Top Five Favorite APU Classes

I woke up this morning at 8am. It’s Monday, and for a split second I opened my eyes and thought about what I was going to have to do. Classes, practicing, homework, work, church stuff, cleaning or laundry…I mentally went through my check-list until I realized…I was done. I have finished all my music major requirements and all my biblical study requirements. All I have left is an Intro to Lit class and College Algebra. They will be “intensive” because they only last 4 or 6 weeks but compared to my 9 classes (3 writing intensive by the way), work, and church stuff…I think I can handle it.

Anyway, I’ve become somewhat reminiscent lately and my best friend, Andrea, gave me an idea to blog about a few of my favorite classes, so here it is. 

5. Any class with Dr. Sage. Ever. Seriously. The classes weren’t that great. Let’s be honest. I love music history a lot, actually, but Dr. Sage has one of those voices that after a few minutes you kind of just tune out. But he is one of the funniest professors I know. I mean, how can you not love such a quality professor who walks into class the first day of the semester and says, “Well class, let’s hope those Mayans were wrong!” and “Let me turn the lights off…after all, this IS a Late Romantic class.” Quality, I tell you. You have to pay attention to get his humor but let me tell you. It’s perfection.

4. Exo/Deut – “Exodus – Deuteronomy” for those of you who didn't catch that. It was actually a class studying the Pentateuch. I don’t know why it wasn’t Genesis – Deuteronomy, but whatever. It was my first bible class at APU freshman year, and not only did I meet one of my best friends, Jen, and further my fear of bald people (…yeah, just go with it, ok? I’m weird. We’ve covered that.), it was the first time I was challenged with what I believed and why I believed it. When the class was over I felt smarter and more confident in my faith.

3. Freshman Writing Seminar – This was a class was one of those “ugh, I just have to get this out of the way.” But it turned out being one of the best classes I took. Each “Freshman Writing Seminar” class is different and has a different focus of books to study, this one in particular was based on the writings of C. S. Lewis.

Uh, yes please!

I learned a lot more than writing and how to express myself with words. I learned about Lewis, his life, his beliefs, and got to dig in and get into some great discussions with my classmates. I also met a very influential professor who worked with me and helped me express myself in more than just my writing, and for her I am extremely grateful. 

2. Issues in Church Music – This was my first church music class! It was Monday/Wednesday/Friday from 8:20-9:15. Gross. I mean, I’ve handled worse. But…discussing issues in the church…not so fun to do at 8:20 in the morning, ok? I added the Church Music emphasis to my major kind of on a whim, but I knew it was the right thing to do, and after this class, I knew it was where God wanted me.

I was only a sophomore and the class was full of juniors and seniors who had already taken a few other classes before and I was so intimidated by them and their knowledge, so I hung back a lot, but as I got to know them and as I learned from them as well as my professor, I began to speak up, which if you know me, isn’t one of my strengths (which is ironically an entirely different blog post that will be coming). This class stretched me a lot, and assured me that I was in the right place.

1. Singing the Faith – Don’t judge it by the name of the class. The title is lame, but it was by far my favorite class. First of all, there were only 8 people. Four guys and four girls. There was no where to hide. The class essentially was a church music history class, and went from Gregorian chant to present day hymns and praise songs. Unfortunately there’s a music major required class that teaches basically the same thing, and about half the people in the class were also in that class, so at times it was kind of boring, but since it was discussion-oriented it was at least interesting (or we could express how bored we were because we were learning the same thing twice).

The professor is one of my favorites. I’m still mad that I only met him last semester and only got to take one class from him. He was smart, funny, joked with us, and made us learn and question and find answers.

He also assigned great projects. Which is something I never thought I’d say (or in this case type). One of our projects was to do an 8 minute presentation on a famous hymn writer. I chose Fanny Crosby, which at first, I was super excited about! The woman wrote thousands of hymns, was blind, and lived to be almost 100 years old. Come on. You can’t get much cooler than that. It wasn’t until after I started researching her life that I realized, “Yeah. You really can’t get much cooler than that. Because there was SO MUCH THAT HAPPENED IN THIS WOMAN’S LIFE.” It was impossible for me to make an 8 minute presentation. I needed 20. This woman lived such a full life, I couldn’t water it down to a measly 8 minutes. So I made my presentation, and realized if I talked fast enough I could do it in about 10. Luckily it didn’t take my professor long to realize our presentations were going to go long, and by the time I went I didn’t have to talk so fast. I think mine was about 15 minutes long.

Anyway. The class was just plain awesome. I’m pretty sure I never missed a class…which is saying something because I always get sick and I use my absences also to study or do something for another class (that’s what happens when you have an average of 9 classes a semester), but I loved this class so much I made sure I made it to every one.

*this is going to sound super cheesey and cliché. And I’m sorry. Just go with it.*

My time in these classes also made me passionate. I went into APU passionate about Christ and music, and here I am at the end just as passionate if not more so, but now I feel like I have been given the tools to DO something about it, and make a difference.
*K…I’m done being cliché and cheesy now.*