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Justin Pioquinto

CPRE 494

3 October 2021

General Education Reflection

Throughout my time at Iowa State, I have taken several general education electives, and

even took up a minor in sociology my junior year. Much of my general education was spent

learning to think more inclusively regarding things like different social identities. As a result, I

think that I have gained the ability to work with others in a way that makes them feel

comfortable and respected which is something that is very valuable in engineering given that I

will inevitably be working with people of countless different backgrounds.

The first general elective that I took was SOC 134: Introduction to Sociology. I took this

class because I was interested in sociology and thinking about things from a sociological

perspective. To me, it is fascinating to view how society as a whole both creates and perpetuates

almost everything we do, whether we notice it or not. Taking this class led me to take more

sociology classes, and ultimately declare a sociology minor in addition to my computer

engineering major. The countless different aspects of sociology are all similarly educational and

applicable to me as a person and the way that I view things. For example, sociology has helped

me to consider the backgrounds that people might have growing up, and the societal factors that

contribute to their individual characters. Being empathetic is an important factor in working

together with others, and being able to relate to others’ experiences is a great way to build that

empathy.

Another general elective that I took, and one that I believe to be the most important

general education elective I have taken, is SOC 331: Social Class and Inequality. In this class, I
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learned about how social class and inequality are affected by factors such as income, race,

ethnicity, gender, and religion. This class opened my eyes to how different people are exposed to

opportunities, or lack thereof, and the way that American society systematically privileges or

discriminates based on different factors, both controllable and uncontrollable. From an

engineering perspective, this knowledge shows the places in society that we can make an effort

to help on a large scale. It is not only the responsibility of politicians to work against inequality,

but also engineers since we can create solutions that might make impactful technologies more

widely available for the public or improve peoples’ ability to learn and become more educated.

For example, the development of technology in computers over the years has allowed them to

become more affordable, thus allowing people with lower income to purchase a piece of

technology that is essentially required in today’s society. At the same time, we have to consider

the privilege that those with high income have, which is the ability to purchase cutting edge

technology and use it to enhance their own abilities and opportunities. These kinds of

considerations should be made when solving engineering problems since they will have an effect

on the social and economic aspects of consumers.