Last summer, as a transfer student, I walked into my sophomore inquiry class wondering what pop culture had to do with my major. The University Studies program in general was a bit baffling to me and, suffice it to say, my goal was to complete my required classes as quickly as possible so I could move on to what I was really interested in.
However, things turned out differently than I anticipated. Now, a year later, training to be part of the UNST Peer Mentor program this fall, my level of investment has very apparently evolved.
So what happened? Sure, the accompanying scholarship was a major motivation, but equally important was the impact my junior cluster classes had on my learning experience. By the way, for those who are wondering: because of the random, lottery system of hiring, this article will have no bearing on whether or not I get the job. Sadly.
A women’s studies class was the only UNST course that worked with my schedule, so I signed up for Professor Roslyn Farrington’s bell hooks class, hoping it’d be an easy A and that maybe I’d learn a thing or two about my sex.
Let’s just say that within a semester I went from being a blissfully unconscious yet active contributor to our patriarchal society to developing a new awareness of its harmful effects, not only on women but on the wider community. I will forever be grateful for the lessons learned in this class, and yet I know that I wouldn’t have enrolled had it not been part of my cluster.
However, rather than this becoming a personal testimonial to the life-changing effects of the program, it’s really not about one person’s experience; there are no doubt a number of students with completely opposite encounters still wondering what the point is. What it comes down to is the principles of the program—principles that are invaluable to our education.
The UNST goals are for students to engage in diverse ways of inquiry and critical thinking, learn several forms of communication for learning and expression, gain an awareness of the broader human experience and its environment and appreciate their responsibility to themselves, each other and their communities. All of this lies outside their majors.
Director of UNST mentor programs Dana Lundell moved across the country to work with the nationally acclaimed program. She emphasizes that this model empowers students to understand that they are part of a community. It’s not a segregated part of college but intrinsic to the PSU experience, built into students’ degree programs. “Students are enfranchised,” she said, “as core contributors to the university activities.”
Engaging students in this interdisciplinary fashion is not about churning out hundreds of knowledgeable students every year but rather about beginning a process of critically analyzing society around us, a skill that will serve students in every future walk of life.
In the freshman inquiry theme focusing on race and social justice, students are challenged by the historical biases that have resulted in the deeply entrenched racial stereotypes of modern society. Throughout the year they are invited to reflect on their own “social position and on the privileges and challenges that come their way simply because of the identities they hold.”
The opportunity for students coming from a myriad of educational tracks unconnected to the social sciences to face these critical questions early in their higher education is crucial to their success in general. It emphasizes that a focus on, say, biochemistry is not unrelated to the social impacts of systemic racial injustice, creating an awareness of how our individual interests exist within the context of a larger community, thus highlighting the need for everyone’s participation in its sustainability.
The UNST’s value for a lifelong journey of learning finds the definition of pedagogy as much outside of the classroom as within, allowing for the exploration of society’s complexity and diversity—themes that will undoubtedly follow us the rest of our lives.