That "Worthless" Humanities Degree

A few weeks ago, my husband and I were discussing our respective college experiences. I pursued a pretty standard liberal arts degree -- a BA in English literature, with a minor concentration in French. He obtained an architecture degree, then returned to university 15 years later for a Master's in Education. Each of his turns on the higher education merry-go-round prepared him to step into a specific career.

My university experience prepared me to...read a lot. In two languages.

That discussion with my husband wasn't the first time I've defended my "worthless" degree. Despite floundering a bit post-university -- eventually finding myself (gasp!) using my degree in my position as a copy editor for a direct marketing fundraising firm -- I continue to believe that studying the humanities has made me a much better consultant and business owner. The liberal arts taught me how to think critically and how to better understand people, individually, as a group, and across cultures.

But I can't defend my study of the humanities nearly as well as Ryan Stelzer, co-founder of Strategy of Mind, does in this article. 

Yeah, I wish I'd taken a business class or two. But now, I'm more excited to inject a bit more philosophy, history and English literature mojo -- and maybe even un mot or two of French! -- into my consulting and fundraising work.