I have taken a lot of different classes at UCI, and from a lot of different schools. My transcript includes the School of the Arts, the School of Humanities, the Paul Merage Business School, the School of Physical Sciences, and the School of Social Sciences. While that’s obviously not every school at UCI, it’s a definite mix of topics and disciplines. 

With this mix in mind, I wanted to share the classes that I think everyone should take, regardless of their major. 

WR 30 / WR 31 – Intro to Poetry Writing / Intro to Fiction Writing

Writing 30 and Writing 31 look very similar to one another in the course catalog, and extremely innocuous. Writing 30 is described as, “Beginners’ workshop in the writing of poetry, evaluation of student manuscripts, and parallel readings,” while Writing 31 is described as, “Beginners’ workshop in fiction writing, evaluation of student manuscripts, and parallel readings.” With virtually no difference in the descriptions, and virtually nothing being described, you may be wondering why these courses are on this list. 

The simple answer is that they’re fun classes! I’m someone who thoroughly enjoys reading and writing, and these courses allow me to do just that. The more complex answer is that these classes are fun, develop your writing skills, and expose you to writers and stories you might not find elsewhere in the curriculum. And not just any writers and stories, but some truly great writers and stories that are skimmed over in other classes. 

For my beginning fiction class (Writing 31), we read “Sonny’s Blues” by James Baldwin, and “Brownies” by ZZ Packer. For my beginning poetry class, we read contemporary works — from writers such as Natalie Diaz, Kevin Young and Dean Young (no relation).  In both cases, I read work that I may not have found elsewhere at UCI. 

Plus, in these classes you gain some very important life skills, the biggest one being how to give and receive feedback in a positive and productive way. Both classes involve workshops; workshopping your own work as well as your classmates, and I’ll be the first one to admit that sharing your creative writing with strangers is scary. But in these classes the workshops are very structured, and they help you learn how to effectively communicate critique. You learn the nuances of telling someone how to improve something, and gain the ability to give more precise praise, all while improving your own creative writing skills and learning how to take constructive feedback.

Dance 14 – Social Dance 

Social Dance (Dance 14) is a 2 unit pass/no pass beginner dance class offered by the school of the arts. And it is so much fun. 

I am a huge fan of the UC Irvine beginner dance classes. I think they provide a great, consistent workout (like P.E. but actually fun!), and they’re an extremely positive and welcoming environment, available to people with years of experience. The description in the course catalog reads, “Current and historical forms that may include ballroom, disco, square dance, Latin styles, and other social dances from the early-to-mid 20th century.” While the version of the class that I took focused on partner dancing, the more recent COVID-friendly versions have focused on teaching multicultural dances. So beyond getting some physical activity in, you can also learn about other cultures. 

Having some sort of physical activity scheduled into your week is extremely beneficial for multiple reasons. For starters, being physically active is important for our health. According to the 2nd edition of the Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans, “ adults should do at least 150 minutes (2.5 hours) to 300 minutes (5 hours) a week of moderate-intensity, or 75 minutes (1.25 hours) to 150 minutes (2.5 hours) a week of vigorous-intensity aerobic physical activity, or an equivalent combination of moderate- and vigorous-intensity aerobic activity.” Dance classes are typically twice a week for 1.5 hours, totaling up to 3 hours a week of moderate-intensity aerobic physical activity. 

Additionally, this is one class that you probably won’t have to look at a screen for. In our new age of online or hybrid learning it’s not uncommon to spend multiple hours in a row, every single day, staring at a screen. These hours of screen time are highly irritating to our eyes, and can even cause headaches. But with a dance class that’s physically engaging like this one, you won’t have to worry about that! 

MGMT 1 – Introduction to Business and Management

Management 1 is probably the least fun course on this list, but it could end up being one of the most helpful. It is described in the course catalog as a, “Rigorous overview of major business functions and management topics. [It] Addresses the global and fast-changing environment in which modern business enterprises operate as well as the challenges posed by concerns about sustainable growth, ethics, and social responsibility.” 

What does all this mean? Well, it means that the class is essentially a crash course in major business topics, such as Economics, Marketing, Business Ethics, Entrepreneurship, etc. The reason that this course is on this list is because we live in a capitalistic society, and, as such, understanding how businesses are run will help us succeed in the long term. 

Being able to market yourself, understanding what a capitalistic system is and why we operate under it, how to become an entrepreneur, all of these topics are important and they’re things that you normally won’t learn outside of a business or economics course. I would strongly encourage everyone to take this course, because understanding business will help you succeed. 

Physics 20B – Cosmology: Humanity’s Place in the Universe

Cosmology, also known as Physics 20B, is a very interesting course on the physics of space, and the origin of everything. The description in the course catalog reads, “An overview of the origin, evolution, and ultimate fate of the Universe. Galaxies and dark matter. The Big Bang and dark energy. Ancient world models.” 

What this means is that this class covers everything from Aristotle’s models of the Galaxy, to Stephen Hawking’s thoughts on space time. My personal favorite part was being able to actually do the math that some of these brilliant scientists have done. Things like figuring out how far away a star is based on the wavelength of the light it emits, and being able to calculate the size of a planet based on its distance from us. And it’s not difficult math either! It never dips into calculus — everything stays firmly rooted in algebra. 

While this class doesn’t really develop life skills, it’s fascinating information, and the knowledge is helpful in understanding how the physical world around us operates. You will literally do the math yourself and understand how these theories were developed. 

LJ 101A – History, Theory, & Ethics of Literary Journalism

While LJ101A, the History, Theory, and Ethics of Literary Journalism is the hardest class to get into on this list (it’s the only one with multiple classes as prerequisites), it’s also one of the most interesting. 

Taught by Barry Siegel, Director of the UCI Literary Journalism program and Pulitzer Prize winning journalist, this course is a required course for all Literary Journalism Majors and Minors. The description in the online course catalog reads, “Lectures and discussion on topics that explore the historical and theoretical dimensions of literary journalism, with particular emphasis on the evolution of ethics in the field,” but I think the better description is the one from the UCI Literary Journalism website, “The “New Journalism” that began to appear in the 1960s was far from “new.” Writers have long strived to craft nonfiction that adopts the aims, techniques and standards of the finest fiction.”

“In this course, students will study some of those writers, among them Stephen Crane, Jack London and George Orwell. Students will then look at how the early pioneers inspired and influenced later literary journalists such as John Hersey, Lillian Ross, A.J. Liebling, Joseph Mitchell, Truman Capote, Gay Talese, Tom Wolfe and Michael Herr. At each stage, our central focus will be the evolution of ethics in literary journalism. Covenants with readers versus covenants with subjects; fundamental truth versus factual accuracy; the blurred lines between fiction and journalism; entering the minds of your characters; reconstructing past events; imposing meaning by seeing /stories/ in situations—literary journalists wrestle with these issues constantly. So will we in this course.” 

In terms of the benefits of taking this class, it’s kind of like a combination of the Intro to Poetry/Fiction Writing and the Intro to Business and Management; it will teach you soft skills and practical life skills as well. 

The practical life skills it’ll help you develop are primarily the ability to critically analyze journalism pieces through an ethical lens. Journalism, and the way the news is reported and consumed, is an extremely important facet of our society. Being an informed person is important, but being able to critically examine the information presented to you is even more important, especially when ethics are concerned. 

The more soft skills you’ll develop are your argumentation abilities. While the class never turned into an outright debate while I was taking it, the whole class is essentially a discussion on ethics around the topic of literary journalism. It’s inevitable that people in your class are going to have opinions that don’t agree with your own, and this class helps you learn how to deal with this difference in opinion. 

Additionally, you get to read some really incredible works in this class. In Cold Blood by Truman Capote and Hiroshima by John Hersey are two stand-out books from this class, along with Gay Talese’s “The Voyeur’s Motel”. These stories, and this class, are powerful prompts for self reflection, and examination of one’s own ethical and moral compass, and isn’t that what college is all about—self discovery? 

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College is a time to figure stuff out, about yourself, your world, and your life. Part of figuring those things out involves trying new things. With that being said, even if you don’t enroll in any of the courses recommended here, I strongly encourage you to enroll in a class outside of your major, and better yet outside your school of study. You never know what you may discover about yourself when you learn something new.

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