Geneseo’s Mission Statment and GLOBE Connections

Tuesday’s class discussion regarding a liberal arts education and connecting different majors and classes really got me thinking. In Geneseo’s GLOBE, its 7th learning outcome is “To work effectively in a pluralistic society, recognizing and respecting diverse identities, beliefs, backgrounds, and life choices; to practice effective communication and collaboration across diverse communities and organizations; to critically reflect on the reasoning and impact of one’s personal beliefs and actions.” Since Geneseo is a liberal arts college, we are all required to take several classes outside of our major. This specific learning outcome connects to our class discussion because as a liberal arts college we are required to take many classes outside of our majors, to gain a “broader” knowledge. Although many people dislike the fact that we all must take classes outside of our majors, myself previously included, I’ve come to see the value and necessity. As a Psych major I am required to take Human Biology, which I am taking this semester. At first, I was dreading taking it, I would not consider myself a science person and did not like biology in high school. However, I’ve found that it is a lot more interesting than I thought, while there are many parts I dislike there are also many that I enjoy and find interesting to connect to real life situations.
Geneseo’s mission statement and GLOBE also stress the importance of the ability to apply skills learned in class to the outside world. One way I see that at a liberal arts college is making connections between different classes. For example, last semester three of the classes I was taking were; Psych 100, Intro to Global Social Changes, and Comparative Politics. At one point in the semester I saw a connection between the classes that I found very interesting. In psych I was learning about different parenting styles and how the different styles affect a child’s development, personality and life outcomes. In sociology I was learning about how socioeconomic factors affect children. How things that are provided by the family one in born in to, for example; resources, environment, parental income, community, school etc. affect children. Kids who are born into wealthier families most likely attend better schools with more resources and therefore more likely to attend better colleges than student who come from poorer families who may not have money for notebooks, or even food. The former has safety nets to fall back on while if the latter has an unfortunate situation happen, like a house fire or a lay off. They might not have anywhere to turn and may resort to homelessness. I also found the connection to my comparative politics class because we often discussed the economy in several countries and how those developed differently in different countries and evolved overtimes. We learned about why some countries are more successful than other and what economics factors work, as well as which don’t. I may be pulling at strings, but I see a connection between how parenting styles affect children because of the socioeconomic resource they provide or fail to provide, and how those factors contribute to their later jobs contributing to the economy and how the economies differ in different countries. Different countries have different parenting styles that are the social “norm” and these parenting styles may contribute to a child’s academic path and job outcomes, contributing to the differences in the country’s general job occupations and economic efficiencies.
I also see a connection from Geneseo’s mission statement to the presentation that Dr. Harris gave that we were able to attend for extra credit. For anyone who didn’t see her presentation, she discussed her life as an illegal immigrant in the U.S., challenges she’s overcome and ways we can make our community for dreamers better, by being a supportive community that helps all different types of people. I see the connection to the mission statement because our mission statement shares the importance of a community, specifically a diverse community. A community enables people to work together, for example as Dr. McCoy often shares that we need to put the chairs back into our real classroom because it is our obligation to the custodial staff, and we would not have a functioning environment without them. A diversity community can open us up to ideas, experiences and beliefs that are different from our own, enriching our experiences in college. Taking different classes and connecting those classes allows for us to reap the benefits of a liberal arts college. While it may seem unnecessary at times to have to take classes outside our major, it helps us apply our skills to and prepares us for the “real world.”

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