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Hi, I鈥檓 Vivianna and I鈥檓 a fourth-year student studying computer science with a concentration in security and privacy! While I love what I鈥檓 studying, every once in a while, I like to take a break from writing proofs and dealing with red squiggly error lines and sidequest with new classes outside my major.听

Last semester, I took Drawing for Non-Majors. I am by no means an art professional (please don鈥檛 judge my sometimes wonky drawings), but this class has been a really interesting experience. We met in a studio room in the College of Fine Arts building for around three hours twice a week. Before this class, I would probably estimate that I鈥檝e made less than a hundred drawings in my life. Just halfway through the semester, I鈥檝e created line drawings, charcoal portraits, model drawings and ink drawings. I鈥檝e enjoyed learning new techniques, trying new tools and learning some of my professor鈥檚 favorite rules 鈥� observation over symbols, you owe nothing to the drawing already on the page, and values are often more important than shapes. It鈥檚 been a really fun way to activate a different part of my brain and has led to me noticing smaller details about the world around me.听

Besides improving on my technical drawing skills, this class has been good practice when learning a new skill. Honestly, I sometimes get tired thirty minutes into our studio session and want to just move on to a new activity. Other times, I spend an hour working on a drawing and get a little frustrated that it doesn鈥檛 look right. But then, our professor will insist that it wouldn鈥檛 make sense to be good at something we鈥檙e doing for the first time or one of my classmates will encourage me, pointing out a part of the drawing that works, and I keep moving my tool. After the fifth draft, my ideas start shaping up and I can make progress right in front of me. It鈥檚 been really gratifying to get slightly better each day (and a good screen break).听

Another class that I鈥檝e really enjoyed is the Introduction to Springboard Diving. I鈥檝e liked it so much I鈥檝e taken it four times. Twice a week, we meet at the pool and learn new dives. Every week, our coach slowly increases the difficulty. We start with just jumping off, then hurdles, lineups and dives. She and the TAs cater to our individual skill level which is great since I had learned how to swim three months before I started this class. The first time I took this class, I was terrified to jump off the three meter board. By the end, a couple of us started doing our warm up dives off the three. Half of the fun was watching other people do crazy flips, encouraging each other to jump off the three meter and watching people nail a dive they鈥檝e been practicing for two classes. I would normally never willingly sign up for a 9:30 a.m. class, yet I woke up every day excited to go. It鈥檚 good exercise, a great way to start the day and a fun way to meet new people.

When course registration opens, I love going through the course catalog and looking for non-major art classes, P.E. classes, StuCos and IDeATe classes. Through these classes and others outside my major, I鈥檝e learned new skills鈥攍ike using charcoal, doing a backflip, sewing and swimming 500 yards in a row鈥攎et students from different departments, challenged myself even when scared or tired and ultimately felt like a more well-rounded person. Even though these aren鈥檛 traditional programming skills, they鈥檝e left me feeling more energized, motivated and inspired in everything I do.