The University of Idaho is a diverse community of ten different colleges with the College of Letters, Arts & Social Sciences being the largest one. Within nine different departments, this college currently offers 47 degree programs to roughly 2,000 students, most of them being customizable, and seven offered fully online. The dean, Sean Quinlan, says that student experience and student success are their number one priority.
“We often talk about the ‘four pillars’ of experiential learning: study abroad, internships/professional experience, undergraduate research and creative activity and service learning,” Dean Quinlan said. “We are hugely proud of our students, faculty and staff,” he adds.
With numerous supports available like tutoring, scholarship opportunities and events, CLASS ensures student success and helps them turn their passions into fruitful careers.
“…CLASS ensures student success and helps them turn their passions into fruitful careers.”
Saloni Khetan is a sophomore majoring in psychology and criminology. She is highly involved on campus, serving as the director of sustainability in ASUI as well as the Alternative Service Break lead for the Department of Student Involvement. She is also a member of the Delta Delta Delta sorority and the criminology club in CLASS.
“The criminology club has helped me a lot in the past year as I get to listen to different guest speakers such as FBI agents that give me insightful information about the field as they are already involved in it,” Khetan said.
One of her favorite experiences so far in her academic journey is when she toured the Moscow Police Department last year with the criminology club. It was a wonderful opportunity for her to see the new department and learn about the different services it has to offer. CLASS has helped Khetan in her professional and personal growth by networking and branching out her thought process and ambitions for the future. It has helped her make valuable connections and gain different skills related to her field.
“I am thankful for all the constant support and services offered by CLASS,” she said.
Studying abroad is another huge part of CLASS. With scholarships and support from faculty and staff at the International Programs Office, students like Cyndi Enderle are able to make their study abroad dreams come true. Enderle is a senior double majoring in history and English with minors in Asian studies and religious studies. She spent the fall semester of 2022 in Chiang Mai, Thailand exploring the culture, learning traditional music and dances, and traveling. For her, this was an eye-opening, life-changing experience.
“I wanted to learn about different perspectives of the world and also connect with my Asian ancestry, and with this opportunity, I was able to walk around and experience things for myself that I never thought I would be doing,” Enderle said.
With awards like the Freeman-Asia scholarship, CLASS’s David A. and Mary Alice Poe Study Abroad Scholarship and support from faculty and advisors, this study abroad experience solidified for Enderle that she wanted to have an international career, possibly working for the government or a non-governmental organization. Studying in a completely different environment in non-Western culture allowed her to realize her weaknesses when it came to adapting to new places and working on those weaknesses.
“A lot of the times in my history classes here, I felt like I was taught a Western hemisphere perspective of things,” Enderle said. “I was curious about the rest of the world and being there, I realized that the frameworks of what we are taught about understanding history here do not apply to those places, as they are so different.”
“I wanted to learn about different perspectives of the world and also connect with my Asian ancestry, and with this opportunity, I was able to walk around and experience things for myself that I never thought I would be doing.”
She hopes to go back someday and do things she did not get a chance to do before. Enderle recommends that everyone should do a study abroad program as it helps you understand your boundaries when it comes to being in another part of the world with a different culture and confronting yourself about them.
Besides research, creativity, study abroad and various other opportunities, CLASS is also known for its big events in theatre arts and music. One of the biggest events put on every year is the Lionel Hampton School of Music’s annual Jazz Festival. Jazz Fest is one of the biggest and oldest jazz festivals in the world. With student performances, workshops, concerts and more, it honors the legacy of Lionel Hampton’s music career and honors jazz music in its true form. This year, the festival is running from April 19 to April 22 with over four hundred student performances, a dozen world-class artists and nearly a hundred workshops, clinics, and special exhibits. Since the 1960s, this jazz festival has brought together music masters from elementary to high school and college students to share and celebrate the history of jazz music.
With limitless opportunities like this and no bound to creativity, CLASS is home to thousands of optimistic, gifted Vandals. It is proudly the biggest and most diverse college at UI and is an important part of the Vandal community.