Learning for the Sake of Learning

Matriculating at Penn as a pre-med, I was laser-focused on my academic goals: complete my core courses, graduate with a competitive GPA, and get into a top medical school. Before even arriving at Penn, however, I was horrified to learn that General Chemistry I, a prerequisite for higher-level life science classes like Organic Chemistry, would not fit into my schedule. With just a few days left in the course selection period, I grudgingly registered for Asian-American history, one of the only remaining open classes, to meet my credit requirements. A STEM-oriented person my entire life, I braced myself for a tedious semester of dull readings and essays.

As the semester progressed, I found myself reluctantly enjoying the material and the teaching style of Dr. Azuma, a passionate professor who regularly engaged in back-and-forth dialogue with his students. In his class, I learned about how first-generation immigrants like my own parents, whose past I’d barely heard about, crossed the ocean to an unfamiliar new land and the loneliness and homesickness they must have surmounted along the way. Every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon was a welcome relief from the world of proteins and chemicals and professors who lectured to hundreds of students in packed auditoriums. Albeit unintentionally, stepping outside my major track has given me the privilege of reconnecting with pieces of my own family and culture.

So, to all the prospective students: It’s easy to get tunnel vision during your four years at college. It’s easy to get caught up in the trap of calculating which courses will double count, which classes will help you graduate the soonest, which seem the most impressive on a transcript. I understand this as much as anyone; I came into college feeling the same way. But unabashedly pursuing classes and topics that genuinely fascinate you, be it psychology or cinematography or statistics, constitutes one of the most rewarding parts of the college experience: the opportunity to explore, develop, and discover your passions. And there is nowhere in the world that offers a more rich, diverse range of ways to do so than Penn.

- Ethan Z.