Picture 1

This photograph illustrates how an undergraduate liberal arts education encourages students to have an understanding of other people, and how it prepares a student for whatever life may throw at them. This photograph shows different groups of people from different parts of the Western Hemisphere coming together to learn about the Tropical Cloud Forest. It also shows two exchange students visiting a foreign country on their own to learn about a somewhat different culture: how they live, what the country is like, and to practice another language. The students in this photograph are learning about many different things at the same time, including how to survive without one’s parents, and how to immerse oneself in a foreign culture with only a limited understanding of the language. These skills learned as an exchange student teach students valuable lessons on how to survive in life after college, and how to live with strangers for an extended period of time, like while in college. The people in this picture are also in the middle of a natural reserve, a place where people go to learn about science and the environment. As this picture is being taken, the subjects are headed to a lecture to learn about the flora and fauna from a researching biologist, illustrating the educational aspects of an undergraduate education.

I chose this picture because it shows many aspects of a liberal arts education: learning to coexist with other people, being in a foreign environment, learning about oneself, learning things that will be useful in life, and, finally, learning about science and the world around us.