As the Spring 2025 semester scheduling times arrive, students strive to choose classes that are not long and tiresome, but rather interesting. Ohio University students are in luck, as there are countless courses that not only fulfill requirements but make learning fun and engaging.
Depending on a student’s major, required classes can range from anthropology to statistics, to global politics and language courses. These required classes are taught by successful and talented professors; however, they sometimes do not appeal to every student’s interests.
Each student’s personality and preferences are different and include a wide variety of hobbies, likes and dislikes. In light of this, OU recognizes each student by allowing them to explore their most wild and daunting hobbies inside the classroom.
Giana Ray, a freshman studying political science pre-law, is enrolled in the class Sociology through Film, which focuses on horror movies. The class has watched several movies including “The Blair Witch Project” directed by Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sanchez and “Talk to Me” directed by Danny and Michael Philippou.
“I focus a lot on literature analysis … so I wanted to see a little bit more about that compared with sociology … and learn more about how (horror movies) produce fear through sociology concepts,” Ray said.
Ray said the class is helping her work toward future goals by reminding and encouraging her to analyze different forms of media and research other careers in English.
In addition to social science Bobcats watching horror movies, students with engineering majors have the opportunity to escape math and technology and explore other subjects. Bryan LaGuardia, a junior studying mechanical engineering, said his Global Occult: Ghosts and Demonology in World Religion class reviews several topics, including supernatural and paranormal investigations.
“I think a lot of people hear I’m taking it and are sort of taken aback, but it is really not quite as evil as it may sound,” LaGuardia said. “It is super interesting (and) a great way to get a perspective on a lot of different times in history, but also places in the world and different religions.”
Despite the class being online and unrelated to LaGuardia’s major, he said the class watches a new movie each week and interacting with classmates in discussion posts is encouraged.
“It teaches some important ideas of thinking critically and reading critically and being able to analyze different primary sources, especially being able to read a source and look at it from the historical perspective,” LaGuardia said. “Some of these very old texts are very different socially from our current day.”
It is evident that horror and demonology are not traditional classroom topics, but the university continues to motivate students to take classes not directly correlated with their majors. However, compared to those who enjoy a good scare, others prefer to practice healthy competition.
Nathan Smith, a junior studying field ecology, took the undergraduate research course PBIO 4941 his sophomore year and is now enrolled in PBIO 2900, a special topics course. Both classes work with the Student Spaceflight Experiment Program, known as SSEP, which is a “STEM Education Initiative” that aims to “inspire the next generation of America’s scientists and engineers.”
Students are formed into teams at the beginning of the semester and from there, each group writes a proposal about how their experiment will work, expand and impact the scientific field.
Smith said this course has increased his passion for science and believes exploring fascinating classes that educate but also make connections around campus is crucial.
“(The class) has really formed strong bonds, strong friendships,” Smith said. “It is incredible how close you can get with people within a month because you are all spending so much time on this project and you are dedicated to it.”
Every proposal is reviewed by OU’s professors and experts and the top three proposals are then sent to the National Center for Earth and Space Science Exploration. Smith said his team's proposal won last year and will be sent to space. More importantly, however, he is grateful for the writing and research skills he learned.
“There is nothing better to spur interest than doing something completely insane like trying to send something to space,” Smith said.
Spring semester is around the corner and it is important to remember the “college experience” encourages students to explore passions and express creativity both in and outside the classroom.
