By Emily Westerfield, westerec@miamioh.edu
According to a study conducted by Gallup in 2013, 71 percent of Americans in the workforce are "not engaged" or are "actively disengaged" in their work. How can well over half of working Americans hate their jobs? It might just be that the presumably well-intentioned articles pertaining to the most and least "valuable" college majors, which is usually determined by the average income after college graduation, are intimidating college students into majoring in something that will propel them into an initially high-income, as opposed to a fulfilling, career.
Young adults who are passionate about studying the humanities and want to learn for the inherent value of learning are being conditioned by the media to believe that in order to obtain a job after they graduate, it is necessary that they stick to the fields of business, math, or science.
However, those fields are better left for people who are genuinely interested in studying them. Undergraduates who, if they are being completely honest with themselves, want to major in the humanities should not be afraid to go wholeheartedly in the direction of their interests.
So how can the negative connotation associated with a liberal arts education be changed? First, greater value needs to be placed on intellectual development as opposed to career preparation in college. According to a national survey conducted by the American Association of Colleges and Universities, over 90 percent of business and nonprofit leaders that were surveyed indicated that the ability "to think critically, communicate clearly, and solve complex problems is more important than [someone's] undergraduate major."
These employers also said that they value recent college graduates "with skills that will help them contribute to innovation in the workplace", and that they want to hire people who "demonstrate ethical judgment and integrity; intercultural skills; and the capacity for new and continued learning."
So majoring in something like Philosophy, which can enhance one's ability to think more broadly and creatively, can yield benefits above and beyond those of a more technical major.
In a society obsessed with hard facts and statistics as well as the desire for convenience, it can be difficult to jump off the bandwagon and start walking your own path. Although it will be harder to stray from the path that seems to be already laid out if you, it will be worth it to pave a path of your own and let your current interests and passions guide you.
If you still have doubts, check out a list of liberal arts majors who are now extremely successful business leaders, from history majors to English nerds. It goes to show that as an individual, anyone has the power to become extremely successful despite the statistics that may cause people to think otherwise.
Another idea that deters students from pursuing a broad, liberal arts education is an appealing, yet ultimately meaningless, general picture of "success". There are these incredibly ambitious and hard-working undergraduates out there imagining themselves in a white doctor's coat shaking the hand of another "very important person" or sitting in a lavish office with a view of the city and equate just that vision in and of itself with success and fulfillment. How much do those things, those outward visions of "success" actually mean?
Where is the person beneath it all? Planning is a natural instinct and there is value in the ability to make plans regarding one's future career. Planning becomes detrimental when it causes people to forget what it is they are passionate about in the midst of it all.
Many college students don't consider that the ultimate life that they are capable of living can only happen if they are studying and participating in what they are passionate about right now.
The only thing undergraduates have to do in order to obtain the career that gives them true satisfaction is follow their bliss.
It's impossible for someone's passion in life to lead them astray. If you pursue a path built on something you love.
This point was perhaps summarized best by Steve Jobs, in his commencement speech at Stanford University, "You cannot connect the dots looking forward.You can only connect them moving backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future."
This is the core though behind a liberal arts kind of study. It's not always about connecting your present day to day life to a successful future, it's about finding the best part of your day and making it your future.