There are hundreds of classes to take at West Chester University. You can work on your flexibility in a variety of yoga classes or even learn how to make your own beer! There are some classes we drop in the first week because the professor is lecture-heavy and quite frankly seems a little boring, and then there are some classes we take and don’t want to miss a day of because we love that professor or class so much.
Too often you hear horror stories and are warned by your peers to absolutely not take a certain class because their cousin’s boyfriend’s neighbor took it and got a D-. But not often enough do we hear us praising the professors who are overall excellent.
We usually save most of our compliments for a small entry we can type into the Rate My Professor app. In this app you can uncover who the best professors are, who to take and who not to take. But I’ll make it easy for you: take these two classes and you will not regret it.
The first class is Love and Marriage (HEA 310). At first, most of the male population might roll their eyes when reading that, but there is much more to the class than those two words imply. Professor Kirsten DelGrippo makes the class interesting and interactive. She gets the class involved and truly puts the “student in the driver seat” as she likes to say.
The class is discussion-based and DelGrippo encourages everyone to be involved. You learn more about yourself and how to get in touch with your feelings. For example, there is an assignment entitled “Couples Interview.” For this assignment you interview a couple that has been married for longer than five years and ask them questions about the dynamics of their relationship. This changed the way I saw my parents’ marriage. My mom explained to me the hardships of their relationship and what she truly loved about my dad. I learned things about my own parents I would have never known. This is the type of approach she uses so we learn more about ourselves and how to create healthy relationships.
I asked DelGrippo why she thought this course was important and what she wanted students to get out of it. “I base my class around appreciating and promoting a value system that does not let you get persuaded by others and helps you create healthy relationships,” she responded. She also shared with me that she initially thought she was under-qualified to teach this course, but the head of the department thought she was perfect for it, and now after years of teaching it it’s her favorite course.
DelGrippo gives a ton of time between assignments and is very clear about how to do well in the class. I love going to this class every day and I look forward to the different and interesting discussions we have. The class is a writing emphasis course and will boost your morale—along with your GPA.
The next class is Body Politics (WOS 100) with professor Simon Ruchti. Ruchti teaches a variety of WOS courses, but this class in particular fulfilled my diversity requirement and was an entry-level course so it was the one I chose.
When I first went to this class in the huge lecture hall in Main, I assumed the professor would stand in front of the class and lecture all 300 of us for the full hour and 15 minutes, but I was pleasantly surprised by this class. It changed my views on a lot of topics and made me much more aware of the world. Instead of lecturing constantly, Ruchti actually gets discussions going and continues them for what seems like the whole class. By the end of the year, there were at least 50 different kids raising their hand to speak.
Ruchti would go around to every one of them and give them the microphone so the rest of the students could hear them. The different topics within Ruchti’s lessons are rather controversial, but this is what I believe holds students’ attention for the entire class. The class is about the topics that some people are afraid to speak of, things that many of us might not be aware of; Ruchti wants us to be aware of them so we can change it. Ruchti has an amazing story about his life he will share with the class. I feel honored to have had such an amazing person and teacher.
I strongly encourage everyone to take these two classes. Fit these in your schedule for next semester and you won’t regret it!
Carly Daley is a student at West Chester University. ✉ CD865044@wcupa.edu.