What's the Big Deal About Liberal Arts?

Published: January 30, 2018

Author: Michelle Biernbaum

A person's interests are constantly expanding and college is the perfect time to develop new hobbies. Many of them can even earn you credit! (Never thought you could take backpacking as a class, huh?) With a liberal arts education, those hobbies could very well turn into future career options (ok, maybe not backpacking, but certainly others).

Expanding your passion and potential is what a liberal arts education is all about. Even if you're sure of what you want to study, having knowledge in other subjects is always advantageous, especially if you want to change careers later in life. Who knows...you could acquire enthusiasm for sociology, psychology, or maybe even physics. That was certainly the case for Shuto Osawa, '16. Shuto didn't feel connected to a passion until taking a quantum mechanics class at Greenville University. He went on to pursue a degree in physics and landed a full ride scholarship to the PhD program at Boston University. By the time you graduate, you won't just be an expert; you'll be a well-rounded scholar.

So many people casually say, "I just want to focus on my major...I don't need to take gen eds." These individuals risk missing out on all that the liberal arts have to offer. Alumnus, Rod Kim, '05 found this to be true in his own career.

"It's funny. I've found that on several occasions, GU professors prepared me for things that were never on my radar. There were a lot of times my peers and I would say, 'With what I'm planning to do, I won't need this.' It turns out that plans change, and you just need to be...a prepared person."

Not many things in life are certain, but this one fact has proven true: interests and industries are subject to change. That doesn't have to be a bad thing. Prepare yourself by engaging in cross-disciplinary study. You may be surprised where you find yourself.