Students say their favorite classes helped them learn skills and about cultures
BYUH students and alumni interviewed shared their favorite classes are COMM 280 – Gender, Race & Culture, THEA 285R – Rehearsal and Performance and ENGL 341 – World Literature in English because it helped them to be more open to others, learn new skills and be more exposed to other cultures.
Comm 280 - Gender, Race & Culture
Greg Tivles, a December 2022 graduate from Vanuatu who majored in communications, said his favorite class is Comm 280 - Gender, Race and Culture, taught by Professor Chiung Chen in the Faculty of Arts, Cultures & Letters. He said taking the class helped him see the inequality in his own culture, where he said the male is more dominant than the female. He added he felt there are some practices in his culture that can be approached differently.
Taking the class, he said, “helped me have a perspective of not being ethnocentric about my own culture but looking at other people with a culturally relativistic approach.”
The related topics and issues Dr. Chen brought up into their class, Tivles said, helped him see the inequality in his own culture in all aspects of life when it comes to gender. He shared one example regarding marriage, where they have a practice called “pride price.” He explained that the terms sound like buying your fiancé from her family in order to marry her.
He said if he could advocate for this issue, he would change the term and the narrative. He explained, although the idea of giving money is to show gratitude to the family of the soon-to-be wife, he said he would prefer for the money to not be involved.
“Even though it is difficult to change a practice that has been [there] for many years, I thought it’s important to be advocates and encourage meaningful discussions among key people on how we can change the language and narrative surrounding the issue,” said Tivles.
He said societal issues regarding gender equality can be overlooked. He added, “It’s interesting and good that we learn about this [so] we can contribute solutions to these issues.”
THEA 285R – Rehearsal and Performance
Jalini Vicky Jeyapathy, a freshman from Papua New Guinea majoring in biology, said her favorite class is THEA 285R – Rehearsal and Performance taught by Kristl Densley, assistant professor in the Faculty of Arts, Cultures & Letters. In addition to taking that class, she said, she also was a cast member the “Mama Mia” play as part of the women’s ensemble, where they sang and danced in the background.
Jeyapathy said she took the THEA 285R class because she wanted to test it out and see if she would like to minor in it. She said what she likes about the classes is that they are learning a variety of things such as singing, reading notes, dancing, and learning to be more confident.
“And I feel like those are just some things that all add together [which makes it] fun to go to the whole thing every time,” she commented.
Talking more about the play “Mama Mia,” she said being part of the show helped her learn more about her emotions. As background performers, she shared, they have to make their own characters on their minds in different scenes, such as a maid.
She added once they decide who they are going to be in a particular scene, they must portray that in their faces while dancing.
ENGL 341 – World Literature in English
Catalina Hernandez, a junior majoring in psychology and English from Florida, said her favorite class is ENGL 341 – World Literature in English with Caryn Lesuma, assistant professor also in the Faculty of Arts, Cultures & Letters. She said, “It’s good to be … exposed to literature from different countries and that’s always really cool.”
She said one piece of literature that stood out to her is a poetry book that talks about the environment and sustainability called “Habitat Threshold” by Dr. Craig Santos Perez.
“He talks about how the government has been impacting the environment and how the environment has been impacting the people. [These] are some of the things we don’t notice which we’re doing every day that’s impacting not only our health but also our communities,” she stated.