The classes we take can change our perspectives and shape our lives—and we think that’s worth celebrating. Our new podcast, Today I Learned, is all about the classes at BU that have had a real effect on students in our community; we want to know all about the classroom environment, professor, subject matter, and the cool facts that make a lasting impression.

Sally Jamrog (BUA’23) spent most of her high school career immersed in the humanities. The recent graduate, who will be headed off to Bryn Mawr College in the fall, loves the arts, literature, and history. Ever since taking EE 105: Crises of Planet Earth, she’s added a new subject to that list: rocks.

Through the enthusiastic and engaging teaching style of James Lawford Anderson, a professor and director of undergraduate studies at the College of Arts and Sciences, geology has come alive for Jamrog, and she’s not alone. The course, she notes, is extremely popular among other BUA students, which she credits to Lawford Anderson’s ability to bring color and liveliness to the classroom. The class focuses on how manmade and natural events (or crises) can shape the environment and leave a geological record. Climate change, as well as the effect of natural disasters on different populations, are frequent topics, which Jamrog says made her and her classmates feel a sense of timeliness and urgency. Does she still want to pursue a humanities-heavy course of study in college? Most definitely. But, she notes, Bryn Mawr has “a really good archaeology program, too.”

This concludes Season One of Today I Learned–thanks for learning with us.