Finding a good class to keep you excited and ready to learn can be tricky sometimes. You can look through hundreds of interesting classes that NC State has to offer and find yourself very overwhelmed with all the different opportunities. Then the email about next semester’s registrations comes and you feel totally lost about what classes to even look for. In order to help make the process much smoother, I’ve asked a few students within the department about some of their favorite classes.
Aidan Justus, a senior sociology major, said some of her favorite classes were COM 466: nonprofit leadership and development and SOC 381: sociology of medicine.
Nonprofit leadership and development is a “hands-on class where you learn through work with a non-profit community partner,” said Aidan. Classes that are more than lecture slides can also make your schedule much easier and give time to take a break throughout the long school day. COM 466 even has a Facebook page that allows students to connect with others in the field of nonprofits as well as anyone looking to get to know others in the class.
Sociology of medicine follows how health and society overlap with things such as medicalization and diseases. Justus said “learning about the social determinants of health and fundamental cause theory helped me better understand concepts in other sociology courses because of how intertwined health is with social factors.” Sociology is like a pyramid, each class building on one another to better understand society as a whole and classes such as SOC 381 helps us become well rounded students.
Sarah Isenhour, a senior criminology major, said one of her favorite classes is PSY 370: personality and SOC 401: theories of social interaction.
PSY 370: personality goes through personality theories and applies them to human behavior. Sarah enjoyed this class because she “loved getting to take personality assessments and doing a deep dive into different personality types.”
Theories of social interaction talks about micro level sociological theorists and allows students to apply sociology on a much more personal level. Sarah enjoyed how she better understood how we interact with each other on a personal level compared to sociology that is much more of a wide scale conversation.
As for myself, I enjoyed ANT 252: cultural anthropology with Joshua Friedman my freshman year. Anthropology has so many different components that make the subject so applicable to any major within our department. I not only applied my sociology knowledge, but I got to understand another angle to view society. Friedman taught me so much about what anthropology is and how to apply it to my everyday life. His lectures were always interesting and personal in a way that made me feel like an individual within class rather than a number in the system, making my learning process much more fascinating.
I also enjoyed SOC 204: sociology of family, which goes over the American family structure and how it affects society. This class allowed me to look into family dynamics on a deeper level and how they have changed over time from a nuclear family to a much more diverse family. I loved talking about different sitcoms such as Modern Family and how these shows portray a shift in society with how we view the household.
Overall, classes are supposed to be fun and while stress will always be involved, a good class to break up the stressful workload helps wonders. While we further our education in order to become experts in our chosen field, we also should pick classes that excite us. So, when looking for classes to add to your cart, keep a few of these in mind!
This story was written by Department of Sociology and Anthropology student ambassador and criminology major Abby Summerlin.
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