Ep. 59 - What are the Liberal Arts and Liberal Studies majors?

In Episode 59 of the CSUSB Advising Podcast, Matt Markin chats with Dr. Dany Doueiri about both the Liberal Arts and Liberal Studies majors! What are the differences? Is this the best major to teach? Is this type of degree a better fit for careers after graduation? 

Check out the Liberal Studies website!

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Transcript

Matt Markin

Welcome to another episode of the CSUSB advisor podcast. My name is Matt Markin, and academic advisor here at Cal State San Bernardino. And on today's episode, we're learning all about the Liberal Studies program, including the liberal arts major, and the Liberal Studies major. And we have a returning guest with us today. And that's Dr. Dany Doueiri, or as I call him, Dr. Dany.  Dr. Dany, welcome back.

Dr. Dany Doueiri

Thank you so much for having me today, Matt, and really looking forward to having a beautiful chat with you and also being informative for prospective students.

Matt Markin
Yeah, absolutely. And I know we have a lot of students that we meet with that are very much interested in the Liberal Studies program. And usually our first question is to tell us a little bit about yourself. But you've been a guest on our podcast for two episodes. And so if you're listening, and you're interested to learn more about Dr. Dany's background, you can check out Episode 24, or even Episode 30, where we chat about the Arabic Major. So Dr. Dany, let's dive right in. How would you describe the Liberal Studies program, including the two majors?

Dr. Dany Doueiri
That's great. Thank you. Yes, Liberal Studies is the Liberal Studies bachelor's. So we have two bachelor's degree, the Liberal Studies bachelors and then the liberal cities and the liberal arts under the Liberal Studies program. And then I'll talk a little bit about what's in the Liberal Studies bachelor's, because that also does a couple of tracks. But regardless of the tracks that a person wants to do under deliver studies program for the Liberal Studies bachelor's, it is usually a pathway for people who want to go into teaching elementary schools. And for a metric, you know, level, we're talking about kindergarten to fifth grade, and some school districts haven't what you call multiple subject or, or multiple subject teacher all the way up to eighth grade. So if somebody wants to, or interested in teaching anywhere between K through fifth, all the way to K through eight, depending on the district, a Liberal Studies, bachelor's degree is probably one of the best way to do it. There are other pathways to become an elementary school teacher. But this is probably one of the best way to do it. Because it has a lot of classes that are really geared to prep the students before they go into a teaching credential. So usually, you're going to get a four year for the bachelor's degree. And after that, you're going to do anywhere between a year to a year and a half to even up to two years, depending on how fast a person wants to finish for teaching credential. But that fulfills the bachelor's degree or what you call the content requirement. And in the Bachelor's Degree in liberal studies, there's a lot of there are a lot of classes that tell you for example, math, in the classroom, teaching science in the classroom, teaching, dance, art, all of these very important contents teaching English in the classroom. So there are classes that are really specific on training you instead of just knowing the material itself, and then being thrown into the classroom, these classes are that the drug prepares you to, to see what to expect once you go into the classroom. It has also some classes in it the talk about child development, understanding how children develop and also about observation. On the other hand, the Bachelor's Degree in liberal arts is what traditionally in the United States is known as a liberal arts degree, which is a very broad focus. So you don't go into one topic, and then you go into depth in it. But you get the chance to know about many, many topics, you learn philosophy, music, art, whatever, economic social sciences, so it's very, it's a general education degree, almost because you learn a lot on the surface, you become very broad minded. And it opens up a lot of doors for careers for actually a wide variety of careers. As a matter of fact, many companies today say we just want somebody who's a team worker who knows how to think, a critical thinker, somebody who knows how to write. And we really don't care about their training and college because once we get them into our company, we will train them. So you'll see it all the way from the private sector. We even computer scientists all the way to places like medical fields like even UC Riverside's, if you go to their website, they say, We really don't care about your bachelor's, go get it in languages, we'll come train you but just be broad minded. So they're really totally different focus, the both of them will eventually allow a person to teach in the multiple subject credential, because the laws have little bit soft enough because of the shortage.

Matt Markin
So would you say like what, with both of these and more of a liberal arts that you're learning a little bit about everything in a sense?

Dr. Dany Doueiri
Absolutely. You're learning about everything while in a Liberal Studies you're learning also what everything may be a little bit less with a focus on one day becoming a teacher, elementary school teacher. 

Matt Markin
Yeah, and you're a veteran with liberal studies that there might be different focuses or concentrations within within this within the major?

Dr. Dany Doueiri
Yes. So if somebody wants to say you can say, You know what I would really like to become an elementary school teacher, the other to eighth grade, because some schools, as I said, will have one teacher to teach the students in all subject matters. They have multiple tracks. So one track would be what you call an integrated track. And so in an integrated track, a student gets into the Liberal Studies, bachelor's degree, but they don't graduate from it. Right, when they finish the content requirement, they started teaching credential, it usually saves them couple of classes, maybe three or four classes, so it's a little bit faster, it also saves them a little bit of money to get into the program. In that case, they're gonna have to get their credentials here with us at Cal State. So they go from the College of Arts and Letters, which host liberal studies to the College of Education to get their teaching credential. Another one will be the general track, general track, somebody finishes four years. And then once they do, they can come back with us reapply for the credentials program, or they can go to another university to get their credential or credentials and a master's degree at the same time, which our university has and other universities have. And the third track is a Spanish concentration. As you know, in California, we have a predominantly Spanish speaking community and very important community. So it prepares students to, to learn a little bit about the language and the culture, in the hopes of once they start their teaching credential, they will be able to get something it's an extra layer of credentialing. It's called an authorization bilingual authorization. So if they do the Spanish track, they can tag-a-long on it a bilingual authorization that makes them usually a little bit more competitive, more understanding, and then really marketable to enter the teaching profession.

Matt Markin
Wonderful. Now, you might have a student that might say, Well, which one should I do in terms of like the track if they're looking to do you teach? And do you have any advice for that student?

Dr. Dany Doueiri
Yeah, so of course, this is a 20 minute show, and we'd like to really take it in depth, it truly depends on the students circumstances. So one of the things we tell students whether somebody is a new person or somebody who finished from high school entering your campus, or as a transfer from community college, is take our CAL 2970. CAL is the core course code ca and for college arts and letters 2970. It's actually a requirement for the program. But usually we ask them to take it at the first semester because the discussion about which strike is best is something that is discussed in depth. Now ever students still have not made up their mind or still have not explored if they want to do the program. They can contact the Liberal Studies program so they can go to Cal State San Bernardino's website to show you that you put Liberal Studies or the Google that will set is there there are links to either meet some of the faculty advisor or the coordinator of the program, or the PALS at the PALS office. That's the peer ambassadors of the Liberal Studies program. So these are students who have gone through the program, and we only select people who are usually sometimes people have taken all of the tracks or like some students in this track, and the other one they know very well, they're trained properly. So if a student wants to talk to another appear student, they can make an appointment with them, if they want to talk to an advisor, they can talk with him or her or them, or they can talk to the coordinator directly or take the class.

Matt Markin
Yeah, and for the power center that you're mentioning, if a student is doing Liberal Studies, or if they're doing liberal arts doesn't matter which one they're doing to meet with the PALS Center?

Dr. Dany Doueiri
No, the PALS Center is open to all of them, even open for people who are in different majors, who are considering about switching up actually about 1/3 of the Liberal Studies, program major. So whether liberal arts or liberal studies are students who were in another major and then decided to come into Liberal Studies. And sometimes students may be into like childcare, early child development, which is also pathway to teach elementary, but the early childhood or the child development major allows students to teach K through third grade instead of to the fifth grade or eighth grade. So usually we say if for people that you know, maybe sometimes they started teaching young kids and then later on said, you know, I'd like to broaden my spectrum. We say maybe you want to consider a Liberal Studies major, because that will allow you to go K through fifth all the way to eight, depending on the school district.

Matt Markin
Wonderful. And so like you were also mentioning with the CAL 2970, kinda like the intro class. So if a student's not liberal studies, but maybe they're interested in teaching, would that student be able to register for the CAL 2970?

Dr. Dany Doueiri
Thank you so much. Yes. So this class is not a bypass permit only it's not a by invitation only. And we do have students who take it sometimes just because they want to explore it. That's a great question. Yes. three unit class, usually, I mean, traditionally, this class has always met only once, in person. So there's a lot of interaction and a lot of questions for them to explore. Usually, it's an afternoon and we have two sections, usually one in the main campus and one in the Palm Desert campus. So if students are in the Coachella area, and they would like really to explore that field, which is a great field, and usually this is one of the fields that you're going to find a job, there are some fields that you study and say, you know, what, I'm not sure, if I'm gonna get a job within my major. Usually, there is such a huge shortage for teachers that people with the Liberal Studies degrees, if they choose to go and that continue for a teaching credential, usually they're gonna find a job, it's there's a huge shortage, a lot of people have retired and you're already always had the shortage of teachers. So we hope people will consider it, though I say, don't do it, because it's a career almost guaranteed. But do it because you're passionate about it, there's a lot about teaching. This is if somebody wants to do two Liberal Studies, then just getting the degree or get the benefit from it. While there are some benefits, it is very important for somebody to go in it, because they're really passionate about being with children and transforming their lives.

Matt Markin
Now, are there any misconceptions that you think people might have about like liberal arts or the Liberal Studies majors?

Dr. Dany Doueiri
Yeah, so so we have to catch it early in the game, in some community colleges, and I have great respect for all the advisors and community colleges. Sometimes people or counselors tell students that Liberal Studies degree is the same as liberal arts, or sometimes in some community college, they do not have a liberal studies a degree and they only have a liberal arts degree, which is totally fine, because people can come with an AA degree in liberal arts, and then come here and then choose a liberal studies if this is what they want to do, or they could continue liberal arts. So there is some I mean, so from the advising point of you want to make sure that students are aware of it, advisors are aware of that. We also want to make sure that people can know that a liberal arts degree opens itself to so many careers, Liberal Studies will also open to many careers. But liberal arts is such a wide. I mean, it's a key to, to great things. And and there are many colleges in the United States that are traditionally Liberal Studies, college and liberal arts colleges. And that's what a person does. They study some of each, and later on, see what goes to the heart and then choose a career after after that.

Matt Markin
And then last question, are there any resources that your department offers that that students might want to know about?

Dr. Dany Doueiri
Yeah, so if, if they want to go into the Coachella Valley campus, usually the teacher who teaches stays there and advises and has office hours there. And if they wanted to come to the main campus, we are always there. I mean, you're passionate about saying even after hours even we're talking about potentially opening it on Saturdays so that we are available to the students. You know, we have an office is in great kids and CE, that's the College of Education room 114, they're very welcome to come stop by and that offers a lot of resources that students would have to pay money for usually such as getting free coffee, so the space gives you free coffees free Scantrons. For all majors, even though we need to print something, they can come just use the carry one card and still print. They're always snacks, we're always passionate about making sure our, our our students are well fed. So while there are some on healthy snacks, like chips and candies, also lots of fresh fruits and you know, some some other healthy snacks that we make available. We're there for them. We're there for all of you, students, if you're listening here. We're passionate about it. Nobody should ever go into teaching, if they're not passionate about it. And we're really there to serve the students.

Matt Markin
Although today, I appreciate you being on the podcast again and returning back and now talking about the liberal arts and Liberal Studies majors. And we'll also make sure to include the website information in our show notes. But Dr. Dany, thank you so much.

Dr. Dany Doueiri
Thank you so much for having me, Matt. And good luck was going on of our students and always being there. I've always said and people know that. I always bring my students regardless of their major when I have a problem. I bring them to your office, because you you yourself are so helpful. And then your whole office team are really everybody is so welcoming. So for all students, if you're not in the Liberal Studies program, at least go to academic advising and then get the best advice you can ever wish for. So thank you so much for having me.