Neha Middela, Contributing Photographer

Academic Strategies Mentors shared their varied experiences at the Poorvu Center for Teaching and Learning, joined by Yale undergraduates, visiting alumni and prospective students.

On Nov. 11, the Poorvu Center hosted a workshop entitled “Why (is it worth it to) Study the Arts and Humanities?”. Led by Assistant Director of Academic Strategies Lynda Paul, the session covered topics such as the role of the Academic Strategies Program, the importance of the arts and humanities and ways to engage with these subjects at Yale.

“There’s a very broad range of range of academic workshops available — everything from very practical things, like studying for exams and tackling p-sets to more theoretical things like how not to procrastinate, and we’re always trying to encapsulate the questions people have common anxieties about,” academic strategies mentor Sheryl Ofwona ’23 said. 

At the start of the session, Paul explained the services offered by the Academic Strategies Program to students, which include workshops, one-on-one sessions with Academic Strategies Mentors, and study halls. According to Paul, the Academic Strategies Program aims to help students “navigate the hidden curriculum of Yale,” in particular the “implicit cultural-academic norms” that govern academic spaces. 

Following Paul’s introduction, academic strategies mentors Ofwona, Josh Atwater ’24, Sam Heimowitz ’23 and Alejandro Ortega ’23 introduced themselves, their involvement with the arts and humanities at Yale, and their rationale for taking classes in these subjects. 

Atwater said that he was able to explore creative writing at Yale through both courses and extracurricular activities, such as writing for the Yale Herald. Ortega outlined how humanities courses, such as those found in the Ethnicity, Race and Migration major, were particularly conducive to academic exploration due to the wide range of themes and texts examined within these courses.

Inviting the audience to reflect on a passage from biologist David Ehrenfield’s essay, “Why put a value on biodiversity?,” Paul emphasized the importance of arts and humanities to cultivating different modes of understanding. Paul framed arts and humanities education as forms of “resistance,” allowing students to “make space to slow down.”

Students were then matched up to academic strategies mentors to discuss the variety of skills gained by studying arts and humanities as an undergraduate. These skills included both expertise relevant to arts-related careers, as well as transferable skills useful in a variety of sectors. 

After one-on-one discussion with a mentor, students shared their observations with the group as a whole.

“I’m a first year student and I’m kind of exploring what I want to do here at Yale. I came to this workshop to get a sense of what studying the arts full-time looks like here and getting motivation to do that,” Matias Guevara ‘26 said. “It’s nice to find a place where you can find the option of studying what you like.” 

Guevara added that he appreciated learning about the wide variety of majors and “ways to get involved with the arts.” 

Paul discussed the broad range of postgraduate opportunities that students take advantage of after majoring in the humanities, including jobs in marketing and communications, nonprofit management, and media work. She concluded the session by providing an overview of the resources available at Yale. 

The Poorvu Center for Teaching and Learning was established in 2014.