History is Everything – Everything is History

History gets a bad rap:  whether suffering through monotonous textbook readings or having to memorize countless dates, many students arrive at college hating history.  And that’s too bad.  Courses in history or other of the social sciences, such as political science or historical geography, offer perhaps the most exciting and challenging areas of study – humans and the consequences of their actions.

Historians are, first, detectives.  They look at the problems of history – the unanswered questions – and through research and interpretation attempt to answer them.  Historians are artists, endeavoring to craft those answers in ways that are both exciting and compelling.  Historians are also teachers, whether their students are in a classroom listening to a presentation or at home reading a well-crafted book of history.

What can you do with a history degree?  Obviously you can teach, but what if that’s not for you?  Well, how about . . . lawyer, economist, museum curator, movie director, novelist, editor, documentary producer, senator, policy specialist, international business representative, film consultant, or city renovation expert? The list goes on and on.

Students of history at Southwestern get one-to-one experience with faculty who are published authors and who continue to research in their fields of interest.  History here isn’t stagnant and boring; it’s alive, exciting, and relevant.  Come be a part of it.

Meet Our Students

Sarah Osborn, Social Science (emphasis International Affairs) major from San Antonio, is getting first-hand experience related to her degree in summer 2010. Sarah is working at a State Department internship with the American Embassy in Suriname. Suriname is in northern South America.

Sarah begins the ten-week internship on June 7. She will work in most of the embassy’s offices on a biweekly rotation. Sarah said most of the work will be clerical, but it will give her good insights into the operation of an American embassy. It will also include some contact work with the Suriname government.

The internship uniquely fits Sarah’s degree program. While it ultimately may require graduate education, state department work is just one of the options open to graduates in Social Science.