Wednesday 18 August 2010

College classes that would have been useful


I'm incredibly thankful to call Pepperdine (above) my alma mater. Studying on the shores of Southern California = not too shabby. But beachside degrees come at a cost, one I'm anxious to pay off as quickly as possible.

One of my Pepperdine friends is due to finish her loan repayments soon and I'm thrilled for her. I'd be right behind her had the British pound not conveniently tanked  the moment I started earning money in the UK! Oh well.

Lately I've been going through a box of stuff I'd stored at my parents house filled with all sorts of bounty -- photos,  the 50 folded Japanese paper cranes handcrafted for the wedding that never actually left my house and notes from college classes. Before sending them to the recycle bin I flipped through the course notes from my African Foreign Policy and International Ethics classes and thought that they were actually somewhat helpful for what I've gone on to do. Other classes, like Tudor and Stuart England and Japanese Tea Ceremony were interesting but ultimately not useful in the day-to-day.

As I was procrastinating last week I made a list of college classes that I wished I would have taken, to really milk Pepperdine for all it's worth. These are based on lessons that I've learned since leaving university that would have served me well much earlier. Most of them aren't offered in the course catalog, but I think they should be. Here goes...


College Classes That Would Have Been Useful:

    •    Time and Project Management (learned through severe trial and error)
    •    Starting Out At The Bottom of the Employment Food Chain and Working Your Way Up   Without Losing Your Mind, Morale or Vision
    •    Unorthodox Career Paths: Trying to Make Money as a Humanitarian Creative
    •    Budgeting and Paying Off Loans
    •    Resume Clinic and Interview Skills: How to Sell Yourself and Still Like Yourself
    •    Patience
    •    How to Change a Tire and Look After Your Car (still learning)
    •    How to Create a Website and Basic html

I would also have ideally liked a minor in handicrafts (crochet, macrame, that sort of thing) and perhaps an emphasis in the Adobe creative suite, but I wouldn't have gone to summer school for it.

A great text for any of these classes could have been How to Be Useful, a book I saw in New Zealand and can't wait to read.

Were any of the classes you took in college or high school useful? What classes do you wish you could have taken, real or otherwise?

3 comments:

alisha tan said...

Hi, Alisha,
I went to swimming pool today with my boyfriend.
Do you like swimming?

Nadine said...

Excellent post. Ahh, Pepperdine. I really do miss it.

A class I would have liked would have been: How to keep a positive attitude during the job search when you're graduating to a horrible economy, just 7 months after 9/11.

Reuben said...

i totally agree on the budgeting and loans. why doesn't anyone teach us how to manage $$$?!? that is a skill i truly wish i would have learned early on. i took dave ramsey's financial peace course a few years ago and highly recommend it

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