Director of Enrollment and Student Affairs IAC

I’m not an INTA major, and to be honest, I’d be a pretty terrible one if I was. But I have to say that they are one of the most interesting parts of Liberal Arts at Tech, and I think everyone should try and take a cool INTA class at least once in college, one about a subject you are really interested in, or know absolutely nothing about.

For example, I’m terrible at keeping up with current events. I often have recurring stress dreams about being invited to a cocktail party and stuck in a conversation with someone about, say, Syria. “Syria what?” There’s been stuff going on there for decades, if not centuries.

Then I remind myself that I have fortunately had so much time and class lectures devoted to helping me learn about these topics, and to form educated opinions on them. For sure, I get overwhelmed when it comes to learning about the world. I mean, it’s international affairs. It is literally about the whole world. But something that I’ve been trying to do is think about which aspect of world politics and issues that I am most concerned with, and concentrate on knowing a lot about it. Like education, or diseases, or even pop culture. I’m typically a person of breadth and no depth, but an INTA class showed me just how impractical it is to think that you can and should be interested in everything. It showed me that I need to find some part of current events that I should be knowledgeable about, and follow up on, and immerse myself in so I can get rid of the “ignorance is bliss” mentality.

One of the stereotypes about INTA students is that they are extremely opinionated, and I will attest to that. But I think that is an awesome quality to have for the field, because if you had a political leader who was apathetic, what good would that do? Sometimes the intensity of discussions is contagious, and other times, it’s cool to just sit back and listen. You do want to be prepared for more “adult” talks as you get older and network with people, because as cliché as it sounds, current events will always be easy to talk about.

As a caveat, I do remember I had to take the first intro class to INTA, and I didn’t have that great of a time. It was a lot of theory that I wasn’t prepared for, but I guarantee it’s worth it if you want to take other INTA classes in the future. I’m so glad I did take the intro class, because later, I was able to take one of my favorite classes recently, US Foreign Policy with Dr. Markley this past fall. I was able to learn about an interesting framework to put into perspective every major decision America has made, and be able to use that when I read the news now. It’s important to be open-minded about the concepts you learn, because it honestly does help later on. I wish I had more time to take more courses like that one, but college is deceivingly short for taking all the classes you would like to.

I think INTA classes here are different from say, history classes, because they’ve shown me the past, and then asked me to think about the present and future. It’s a lot of “What Would You Do” type of exercises that become relevant when you think about the nature of the problem you’re exploring. One thing that I do wish I could learn at some point is the perspective of a country other than America; an unbiased discussion of the world. It can be frustrating when you are talking to friends from other countries who seem to know so much about what different countries do, and all we can talk about is our own. So I encourage others who feel that way to challenge themselves and learn on their own, outside of classes.

Another really underrated part of INTA is being able to learn how to articulate yourself, communicate, and write clearly. These are some of the trademark skills we talk about that sets liberal arts majors apart from technical majors. Most of us don’t, and would rather not, take English literature and writing classes anymore, but INTA is a cool way to refresh those skills and form new opinions on your own.

Free concert, gypsy jazz, earthquake rubble, bizarre rock lithifications, french toast sandwiches and teriyaki skewers, volcanic peninsulas, and way too much coffee. It shaped up to be a wonderful last travel weekend here in New Zealand.