Top 5 Unique Class Situations In College

I have had more than my fair share of classes as I have taken close to 170 credits in my time at Boise State and while I have won way more accolades and have gotten way more attention for my leadership things (in a couple of blogs my leadership situations that are unique will be blogged about- for the next two I will do classes and sports situations followed afterwards by unique trip situations and to have as the 2nd-to-last blog before my Hot Bott 100 the unique situations with friendships as I have had many of those too), I have also gotten close to a B average in college and have thoroughly done well since Fall of 2014 with slightly more than a B+ average (in Research Methods, Intro To Environmental Studies, Intro To Non-Profit Management, Global Environmental Science, Relational Leadership, Communication Theory and Philosophy, Seinfeld Philosophy and Politics, Intro To Media, and Comm Tech and Social Change, the only cake classes were P/F in that time- P.E. and Yoga so of course I'm proud of this fact), and I have learned even more and continued to find interesting class tidbits of constraints and opportunities along the way. Without boring too much more in the explanation, here is a short description of the top 5 unique class situations in college:

5. Comm Tech and Social Change (Summer of 2016): the octagonal class setting was unique as was the course content- there has never been such a theoretical component and also funny podcasts, videos (including my introduction to John Oliver and a clip of Big Bang Theory), and other ideas of what technology looks like. The prof was good in some respects and he made class fun when he wasn't nit-picking my behavior. All this plus the fact that there were 10 people in the class that were amazing friends or became amazing friends due to the lack of class size makes it even more unique.

4. Design Thinking (Fall of 2012): This class was super unique in the make-up of the class: a lot of part-time students, a few non-traditional students, an international student, a number of students who were in different disciplines, a number of students that loved Boise State and a number of students that were a bit apprehensive about it. The professor always had us doing fun things (some of which is on my wall to this day), and I learned almost as much about leadership and innovation as I did about art in this class. Also having it at night was good because it created community for the people in the class further.

3. Leadership Capstone (Fall of 2011): Another class make-up that was unique particularly for an upper-division class of a unique discipline: there were 3 Latino students in the class, 1 Native American, 1 person who had epilepsy, 2 people with dual diagnosis, and 1 person who was a white Republican male with none of those issues at hand. In a different situation, the 6'4" white male who was a former football player and a huge fan of Reagan would be able to be feel slightly more included in class because of the lack of spiral of silence, but in this class, he was the minority. I think that was the only class that was that small were I felt that. Kind of crazy. Bonus points for having a girlfriend at the time that was in the class. That threw the dynamic off real quick.

2. Gender Studies (Spring of 2012): I thought that having a class where there was open discussion and other various implementations (Service Learning, book club, tests, quizzes, writing, extra credit, activities, and so on) would've been a bit much for most situations that I'm in. However at that point with my living situation at the time being the way it was, I needed to feel like I was taking 14 credits even though I was taking 7, so it was perfect. That being said, the class population of males only one or two haven't outed themselves by now and the population of women in the class while only twice as much more than the men was super diverse in ethnicity, in privilege, in situations of upbringing, and other demographics of knowledge of the subject. Extra points for having a professor who was probably the best (and hardest) professor I've ever had- she is still a close colleague to this day and I am super appreciative of all that she does for Boise State and the community.

1. Peer Theater Troupe (Spring of 2009): A unique class in that we acted afterwards for the public while keeping everything confidential prior to performing. Also unique in that the crash course of gender studies and feminism and then going to performing and a crash course in that as well. The dynamic of people where there were 3 people who were outed as bisexual at the time and one who would be outed later and 2 people who while heterosexual were women and were from progressive families which is unique being from Idaho. I appreciated the fact that the women in the class were mentors at the time and I still see progressions of their leadership now. And the prof of the class is one of my heroes too. I am so lucky to have been in all of these unique situations and I'm looking forward to potentially a few more after this semester Go Broncos!