deeper appreciation for parts of culture and society that would not regularly come to
mind and how important it is to keep art alive in a world of increasing technology.

Overall my general electives have all helped me to see the world through new lenses that
contribute to the way I hope to use my expertise in the working world and how I can contribute and
appreciate culture and society outside of my career.