Change of heart

Angela Guiao
MSMU Class of 2021

(1/2021) I am going to be completely honest with you. When I first applied to Mount St. Mary’s, I had no idea what a liberal arts college was. In fact, I didn’t even notice the Mount considered itself a liberal arts college until my mom asked me what that meant. At the time, I kind of just brushed it off and said that it was their way of saying they provide classes that were aimed at making students more well-rounded. I had remembered hearing the upperclassman talk about veritas classes on my tour of the campus and figured that was the reason they were a liberal arts college. It all sounded very renaissance to me.

Or should I say, classical antiquity? According to Niche, liberal arts began during the era of classical antiquity. There were three particular studies that together were called trivium: grammar, rhetoric, and logic. Eventually, these three studies grew to include geometry, music, history, anthropology and more. These subjects were considered liberales, or worthy of a free person, thus creating the liberal arts.

Liberal arts colleges, as a result, are higher ed institutions that focus their curriculum on these classic ideas and beliefs. According to Niche, liberal arts schools tend to be smaller than most schools, have more accessible professors, and be focused more on undergraduates. This, in turn, attracts students who prefer smaller class sizes and prioritize one-on-one opportunities with their professors.

As a result of being a liberal arts institution, Mount students were required to take core curriculum classes, including philosophy, social sciences, history and theology classes alongside their classes that related to their major. Now, this may just be my cynical side talking, but I used to think the core classes were a waste of my time. I believed that they took away valuable time from studying for my major classes, which at the time were the only classes I thought mattered. Now, granted I am an Accounting major, which has nothing to do with the humanities, so it is possible that played a part in my bias.

I was all about business. I enjoyed logical thinking and simple reasoning. In accounting, things were usually right or wrong; it was not very often that there be gray area. I liked knowing that there was a correct answer, and that there was a way to get that answer. While accounting wasn’t entirely black or white, it was definitely not whatever color philosophy was. I couldn’t find the sense in spending an entire class period analyzing the words of Plato, and it frustrated me that everything was up to interpretation. In my theology classes, I spent a lot of time reviewing things I’ve learned in years of religion classes growing up, so I kept wondering why I had to spend time writing a paper on the Resurrection instead of studying for my accounting exam.

Now, what kind of article would this be if I didn’t have a change of heart? I am proud to say that now, today I am honored to have experienced a liberal arts education. I don’t think I really recognized the impact it had on my well-roundedness until I was able to contribute to conversations that referenced Aristotle and Socrates. Or until I was able to correct one of my coworkers that the Vietnam War happened before the Persian Gulf war, not the other way around. Or maybe it was when I contemplated joining a book club, only to realize that I’ve already read the books that they had planned to read in my Modernity class the year before.

What I didn’t realize while taking the classes, was how much I learned. I could be considered well-versed in literature, history and the arts, greatly due to my participation in the core curriculum here at the Mount. This pandemic has allowed me to reconnect with my friends from big state universities, and it still baffles me how they haven’t heard half the stuff I mentioned above because they weren’t required to take the classes.

It’s funny, how much something has an impact on you after the fact. Information I had at one point dubbed as useless helped shape my way of thinking and understanding until today. The philosophy classes that I thought were so impractical turned out to be quite the opposite and actually taught me some very valuable lessons: to ask why, and to challenge beliefs. Where I once prided myself in being a logical, straightforward thinker, I can now say I am more insightful and understanding.

The liberal arts education that the Mount provided me with has set me up to be more successful in all my future endeavors. Recently, I have gone through the long and tedious process of interviewing for my internship, and I now understand fully why so many employers recruit from the Mount. A liberal arts education not only makes a student well-rounded but also more worldly and aware.

It appears the humanities are dying, or so they say. The younger generation has more reason to think more realistically, with larger student loans and higher rent in some areas, they need to make decisions that would benefit them financially. And the reality is, financial/business majors offer higher paying careers than those in the humanities. And while I understand this decision, I do believe that the humanities shouldn’t be cast aside. In fact, I believe in it so much, I would recommend to all future college students to try and attend a liberal arts college.

I was offered the support and encouragement that I know I would not have received at a bigger school. I transformed from a shy, quiet biology student and became a curious, confident future accounting graduate, and I have my liberal arts education to thank for that. Without this curriculum, I would never have been forced to work on my speech skills in English class, or my critical thinking skills in theology, or my memory skills in history. The core curriculum contributed more to my general education than I ever would have expected and for that I am eternally grateful.

Read other articles by Angela Tongohan