Throughout my time at Nazareth college, I’ve been blessed with the opportunity to take many fascinating courses. However, I can honestly say there are a few that I would gladly take for a second time due to the amount of life changing material covered throughout the semester. What classifies material as life changing, according to my experiences? For starters, the information I’m being taught has to provide moments of awakening within each of the students attending the class. There is something to be said about those special classes that make you feel passionate and eager to mold the world into a better place after attending.
COMM 341: Representation in Media
Taking this class has taught me media literacy. In our society of fast paced technology, it is easy to go with the flow and take whatever we hear as the truth. However, after taking Dr. Gomez-Parga’s class, I find that I cannot casually take in any form of media without analyzing it through the harsh lens of societal criticism.
One of the most valuable pieces of information I took from this course is how the media tells their audiences how to think. Any form of media such as books, Instagram, Facebook, Tiktok, blogs, etc… will strive to influence how you think about certain topics through their language and what they’re getting paid to promote. The majority of these platforms are highly filtered and regulated in hopes to present a false reality that audiences will never live up to. This factor manifests in many disturbing outbreaks within society such as troubles with poor body image, eating disorders, addiction to our electronic devices, and the general loss of celebrating one’s individuality because of everyone trying to jump on the trend.
I would advise every every student at Naz to take this course, because everyone needs to be educated on media literacy. Without a truly meaningful education to continually awaken our sense of social justice, we are all subject to being tools for the media’s manipulation. Dr. Gomaz-Parga has taught me to fight against the norms and lies of popular media in order to make a change by standing up for basic human rights and the representation of reality.
RES 366: The Meaning of Death
Though I am presently taking this class, I have already learned a lot from Dr. Bishal Karna. The first thing that surprised me is though Dr. Karna so endearingly calls our class his “death class,” I have been able to discover a lot about life when putting it so close in relation to death.
We have just finished reading the book, Man’s Search For Meaning by Viktor Frankl. Frankl was a psychiatrist a who survived the deathly Auschwitz camp during the time of the Holocaust. Throughout his book, he talks of how he physically survived as a result of learning how to be psychologically sound in the worst conditions. You must read Frankl’s book! He talks of human suffering and shows his reader how to survive anything by finding the meaning to your own unique life.
Besides these points, this class teaches students how to make peace with situations that we cannot change. Death is just one of these many situations in life. The subject of suffering is inevitable. However, with the power of changing one’s perspective, you can alter your life and relationship with suffering until you no longer label it as such. After each class, I have left feeling enlightened and filled with more life than when it began.
ENGL 538: African American Geniuses
Another class I am currently taking that I love, teaches us about the beautiful culture and societal struggle of African American communities. We have been reading books by Jesmyn Ward and Ta-Nehisi Coates; both authors have won the MacArther Genius Grant for their amazing work as writers. This class provides an in depth study of both authors’ lives and their creative masterpieces.
My favorite parts of this class are, of course, the amazing books we read, and the insights I can gain by discussing heavy topics with my peers in the classroom. I believe it’s important for myself in particular to learn about these issues in our society’s struggle because I’ve never personally dealt with what the authors write about. Therefore, it is my responsibility to become aware of these issues by gaining the valuable and diverse perspectives of others. Through this newfound knowledge, it is also my duty to educate people with what I have learned in order to disrupt racial ignorance among people of privilege. I strive to empower those who are not in power. This class shows me how to create safe environments that promote diversity and equality for all.
In conclusion, I encourage everyone to take at least one of these courses. They will give you insight and awaken your understanding about society and the world around you. This has changed my perspective and my life, inspiring me to make the world a better place! If you’re looking for courses to use for your Core Milestone Project, I highly recommend taking two from this list. All are easily applicable to any subject, no matter what major you are. Creating an enduring question and answering it with your project will become surprisingly easy. Each professor teaching these courses enthusiastically works to install meaning into the relationship between their students and the class material. I always found homework assignments for these courses interesting, enjoyable, and enlightening. Therefore, I am thankful to have been fortunate enough to take these courses. After completing them, I realized the stress of getting a good grade was minuscule when put into proportion with the amount of knowledge I have gained.