LiveForTheLaunch
CF Legend
Okay, I don't USUALLY do this because I wouldn't want to come on a forum to help someone with a boring essay, but this is really important to me. Only a few people enter for this scholarship and it's worth $2500, so I basically NEED to win this considering my financial rut. Any help/advice/editing on this would be greatly appreciated! Oh, and it is suppose to be the importance of a liberal arts and humanities degree. To be fair I really had no idea what to write so I just tried to make it sound good.
Many people in today's society perceive an education in the liberal arts as a means of pursuing an uncertain and insecure future. This notion is understandable to those who simply consider these courses at face value, yet if one is able to delve deeper, a greater importance will emerge. Despite the fact that the majority of information taught within the classroom does not necessarily have a direct correlation to daily life, it is the underlying lessons and the opening of the mind that emanates far beyond campus boundaries. From history and classical studies to languages, philosophy, and the arts, the interdisciplinary nature of these areas of study require us to learn more than simply what the title of our major leads us to believe. The liberal arts also work to broaden our understanding of the relationship between the world today and yesterday, inadvertently altering our way of thinking to the high standard required for the many professional roles we encounter as we hang up our graduation gowns and enter the real world.
As mentioned previously, the title of a person's major can be entirely misleading. Simply because one decides that one or two topics will dominate the bulk of their curriculum, the opportunities for learning about other disciplines is seemingly limitless. On the surface, it may appear as though pairing classical studies and art as a joint major with a minor in modern languages is a futile decision with neither discipline supplementing the other; however, it might be useful to ask yourself if history would be the same without art and languages, and vice versa. A useful comparison that may help to explain the relevance and correlation of the humanities is if we look at the three basic building blocks of society: politics, economics, and culture. Analyze one, and you will gain insight into the others; major in one of the humanities, and ample knowledge of the others will fall into place. Upon the realization that virtually every aspect of society is intertwined with another, the scholar's mind is broadened in such a way that interpreting the larger picture of occurrences within the world becomes second nature.
On top of the fact that the liberal arts works to enhance open-mindedness, it also advances skills in the three major components of language: reading, writing, and speaking. The countless hours spent perusing through an endless sea of notes throughout a three or four year pursuit of any undergraduate degree in humanities is tedious, yet it subconsciously strengthens the student's ability to isolate the important from the frivolous. The innumerable amount of time doing so also challenges interpretive ability, which undoubtedly becomes more refined the further one gets into their studies. Regardless of what discipline is chosen, reading work from some of the greatest authors and orators that history has ever known seems to remain a staple part in the curriculum of any humanities degree, outlining a variety of ways the student can improve his or her own speech, whether verbal or written. Likewise, many liberal arts courses concentrate on languages, and although some of them are obsolete or scarcely spoken, it has been proven that learning languages improves brain plasticity while giving greater insight into those we already speak.
The skills we learn in the classroom are assuredly important to the student while pursuing their education, but the working world is the setting where they are ultimately put to the test. The slander that many of these programs receive rests on the assumption that, because much of the information taught isn't directly relevant to professional jobs, scholars are setting themselves up for a long-term struggle. Fortunately, it is the exceptional language skills and critical capacity that make liberal arts graduates the most desirable candidates for careers that require abstract analysis and in-depth thinking. As cliché as it may sound, a good understanding of the past gives us the tools necessary to analyze the present, making students of the humanities viable in roles that work to maintain the delicate balance that keeps our country's systems running effectively. Business, sales, real estate, and finances are four quality examples of careers that are pertinent to society, and ones that value the expertise of students that have been taught through the use of abstract ideas rather than technical training.
Despite the stigma that the liberal arts has grown to accumulate throughout the years, the plethora of professional jobs open to graduates is finally lifting the notion that a degree in the humanities is nothing more than a dead end. Superficially, the technical knowledge in many of these programs is very limited, but it is not the specialized concepts learned by the scholar that makes them stand out; it is the superior nature of their analytic and linguistic ability that gives them the edge necessary in many jobs throughout the world. To pursue a major in one sector of the liberal arts is not exclusive in the slightest, but gives the opportunity to acquire knowledge relating to many different subjects applicable to the humanities. So, to students out there pursuing a degree in something that does not appear to have any direct relevance to the real world, next time someone scrutinizes your career path, demand they go to virtually any professional establishment: it is likely that numerous employees come from a liberal arts background, and without them, the balance that these institutions uphold would become askew. On the bright side, if all else fails, whether it's a philosophy degree or a classical studies degree, students of the liberal arts will surely hold the conversational edge at any cocktail party!
Many people in today's society perceive an education in the liberal arts as a means of pursuing an uncertain and insecure future. This notion is understandable to those who simply consider these courses at face value, yet if one is able to delve deeper, a greater importance will emerge. Despite the fact that the majority of information taught within the classroom does not necessarily have a direct correlation to daily life, it is the underlying lessons and the opening of the mind that emanates far beyond campus boundaries. From history and classical studies to languages, philosophy, and the arts, the interdisciplinary nature of these areas of study require us to learn more than simply what the title of our major leads us to believe. The liberal arts also work to broaden our understanding of the relationship between the world today and yesterday, inadvertently altering our way of thinking to the high standard required for the many professional roles we encounter as we hang up our graduation gowns and enter the real world.
As mentioned previously, the title of a person's major can be entirely misleading. Simply because one decides that one or two topics will dominate the bulk of their curriculum, the opportunities for learning about other disciplines is seemingly limitless. On the surface, it may appear as though pairing classical studies and art as a joint major with a minor in modern languages is a futile decision with neither discipline supplementing the other; however, it might be useful to ask yourself if history would be the same without art and languages, and vice versa. A useful comparison that may help to explain the relevance and correlation of the humanities is if we look at the three basic building blocks of society: politics, economics, and culture. Analyze one, and you will gain insight into the others; major in one of the humanities, and ample knowledge of the others will fall into place. Upon the realization that virtually every aspect of society is intertwined with another, the scholar's mind is broadened in such a way that interpreting the larger picture of occurrences within the world becomes second nature.
On top of the fact that the liberal arts works to enhance open-mindedness, it also advances skills in the three major components of language: reading, writing, and speaking. The countless hours spent perusing through an endless sea of notes throughout a three or four year pursuit of any undergraduate degree in humanities is tedious, yet it subconsciously strengthens the student's ability to isolate the important from the frivolous. The innumerable amount of time doing so also challenges interpretive ability, which undoubtedly becomes more refined the further one gets into their studies. Regardless of what discipline is chosen, reading work from some of the greatest authors and orators that history has ever known seems to remain a staple part in the curriculum of any humanities degree, outlining a variety of ways the student can improve his or her own speech, whether verbal or written. Likewise, many liberal arts courses concentrate on languages, and although some of them are obsolete or scarcely spoken, it has been proven that learning languages improves brain plasticity while giving greater insight into those we already speak.
The skills we learn in the classroom are assuredly important to the student while pursuing their education, but the working world is the setting where they are ultimately put to the test. The slander that many of these programs receive rests on the assumption that, because much of the information taught isn't directly relevant to professional jobs, scholars are setting themselves up for a long-term struggle. Fortunately, it is the exceptional language skills and critical capacity that make liberal arts graduates the most desirable candidates for careers that require abstract analysis and in-depth thinking. As cliché as it may sound, a good understanding of the past gives us the tools necessary to analyze the present, making students of the humanities viable in roles that work to maintain the delicate balance that keeps our country's systems running effectively. Business, sales, real estate, and finances are four quality examples of careers that are pertinent to society, and ones that value the expertise of students that have been taught through the use of abstract ideas rather than technical training.
Despite the stigma that the liberal arts has grown to accumulate throughout the years, the plethora of professional jobs open to graduates is finally lifting the notion that a degree in the humanities is nothing more than a dead end. Superficially, the technical knowledge in many of these programs is very limited, but it is not the specialized concepts learned by the scholar that makes them stand out; it is the superior nature of their analytic and linguistic ability that gives them the edge necessary in many jobs throughout the world. To pursue a major in one sector of the liberal arts is not exclusive in the slightest, but gives the opportunity to acquire knowledge relating to many different subjects applicable to the humanities. So, to students out there pursuing a degree in something that does not appear to have any direct relevance to the real world, next time someone scrutinizes your career path, demand they go to virtually any professional establishment: it is likely that numerous employees come from a liberal arts background, and without them, the balance that these institutions uphold would become askew. On the bright side, if all else fails, whether it's a philosophy degree or a classical studies degree, students of the liberal arts will surely hold the conversational edge at any cocktail party!
Keep that in.