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Transcript

00:04

welcome to the office hours my name is

00:06

John phia i chair the history department

00:08

here at messiah college and i also teach

00:10

American history this is episode 12 of

00:13

the office hours I am here in my office

00:16

with Megan p.m. are faithful filmer and

00:20

producer of these videos one of these

00:22

things were going to get Megan on camera

00:24

maybe we’ll do an interview with her

00:25

about that about the verge of making the

00:28

virtual office hours but what we want to

00:31

talk about today I look at this kind of

00:33

maybe that’s the last office hours in a

00:36

series that we’ve been doing now we’ve

00:38

been interrupted here and there with

00:39

some interviews and opportunities that

00:41

we’ve taken but I think this will be the

00:43

last the last segment in a series we’ve

00:46

been doing on how to think historically

00:49

and what you know the purpose of a

00:52

history major what his three majors can

00:54

do and so forth if you remember we

00:56

started back thinking about the five

00:58

seas of historical thinking we talked

01:00

about the past as a foreign country we

01:03

talked about the usefulness of the pass

01:05

of the usable pneus of the past I

01:07

suggested some ways in which Christians

01:09

might think about how to reflect on the

01:12

past like sin or the imago gay moral

01:15

criticism these kinds of things we

01:18

talked about history for a civil society

01:21

a couple couple episodes ago and now I

01:25

want to wrap this up with a discussion

01:27

about the history major and what you can

01:30

do with a history major so I’m talking

01:32

here directly to those of you who are

01:34

either in high school or college or have

01:36

kids who are in high school or college

01:38

who are interested in history and want

01:41

to think about you know why major in

01:43

history you know when you can major in

01:45

something else you know that might be

01:47

more at least that we might think might

01:49

be more beneficial in the marketplace

01:51

and so forth so that’s where we want to

01:53

focus our attention today much of the

01:56

the material that we’ve been doing in

01:58

the virtual office hours will make up

02:00

makes up as I mentioned before the bulk

02:02

of my book why study history and that

02:05

will be out in September I think the

02:07

subtitle is reflecting on the importance

02:10

of the past so many of these virtual

02:11

office hours segments will appear

02:14

in print form at least in prose in that

02:17

book so I hope you’ll grab that book and

02:19

you’ll you’ll take a look at it but the

02:22

question here what what can you do with

02:24

a history major we I’ve been wrestling

02:27

with this question I’ve been wrestling

02:28

with this question with my students let

02:31

me start off by telling you a little

02:32

story about a student of mine named a

02:35

former student of mine named Tara Tara

was a history major she was one of our

02:40

better history majors here in the

02:42

department when she graduated she

02:44

applied for a job working in a hospital

for sick children in Malawi the Republic

02:51

of Malawi in Africa is not some kind of

02:54

Peace Corps worker she was in a

02:55

missionary of any time it was it this

02:57

was a job she applied for the job called

03:00

for someone to be I think the job title

03:03

was an embedded blogger within this

community and the job description was

was basically Tara would spend time

during the course of the day with the

parents of the African children and the

03:15

children themselves and then she would

03:17

report on what she saw and you know

03:20

their experiences and their stories for

03:23

people back in the state so we’re

03:25

reading the blog of the hospital so they

03:29

would be able to know how to contribute

03:31

or you know make contributions and so

03:33

further find out just what’s going on I

03:35

went Tara interviewed for the job one of

03:38

the first things that they asked her was

03:40

why why are you applying for this job

03:43

you were a history major now inherent

03:46

within that question was a common

03:47

misconception about what history majors

do obviously many people think history

majors just sort of are very good at

trivia because they memorize facts and

03:55

dates and so forth and they’re good at

03:57

taking tests but that’s not the case at

04:00

all Tara seize the opportunity I would

04:04

ask about her history major and she said

04:07

you know why wouldn’t I be a leading

04:09

candidate for this job I’ve just spent

four years spending time with people so

to speak people living in the past many

of them being dead but listening to

their voices from the documents that

I’ve studied and read the primary

sources and then what did I do well

right papers i would tell their story i

would empathize with these people try to

understand life from their perspective

04:33

and then tell the stories of their

04:36

experiences whether it be a paper

04:39

whether it be in a presentation whether

04:41

it be in some kind of exhibit or or

04:43

digital project whatever it was she

04:45

happened to be working on here in the

04:47

history department at Messiah so you

04:50

know think about the job she was being

04:52

asked to spend time listening to people

04:56

who are different than her malawi

04:57

children and parents listening to them

05:00

and then telling their stories she

05:03

looked she learned as a history major

05:05

not only sort of fundamental skills

05:07

about writing well listening well

05:11

researching taking information that she

05:14

had learned in the course of the day or

05:16

in the course of her fieldwork and

05:18

writing it up and making it presentable

05:21

to outside audiences but Tara also

05:24

learned these deeper skills that we’ve

05:26

talked about here skills like empathy

05:28

and understanding and trying to walk in

05:30

the shoes of people who are different

05:32

than her needless to say Tara got that

05:35

jihad not in spite of the fact that she

05:37

was a history major but because she was

05:40

a history major and I think if we can

05:43

have more terrorists out there if we can

05:45

teach our students that they have

05:48

certain skills that employers want I

05:51

think the stigma of sort of what can you

05:54

do with a history major may just go away

05:58

some of you know on my blog the way of

06:01

improvement leads hope I have

06:02

interviewed up to fly think it’s up to

06:05

40 now individuals who were history

06:08

majors in college and did not go the

06:11

traditional route that most history

06:13

majors go most history majors either go

06:15

to grad school in history they become

06:17

history teachers in public public and

06:19

private high schools or elementary

06:22

schools they go to law school they work

06:24

in a museum or historical society but

06:26

the people I interviewed were people who

06:29

did not go into any of those fields they

06:31

went into business they went into

06:33

medicine they went into computers they

06:35

went into writing they went into

06:37

journalism they went into

06:40

the ministry a host of different fields

06:42

and asked if they would do it again they

06:45

had to go back to college and knowing

06:47

what they know now in their professions

06:49

if they were major in history again they

06:51

all said that they absolutely would

06:53

because history provided them with the

06:55

kinds of skills and the kinds of virtues

06:58

in many cases that allowed them to

07:00

really prosper in their current their

07:03

current job situations and do very very

07:05

well so I’d encourage you to go check

07:07

out that vlog series so what can you do

07:11

with a history major maybe we’ll get an

07:12

image of that up here when we move this

07:15

thing into production one of the readers

07:17

of that blog series was a man named

07:19

Brian Brian what is the CEO of a major

07:22

finance corporation based in Raleigh

07:25

North Carolina and he read my series on

07:28

what you can do with a history major and

07:30

he sent me a nice letter and this is

07:32

what he said in that letter he said that

07:35

any good and well rounded liberal arts

07:37

education is a strong foundation for

07:39

business ultimately you have to be able

07:41

to write speak and think still for me

07:44

history is singularly the best

07:47

discipline for success in business who

07:50

imagine how shocked I was to read that

07:51

right that’s true of people in the

07:53

business department here at messiah

07:55

college might be surprised too but but

07:57

Brian goes on to say in history you

learn and become immersed in why people

and groups do things over an extended

period of time history validates that

people and organizations act in clear

recognizable patterns you can learn

about human nature behavior becomes very

predictable which is vital in the field

08:18

of business again that’s just one

08:20

example of how history historians can

08:22

can use their skills I was recently at a

08:25

conference at Wake Forest University in

08:28

which I heard several CEOs of 500

fortune 500 company saying we want

liberal arts majors we want history

majors because they can think they can

write they can take small pieces of

information and make meaning out of

those small pieces of information they

08:46

can take data and tell a story about the

08:48

data I you know they know they all said

08:52

to a to a

08:53

they said we’ll train you and how we

08:55

particularly to do business whether it

08:57

be at procter and gamble or at this bank

08:59

or whatever the company might be will

09:03

train you in the particulars but we want

09:05

someone who’s able to have those general

09:07

skills in many ways it’s a great point

09:11

most studies show that today’s

09:14

undergraduate students are going to

09:16

change jobs and maybe even change

09:18

careers or professions seven to ten

09:21

times over the course of their lives

09:23

that means they need those fundamental

09:26

skills of writing of thinking of

09:28

speaking empathizing of listening of

09:32

understanding that well-rounded history

09:35

education or generally humanities based

09:38

education that’s going to help them to

09:40

adjust and adapt to the changing

09:42

marketplace so when students tell me i

09:46

would like to major in history or what

09:48

can i do with a history major I tell

09:51

them several things one if you’re

09:54

picking a major follow your passion you

09:57

don’t want to spend four years studying

09:59

something that you know you have no

10:01

interest in its interested in or you

10:03

find boring but it may help you land

10:05

some kind of a job in the future follow

10:08

your passions and I think people who

10:10

follow their passions that kind of

10:13

passion will translate to potential

10:16

employers employers are looking for

10:18

people who are passionate about about

10:21

something so follow your passions if you

10:23

love history study history hi and and

10:27

don’t worry about you know where you’re

10:29

going to end up in the end or what kind

10:30

of job you can get because as I’m

10:32

suggesting there are lots of jobs out

10:35

there that you can do by studying the

10:38

past second though it’s not going to get

10:40

you anywhere if you study your passion

10:42

but you don’t act strategically or don’t

10:45

develop a confidence in the kind of

10:48

skills that you’re learning in studying

10:50

history it’s one thing to master

10:52

information it’s one thing to learn

10:54

these skills but you need to be

10:56

confident and develop the confidence to

10:58

be able to sit before a potential

11:00

employer like Tara did and say here is

11:04

why

11:05

should hire me as a history major these

11:08

are the skills that I bring to the table

11:10

here’s how I can help your business your

11:12

nonprofit organization whatever it

11:15

happens to be whatever the job happens

11:17

to be that you’re applying to this means

11:20

I think that history department cultures

11:23

need to change when I was at when I was

11:26

as undergrad or not I was in grad school

11:29

history departments undergraduate

11:31

history department celebrated the

11:33

student who got accepted into a

11:35

prestigious maybe Ivy League ph.d

11:38

program and that was the person that

11:40

appeared all the time on the promotion

11:41

literature that’s the kind of thing that

11:43

people the professors in the department

11:45

the kind of person they talked about

11:47

over and over again but what if the

11:49

culture of a history department changed

11:51

to such an extent that instead of

11:54

celebrating those people and granted we

11:55

still should celebrate them we also

11:58

celebrated the people who got person who

12:00

got a job in business or someone like

12:02

Tara who went overseas and served in

12:04

this hospital or someone who went into

12:07

medicine or someone who went into

12:08

computer science or somebody who became

12:10

a journalist or someone who went into

12:12

criminal justice or something with that

12:15

what if those people were celebrated in

12:17

our departments just as much as the

12:20

people who get into the prestigious law

12:21

schools and graduate schools so these

12:25

are some things to think about as to why

12:27

we should study history there are jobs

12:29

out there we need the confidence to be

12:32

able to talk about the skills and the

12:33

talents and the gifts and the training

12:36

that we have as historians to be able to

12:39

make an impact on the marketplace the

12:41

ever-changing marketplace so I think

12:44

this is a nice sort of capstone to what

12:47

we’ve been talking about the last 10 or

12:49

11 episodes here give or take with a few

12:52

little side tracks here and there you

12:56

know history historical thinking skills

12:58

learning how to use the past and make

13:01

the past speak to the present

13:02

understanding the past as a foreign

13:04

country thinking about the role of

13:06

history and cultivating a more robust

13:09

democratic society those are all good

13:12

things and are there things that need to

13:14

need to be thought about by history

13:16

students

13:17

but also there is a marketplace out

13:20

there for the kind of skills and talents

13:22

and gifts that all of us have so we

13:26

bring this conclusion to another section

13:28

session to an end this series to an end

13:31

if you might want to call it that here

13:33

in the office hours I’m not sure what

13:34

we’re going to do yet next week but will

13:36

happen effing Utley have something for

13:38

you make sure you get your hands on that

13:40

book in September why study history

13:42

reflecting on the importance of the past

13:44

and we will see you next time thank you

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