Cleveland State University offers hundreds of courses and opportunities across a vast array of subjects, but some classes stand out to students more than others.
Fifty students responded to the question: “What class did you take that was most significant for you and why”, provided personal experiences and reasons for their choices. No two answers were the same, proving significance for the wide variety of courses here.
As expected, many classes that hold value are ones in the students’ field of study.
Journalism majors overwhelmingly responded that Advanced Reporting & Editing was most significant to them while Marketing majors preferred Corporate Finance. Psychology majors indicated a marked interest in Psychology 200 as Nursing majors said Pathophysiology was one of their most important classes. Early Childhood Education majors placed significance on Child Guidance, and English majors said they found Proposal Writing and Program Development to be important.
Patrick Kazy, a senior in Criminology, found Prison and Society to be important because of the information he gathered on the effects of incarceration on the individual. He likes what he’s taught in class, the facts about incarceration.
“You learn in class how many people are incarcerated nationally and how we may only have 5% of the world’s population but we hold 25% of the world’s incarcerated people,” Kazy said.
Camille Ferguson, a senior in English, loved her Poetry Workshop class. It exposed her to criticism about her writing as she got to continually share her work as a creative writer while helping her develop a meaningful mentor relationship with her professor.
Emily Risley, a junior in Creative Writing, highly recommends the social diversity class Debates in African American History. A “reacting to the past” class involved learning history in the lesson plan with techniques like live action role playing to get a genuine feel for what took place.
“[The class] made you talk and cooperate with people you usually wouldn’t talk to,” Risley said. “Ten out of ten, would recommend!”
Students who recommended courses outside their majors had taken classes that typically dealt with a passion of theirs or how to better the world.
Zach Mirola, a senior in sports management, has a passion for music so he found Roots of Rock and Soul to be particularly enjoyable.
Tess Frederick, a senior majoring in English, found African American Image on Film to be an important class. It inspired her minor in international film and inspired a specific niche in the world of film.
“It was very emotional. I walked away from that class with a much clearer idea of systematic racial inequality,” Frederick said. “African Americans have always been represented in film in a singular light, and only African American filmmakers can be the ones to turn that around.”
Similarly, Asha Fairley, a sophomore biology major found importance in the Women and Feminism course.
“You’d think coming from an all-black high school I would learn more about my culture from people who are in my culture, but I didn’t,” she said. “I learned more from a course that was taught by a white woman.”
The main thing she took away from that class was that black women must accept the fact they have different struggles.
“We come from the bottom. We can understand struggle and bring change to those above,” Fairley said. “I’m very grateful this university and this professor took the time to spread information they have about a culture they don’t necessarily belong to.”
Students responded to the question about their favorite courses during the week of Oct. 31 to Nov. 7.