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look Why Didn’t I Take a Course In …? Choosing Courses With the Benefit of Hindsight By Amy Cavanaugh ’06
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“When I was graduating, I secretly wished for another year of school so I could take all the ‘fun’ courses that had nothing to do with my major or distribution and premed requirements.” —Rubab Khan ’89 The undergraduate years are a time for self-discovery, personal growth, and finding our academic passions. Yet because students are often wary of taking courses in new disciplines, many don’t take advantage of opportunities in areas that—as alumnae—they wish they had embraced. When asked what courses they should have signed up for but didn’t, alumnae most often named courses in languages or the arts, which were usually areas far removed from their majors. How would alumnae choose differently now, with the benefit of 20/20 hindsight? Caroline Foty ’80 regrets not taking French at Mount Holyoke, since she was “borderline fluent” in high school. Instead, she took German and Greek. “I wish I had done more French, so I could become truly bilingual and read French literature,” she said, “I am a big believer in language study, contrary to mainstream America, and wish I’d made a commitment to really master the language I’d already started.” Jane Zippe Putscher ’87 wishes she’d continued language study here, although she had fulfilled the College’s language requirement before she even got to Mount Holyoke. “It is one of my goals to go back to language classes and become fluent in at least one other language,” Putscher says. “I now realize how foolish it was to not take advantage of foreign language classes at Mount Holyoke––there were native speakers, language labs, and all kinds of opportunities to learn another language, and I ignored them all.” Nieves Romero-Diaz, MHC associate professor of Spanish and chair of romance languages and literatures, recognizes that alumnae may not feel compelled to know a foreign language until later in life. “It is when a person gets out of school and is introduced to real life when most people realize its importance,” Romero-Diaz says. “It is not only because some people need foreign languages to find a job or to be successful in their jobs, or because they start traveling. Knowing a foreign language opens your mind and makes you more critical and wiser.” Other alumnae whose learning priorities changed with time lament not dabbling in the arts. Karen Helmers Bain ’74 wishes she’d taken music classes, and Rubab Khan ’89 regrets the lack
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of courses in interior design. They have pursued artistic interests since graduation, with piano lessons and an interior design class, respectively. Lisa Wlodarski Romano ’89 says she should have continued her high school involvement in drama. “Theater would have been a great social outlet, as well as a wonderful opportunity to build confidence and public-speaking ability,” she says. Ajay Sinha, MHC associate professor of art, believes he knows why students do not always take advantage of arts classes. “Looking at our students recently, it seems to me that the answer may have to do with the cultural pressures with which they come to MHC. More and more students think about the large sums of money spent for higher education, and their career plans are shaped by economic anxieties,” he says. “Students often become obsessed with lining up only those courses that might help them imagine a straight path to economic success after graduation. In this rush, the idea that the College is also a place for intellectual growth is compromised.” No matter what their academic interests, one quality MHC alumnae share is a hunger for knowledge that makes learning a lifelong pursuit.
www.alumnae.mtholyoke.edu