Tucked between the Student Center and Hickingbotham Hall is a building familiar to any student at OBU who has ever taken a Composition I or II class – Lile Hall. Lile Hall houses the School of Humanities, which includes the languages and communications departments. The Languages department offers majors in English, Spanish, and English Education while the Communications department offers majors in Mass Communications and Speech Communication for a total of about 170 humanities majors.
“Mass Communications has 95 majors, making it one of the most popular majors on campus,” Dr. Jeff Root, dean of the School of Humanities, said. “Mass communications and Spanish are two of the most popular second majors since they combine well with virtually any other major.”
Graduating with a mass communications degree has prepared students for a wide range of media careers, including those in public relations, advertising, and journalism. Jobs in public relations have been on the rise in both for profit and non-profit organizations and institutions. Recently, there has been a greater need for graduates trained in the use and measurement of social media campaigns, something taught as a part of Ouachita’s mass communications major.
“Social Innovation, a social media agency in Little Rock with clients across the country, is one of the fastest growing companies in the nation,” Root said. “Of its 47 employees, 17 are Ouachita alumni and 15 are Mass Communications graduates, including five who just graduated last May.”
There are many media-related options in the job market for other Humanities majors as well. Graduates have done well finding jobs as well as entering law school and other graduate programs. English majors also can choose from a variety of career paths, including teaching, editing and publishing.
“A lot of English majors do not know what they want to do with their major once they graduate – I didn’t have a clue,” Emily Knocke, junior English and Spanish double major from Wichita, Kansas, said. “I was fortunately invited to a writing conference in Michigan my freshman year at OBU, sponsored by the BugTruck [the English department] and led by Drs. Doug and Amy Sonheim.
“We toured a publishing company where an OBU alum was employed, and having him answer my questions about the publishing and editing world helped me realize that my dream job exists. I am now confidently striving towards a career in freelance editing because of the help and guidance of the Sonheims on that trip and otherwise, of Amy as my advisor.”
Spanish majors have an advantage going into the working world as well because knowledge of the Spanish language is useful in almost any workplace in the United States today.
“Shoutout to Dr McG – I never intended on being a Spanish major when I enrolled at OBU but one semester with him and I became a Spanish major and even went to Spain for a semester to further my studies,” Knocke said. “I am a relatively new Spanish speaker, but I have learned more than I thought was possible in just a little over two years.”
The School of Humanities also provides many of OBU’s CORE classes, such as Composition I and II, World Literature, Fundamentals of Public Speaking, OBU Connections, and a number of foreign languages.
“The best way to see all the possibilities is to visit with Humanities faculty members and our students,” Root said. “Anyone curious about language, literature or any form of media should come to Lile Hall and let us show you the facilities and talk about the variety of things you can do both in and outside of class.”
For more information on the School of Humanities, contact Root at rootj@obu.edu.
By Kimberly Wong
