Raed Albloushy

Iowa State University

Fall 2019

CPRE 494: General Education Reflection.

During my time studying Engineering, I took many courses that are to be considered
general education courses. From music to religion to culture courses. I have gone through
interesting conversations and met unique people in all these classes. I think such courses
confirmed to me how the world needs many types of people in the working place and that we
need to learn how to work together. I think these interactions will help me in my engineering
journey by giving me the broader perspective about whatever I’m working on. Ultimately, the
end result for engineering whether directly or indirectly, is people.
The first Elective I took was a class at the university of Iowa called the History of Jazz.
At first, I got enrolled into this class just to satisfy a requirement but then I slowly realized how
this is a fun experience for me. There is a general stereotype among engineering that people who
are not in an engineering major are of lesser intellectual capacity. However, as I went through
this liberal arts class, I realized that, what seems mentally exhausting to me, could be a joy to
someone else. Knowing the specifics of a musical excerpt is not such an easy task. In a sense, it
gives you perspective that I eventually I might have to work with many people with different
majors. If for example I wanted to make a music app, the end customer is a musician, I would
need a music major student to help me visualize my customer needs.
Another General Education Course that I took was a course called Arab Culture (Arabic
375), I took this course in my Junior year at Iowa State. It was ironic for me to take this course as
I’m from an Arabic country, Saudi Arabia. Surprisingly, I learned interesting things in that
course as for example how different arab nations view each other personally and more on an
economic level. But I think one of the main important things I learned about was how American
Students perceived my culture. That class was mostly composed of American Students and
getting to know that there is much misinformation on both sides was intriguing. I said that
because it brings me to the point that I realized is an important thing for my future in
engineering. Working in the US as an engineer, there is often much diversity among the people
you end up working alongside, understanding their background and being respective of their
culture will help move towards that goal. This class gave me a chance to stand on the edge of
both cultures, American and Arabic Culture. Consequently, it formed to be a good exercise for
the future.

A class that I also took at Iowa State as an elective was a class called Religions of
America (Religion 210). One of the most important social problems in the world is understanding
religions and respecting each other’s beliefs. In that class I learned about many residing religions
in the United States and how some of them have been prosecuted in the past by either
 Raed Albloushy
Iowa State University
Fall 2019

government entities or people. It makes you think of how people sometimes tend to fear what Is
different to them and that could lead to catastrophic results such as an alienation of a group of
people based on their religion or some other criteria. I think this is a big deal because when you
look at the past, which is something I have been doing in a class called Germany 371 about the
German Holocaust ; You realize Genocides are born not just by government orders but also by
the support of the people especially in a democratic system.

Finally, I think my journey in Engineering has been well complemented by a set of

General education courses that have made me think more about inclusion, diversity and
understanding of people different from me. These classes also helped me understand that all
major fill some niches that society needs. All what I have learned will help me in self-
development as a human, as well it will also help me work with other engineers and non-stem
majors in the future.