The Liberal Arts Hustle

By Emily Wanserski, BA Political Science, BFA Dance

I vividly remember the moment I learned the hustle. Considering I graduated with a BFA in Dance from Michigan’s School of Music, Theatre & Dance, you might be thinking I’m referring to this (and if you don’t know what that is, watch this and read this). Although I could use disco as a metaphor for the liberal arts in this blog post (thanks to, of course, my liberal arts degree), the hustle I am referring to is the combination of the punch-in-your-gut feeling you get before that “big thing” and your immediate “next right steps.”

Spring Term 2010, I walked into my 9 am French class, looked at my friend Tara Sheena, and said, “I can’t stay for summer term. It would be my eighth semester in a row.” Without missing a beat, Tara responded, “Library. Tonight.” Within 24 hours, we had over ten applications out to dance companies in New York City and California. Three days later, I had a part-time internship secured in NYC, followed by a second part-time internship six days later, and a quickly rearranged fall semester schedule to ensure I would graduate on time with two degrees in different schools (Political Science BA/Dance BFA).

Murmurs of a Renegade Liberal Artist

By Neil Tambe, BA 2009 Organizational Studies & Political Science

I’d like to ask you to humor me for just a moment. Let’s put aside the abrasive notion that the express and sole purpose of a college degree (in the liberal arts or otherwise) should be to help you get a job and function as a successful member of the modern workforce.

Don’t worry, I’ll revisit this in a second (I happen to think that a liberal arts degree provides quite a lot of practical skill). But I’d like to turn to an alternative notion: that the greatest value of a liberal arts degree is that it isn’t mostly practical, but rather that it’s mostly exploratory.

One of my favorite lines from performance poetry is that, “I’ve read too many books to believe what I’m told.” To me, that’s the essence of a liberal arts education, it trains you to question the world and not take any truths for granted. It teaches you to look at reality inquisitively and ask a darn lot of questions. It opens your mind to possibilities and pushes the limits of essential human knowledge which other, more “practical,” fields depend on (like Adam Smith’s invisible hand of markets which business depends on or the discovery of how cells work which underpins aspects of medicine). The liberal arts are the fuel for imagining and building a new world.

The Value of a Liberal Arts Education in Business

By Daniel Schweber, 2010 BA Psychology

Growing up, I knew that I wanted to be a “businessman.” I was always reading profiles of successful entrepreneurs or about how businesses began. As a result, I originally applied to the University of Michigan because of the stellar ranking and reviews of the Ross School of Business.

Needless to say, I was auto-enrolled in LSA as a freshman with intentions to apply to the Business School at the end of that school year. Luckily, I never took that route and instead obtained a Psychology degree from LSA, which also has a stellar ranking.

The day I set foot in Ann Arbor, I had plans on entering the business world upon graduation and there is nothing about obtaining a degree in Psychology that prevented me from that goal. In fact, my liberal arts education has only helped me in business because of the foundation for learning that it creates and the unique perspective that it gives.

How U-M Taught Me to Swim in the Real World

By Amanda Byrne, BA 2008 History & Political Science            

Being a true blue Michigan fan, it’s hard to admit that attending the University of Michigan was not my first choice of the selective colleges to which I applied.  Born and raised in Michigan, I knew U-M was a great school, undoubtedly the best in the state for liberal arts; was a great value; and provided the opportunity to be part of a Saturday football tradition that I had observed on television since I can remember.  It was the practical choice over smaller, private liberal arts colleges, and so I enrolled, not realizing how much my life was about to change.

I was a big fish in a relatively small pond in high school, so naturally I had a bit of a swollen head about my academic abilities.  Much to my dismay, I actually failed my first microeconomics midterm. FAILED! While I considered dropping the class, I decided to persevere. Subsequently, I attended office hours weekly, formed a study group, and lived and breathed econ for the rest of the semester.  My final grade of a B- is far from noteworthy on my overall transcript, but it is probably the grade I’m most proud of considering how far I had come in the class.  It is that same determination that got me through the bar exam three years later.

Around the World and Back Again: My Liberal Arts Journey

By Ben Wolf, BA 2012 International Studies & Certificate in Entrepreneurship

To this day, I can still remember receiving the letter in the mail saying that I, Benjamin A. Wolf, had been admitted to the College of LSA at the University of Michigan; a new journey was about to unfold. A journey that I predicted would involve countless hours of research at the medical school, late night study groups, and the Chem building—just ordinary life for a pre-med undergrad. Fast forward to the fall of my sophomore year…

Pre-medicine was a thing of the past. I wanted to re-open my studies, explore other opportunities, and there was no better place than LSA.

Between sophomore spring and junior fall, I took coursework spanning eight different subjects ranging from philosophy to international studies and more. From there, I stumbled upon the newly minted international studies major. Since declaring my major, I have been able to take my explorations across the globe, both inside and outside the classroom.

The Job Question We’ve all been Asked- and my Liberal (Arts) Response

By Annette Hauswirth, BA 2011 Spanish & Communication Studies

Right before I graduated from the University of Michigan with a degree in Spanish and Communication Studies, I often faced the question: “And what do you plan to do with that?” At the time, I greatly envied my friends who studied nursing and engineering, as it seemed their education would transition effortlessly into what we call the “real world.”

I started to doubt that my diverse liberal arts education—with classes like Spanish Renaissance Poetry, Coral Reefs, or Music and Identity—would be of any help as I began to look for a job that was right for me.

But now, more than two years after I’ve graduated, I have been able to recognize that these experiences have shaped the way that I think about myself and the way that I interact with others. I have come to embrace the fact that what I have gained from my education may not be translated to a tangible job title, as in other areas, but it has truly given me a new state of mind that will help me in whatever I choose to do next.

Create-Your-Own-Syllabus, or, How I got out of my literary slump

By Jenny Howard, BA 2009 English

I have to admit it to you guys, this English major has been in a literary slump for some time now.  It’s been tough.  It’s been painful.  And I can’t exactly remember when it started.

All I know is that suddenly, it seemed, my “inbox” of unread books grew into a tall pile on my nightstand, my monthly book club attendance flagged, and I had abandoned half-read books all over my apartment, despite my reputation of reading multiple books at once and finishing all of them.  I was losing myself to podcasts during my commute and Twin Peaks on Netflix when I got home.  And it had been going on for months.

You have to understand that reading is central to my identity.  I am a Reader; I love to read.  One of the top 5 words I would use to describe myself would be “Reader.”  Some of my fondest summer memories are from the months spent cleaning out the Young Adult section of our local public library (especially her and her).  I have been a reader since the same age as most of you, but it was probably around age ten or eleven that it got to “avid” status.  So that’s going on sixteen summers, here!

The Light Bulb Atop my Head – I Just #CantTurnItOff

By Gordon Chaffin, LSA 2010

Have you heard of Craig Venter? He’s a pretty big deal. In 2010, his team created a single cell organism — the world’s first “synthetic life.” That may not mean much to you, but here’s something that should matter: this technology will change the world forever. The great breadth of biodiversity that sustains every ecosystem on the Earth is built on tiny microbes that can metabolize nearly anything and in turn produce nearly anything. From the anaerobic heat of the deep sea to the minimally dense upper atmosphere, tiny microbes run our world.

Now, there a paragraph went by and I didn’t say anything about a liberal arts education. Or did I? We’re creating life now, strictly speaking, so what should we say about the ethical application of this technology? What should be legal and illegal about this technology? Beyond the law, what are the social, psychological, economic, political, and philosophical implications of synthetic life? These questions won’t be left alone to the experts — they shouldn’t be in a democracy — so it’ll be up to us to vote in an informed way. We English majors, abnormal psych concentrators, and even that PhD track philosophy student will have to understand this innovation.

Defending the value of a liberal arts degree – Yale Report of 1828.

Kelle Parsons – BA 2009 Organizational Studies

“Our object is not to teach that which is peculiar to any one of the professions; but to lay the foundation which is common to them all.” Yale Report of 1828

Teresa Sullivan, former U-M provost and current (!) president at the University of Virginia, recently found herself at the center of many of the current debates about higher education: the role of online learning, knowledge vs. certification, university governance, and the value of a liberal arts education.

All of these debates and the events at UVA during a 2-week period this June are incredibly intriguing. The UVA Board of Visitors’ (BOV) plan to force her resignation made President Sullivan the center of the American higher education universe for two weeks – and everyone with complaints about higher education projected their debate on her situation.  Recounting this would be duplicative and long – so instead, I refer you to the Chronicle of Higher Education, the Washington Post, or good old Google – searching Teresa Sullivan or Helen Dragas will return plenty of relevant results.  Additional note:  after demands by the faculty and students, Sullivan has been reinstated as president.

One of the most interesting debates the UVA situation sparked is regarding the role of liberal arts education.  The successful businesspeople on the Board of Visitors are rumored to have been pushing President Sullivan to cut programs in German and the Classics (the BOV denies this, but Teresa Sullivan does make a broad reference to cutting programs associated with the liberal arts in her response to the situation, which can be found here ).

In Defense of Polymaths & The Jack of All Trades

In Defense of Polymaths

Shared by Leslie Zaikis (BA 2009 Organizational Studies, Political Science), the Harvard Business Review article, “In Defense of Polymaths,” discusses why it’s a benefit to have a broad range of knowledge and interests. That’s so LSA.

Leslie is a member of the LSA Dean’s Young Alumni Council.

Become a Recruiter’s Dream: Mastering the “Jack of All Trades” Method

Written by Jenny Howard (BA 2009 English) for The Levo League – a website for young, professional women –  this post tells you why one should be proud to have a broad background (i.e. a liberal arts degree) and how you can prove that it’s valuable to your potential employer in an interview.

Jenny is an adviser of the LSA Dean’s Young Alumni Council.