Latest / NCSC College Connections / NCSC Podcast "College Connections" - Season 2, Episode 5 - " Liberal Arts-Social Sciences"

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NCSC Podcast "College Connections" - Season 2, Episode 5 - " Liberal Arts-Social Sciences" · NCSC College Connections

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Welcome to College Connections sponsored by north Central State College.
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  I'm Keith Stoner. This series was developed to help students
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  and parents explore higher education and make the best informed
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  choice for themselves and their families. Well, welcome back to
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  the podcast series sponsored by north Central State College. We're
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  talking today again about liberal arts and how important it
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  is in today's workplace, and I'd like to welcome doctor
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  Stephen Haynes. He's the dean of Liberal Arts at north
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  Central State College. And you know we're going to just
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  jump right in. We're exploring two subjects today that are
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  sometimes overlooked, often misunderstood, and part of that comes from
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  a standpoint of relevance. We're going to talk about social
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  science and humanities, and a lot of people just dismiss
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  that that that's education of the past. Nobody needs that,
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  But these are some truly valuable skills that employers are
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  looking for today.
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  Speaker 2: Yes, to say the least, I think I might have
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  said this before, but I'll say it again. These are
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  subjects that everybody kind of makes fun of today, like
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  what in the world are you going to do by
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  learning something in a lit class? Or what are we
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  going to do in history class? Why do I need
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  to learn a lot about dead people? I mean, how
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  is that relevant to my life? Well, it is absolutely
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  relevant your life, and it's only going to become more
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  relevant to your life. Let's just take literature for example. Right,
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  you know, I'm going to read a story and I'm
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  going to talk about it. How is that really going
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  to affect my future employment? Well, what are you doing
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  in there? You're looking at a perspective, You're looking at
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  what a person said or wrote, and you're interpreting it.
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  How many times do you have to listen to somebody,
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  read an email, read a report, read something, interpret it
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  and make something a value of it in your job
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  and your profession, in your life, make sense of it
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  and turn it into profit, turn it in into strength,
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  turned into whatever else.
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  Speaker 3: Well, in those subjects, literature, it's a nugget, it's a
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  nugget of time. It's a perspective on society at another time,
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  it's a it's something, it's a lesson from the past
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  about the way people thought and acted and responded and
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  performed at that time. Well, that's what we're looking to
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  put our mark on the future right now. So these
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  are great foundational nuggets to be able to build.
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  Speaker 2: On yes, and it goes to you know, literature goes
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  to philosophy. I mean, oh my gosh, I had you know,
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  what would I do to learn how to think? You
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  know what? You know? What? How is these grandiose you know, ideas,
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  visions of somebody had. How's that can affect well? What's
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  your bid rock kind of philosophy? You know? What is moral?
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  What is the right thing to do? What do you
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  do if somebody wrongs you? What if you do when uh,
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  somebody is wronging somebody else? That you see? Think about
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  how many the times that applies in your workplace and
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  how many and how do you properly respond to that?
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  These are things you think about, you learn about, and
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  then you can start to see how they apply to
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  your life. And again, all these skills are going to
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  set you apart in the workplace of the future. I mean, yes,
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  technology is going to do a lot for you, but
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  you can't replace these skills, these human knowledge skills of
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  how to deal with others and with knowledge and how
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  to best apply them.
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  Speaker 3: Well, certainly, certainly students can still you know, focus on
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  a pathway that aligns to you know, a really deep
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  dive into something you know, like you mentioned literature or
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  sociology or political science. Certainly they can still do that,
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  but when you get down to the core, every workplace
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  is a social environment. There are tons of interactions. You
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  have to be able to connect with others and work effectively.
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  Speaker 2: Yes, life is complicated. So if you know that or not,
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  how many different influences are there on any situation? Economic,
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  the past, person's knowledge, person's perspective, the perspective of all
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  your clients in a business, your boss, your suppliers, or
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  whatever else. How are you going to figure out how
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  that is going to operate. It's a very complex system.
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  And guess what you learn in things like history for example, Yeah,
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  you know, history is not just about memorizing dates. Absolutely,
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  you're asking the question of why this happened, Why did
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  something happen, why did it succeed or not seceed? What's
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  going on in that time? And life is just as
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  complex back then as was today. You learn from the
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  people what they did before, and all of a sudden
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  you have a basis of knowledge to deal with things today.
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  Speaker 3: And I think it's fair to say that from a
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  management standpoint, you're always going to be looking for team
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  members who can perform better with others that you can
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  get the perspective of what part of culture might influence,
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  you know, a decision making or a purchase decision, the
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  economic aspects of what's happening in the economy today. How
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  does that impact our business today? I think as a
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  management you're going to be looking for people who are
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  pretty adept with some of these skills that aren't necessary
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  one and done learned, but their skill sets that allow
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  you to analyze, adapt adjust, and really come up with
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  good perspectives on behalf of the company as it moves forward.
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  Speaker 2: Yes, it is stuff that you know, let's just say government.
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  How often does government change? You're represented as we vote
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  on every what two four years, six years? Right? Government's
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  changing all the time. What is that going to mean
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  for you and your business? That is something that's going
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  to be constantly you're going to have to deal with.
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  Think about how much that's going to help you if
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  you know what government does and works and not just
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  what they tell you on the news and just these
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  blurbs that people say, but what is the actual nuts
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  and bolts of what happens, what goes on, and start
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  looking at the person that's coming in and be able
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  to adjust beforehand, before those policies really take hold. It's
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  going to be huge advantages to anybody who knows these things.
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  Speaker 3: Right. We've said it before, We're going to say it again.
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  I'm sure over and over. We're teaching students how to learn,
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  not just what to learn. We're not just we're not
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  teaching them what to think. We're teaching them how to think.
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  These are skills that are just going to be so
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  invaluable as students, the graduates of today are going to
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  grow up into an environment that they're going to need
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  skills that we don't even understand today. And technology is
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  a big part of that. Knowing how to harness the
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  technology to be able to work through the challenges of
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  a future job environment. I just see it as being
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  a wonderful, wonderful set of assets for students to have today.
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  Speaker 2: Yes, it is what's really going to set you apart, because, yes,
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  a person's most likely, on average, they estimate going to
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  have what you know, twenty thirty jobs in life because
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  of the rise of technology. Those who are going to
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  be able to adapt to different situations, how to think,
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  how to learn very quickly, and how to apply that
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  in these professions are the ones who are going to
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  really set themselves apart and really strengthen their future in
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  this workplace of tomorrow.
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  Speaker 3: So I'm going to sum this up by saying, you know,
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  liberal arts aren't just nice to have, their critical to
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  have for the future workforce. We're learning from our past
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  to really impact the future positively, not just from an
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  employer standpoint, but from an individual's career standpoint. I want
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  to thank everybody for listening today. You've been listening to
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  doctor Stephen Haynes. He's the Dean of Liberal Arts at
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  north Central State College, and we're talking about the evolution
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  of education and how important liberal arts is today in
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  the workforce and in everybody's educational pathway. As I've said before,
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  this podcast is sponsored by North Central State College. If
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  you'd like more information about the programs that are available,
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  please go to Ncstatecollege dot edu. And I want to
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  thank doctor Haynes for being our guest today and for
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  all of you for listening. I'm Keith Stoner. We will
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  talk to you next time.