#hannahcorpe

Everyone thinks their major is the best, and a lot of people have a point. All the majors at Tech have pros and cons to be weighed when trying to discuss which is the best. But consider this- it’s definitely HTS. Here are a few of the reasons why.

1. We have the most hours of free credits of any major on campus

Do you want to double major? Or get three minors? Or spend boatloads of time on extracurriculars without having to sleep for only 20 minutes a night? The great news is you can do all that with an HTS major. The benefit to more than one major or a minor or certificate is getting to understand curriculum from a different perspective, and not getting wrapped up in thinking HTS is the only important information to learn. It effectively doubles the size of the network of people you know, and you never know who might give you the amazing research question you’ve been looking for, or be the guy who knows the girl who helps you get your dream job. The benefit of extracurriculars that you’re devoted to as more than resume padding is the experiences. You learn valuable skills from every single activity you participate in, even if it’s not related to your major or the field you hope to be in after graduation. I didn’t realize how much practical knowledge I had gained about project management from working as an IAC Ambassador, or how much I learned from marching band about maintaining focus even when you’re exhausted. Both of those skills that I didn’t even know I was picking up serve me well in academic and  professional settings.

2. There are so few of us

This one is a blessing and a curse. On the one hand, there’s not a lot of us. When people on campus ask what my major is, and I say “History, Technology and Society” (the acronym just gets blank looks) I invariably get a “wow, that’s really cool”, or a “I didn’t know we even had a college of liberal arts”, or, my favorite, “so what are you going to do when you graduate?”. Because we’re one of the smallest majors on campus, we stay pretty obscure. But on the other hand, having so few of us means there’s a much smaller student-to-teacher ratio, and we have a lot more opportunities to build personal relationships and find mentors among the faculty, which is an incalculable advantage. That also means there’s a lot more room for meaningful leadership opportunities within the major- you’re not running against 50 other people to be the president of the honor society. Plus this way, you all get to know each other better. I text fellow HTSers  Kayla McManus-Viana and Kayleigh Haskin more often than some of my family members.

3. Dr. Amy D’Unger

How do I begin to explain Dr. Amy D’Unger? She’s flawless. I don’t think it’s exaggerating to say she’s one of the most organized, friendly, and dedicated advisors on campus. She is personally invested in seeing each one of her students succeed. I can send her an email about some random class I’m considering and not only will she remember what I’m talking about and how it fits in the rest of my schedule and projected trajectory, but will also have looked up 5 other classes like it that I can consider as well. When I was in my first semester of college, I’ve got to admit I was super hyper about everything and very annoying. So when I thought that the location of my first sociology class had been changed, I literally called her like an absolute madman. In reality I was in the right place, just not at the right time, which she kindly helped me figure out. She was really chill about the whole thing and I was super grateful (also I pray she doesn’t remember this but I’m pretty sure she has never forgotten a thing in her life so no especially high hopes there). Plus she’s also an incredible, very thorough teacher who can make the grimmest subjects (like the gender, state policy and social control seminar I took with her last fall) seem like some of the most interesting.

4. We have cool events

There are a lot of really cool events that are run through HTS, like the HCon party on Halloween, and the yearly openings of the Museum Studies class exhibits, and HSOC Club movie nights, and HTS Alumni networking events, and parties for the release of the courses of the upcoming semester, and attending the annual regional conference for Phi Alpha Theta, the national history honor society. Since there’s so few of us, you’re always guaranteed to see a friendly face, whether it’s a student or another faculty member. Also we order lots of vegan food and always get too much and it’s free for the taking. After the 2017 HCon I walked away with a two-liter of Coke and half a pan of stuffed grape leaves, which meant I didn’t have to worry about cooking the next day.

5. Professors are really willing to help you do research.

In December 2016, I decided I wanted to do research about the intersection of disease and politics in Tudor England, so it seemed sensible to see if Dr. John Tone, an expert on medical history, would be available to serve as my mentor or knew someone who could. I knew he was involved with helping lots of people do research, and also that he was the Associate Dean of the IAC, so I was pretty sure it would be the latter. But the words “Would you be interested in being my faculty advisor?” weren’t even out of my mouth before he was already looking up potential primary source documents for me to check out. He always helped me stay on track and helped me figure out what better questions I could be asking. Without his careful attention to detail and excellent recommendations, I would most certainly not have been able to finish my research and would probably have printed out my whole endnote library of information just for the pleasure of manually shredding it.

6. Geeking out

All the HTS majors and professors I know are into very different periods of history. For example, I’m into medieval England and ancient history, but Kayleigh is into Thatcher-era English history and Cold War Russia. Regardless, the shared passion for something that most people (at Tech at least) tend to categorize as “boring” at best and “pointless” at worst is a big uniting factor. We actually have an unofficial groupme which is pretty much exclusively HTS majors sharing historical memes. It doesn’t matter that all our specialties are on radically different topics. A mutual appreciation for finding out more about and understanding the past helps us all speak the same language. That love of geeking out together over cool little-known pieces of historical trivia is actually why this spring break Kayla, Kayleigh and I are all going to be taking a road trip out to the Grand Canyon on Route 66, which is going to be, in the vernacular, 100% lit.