Why a Liberal Arts Education is More Important to Tech than You Think
Last summer, Michael Litt, co-founder of Vidyard, revealed that he concentrates more of his company’s hiring strategies on people with a liberal arts education. This may sound counterintuitive in an era where organizations scramble to snag software engineers, big data scientists, AI programmers, and anyone with STEM skills. Yet, with the rush of exciting developments, it’s easy to forget power of our own minds. No breakthroughs occur without the imaginative thinkers who first envision the possibilities. And a small college in California, which produces some of the nation’s brightest STEM students, offers a powerful reminder that creativity is inseparable from science.
An Institution Where Liberal Arts and Science Intersect
Harvey Mudd College (HMC), a small university nestled in the bucolic Claremont valley near the San Gabriel Mountain foothills, is by charter a liberal arts school. However, Yahoo Finance noted that the institution has become a STEM powerhouse. Its graduates earn more on average than “those from Harvard and Stanford about 10 years into their careers.”
As Abby Jackson explained in the article, HMC combines STEM learning with liberal arts curriculum to give “students a broad scientific foundation and the skills to think and to solve problems across disciplines. The approach closely mirrors advice from some experts on how schools can develop students able to compete with automation, which has become an increasingly disruptive force in the labor market.”
Speaking to Business Insider, Jim Boerkoel, a computer science professor at HMC, said that every student must “take at least one computer-science course, which is fairly unique for many schools, particularly liberal-arts schools.” However, HMC’s introductory course extends far beyond the traditional approach. The syllabus encompasses programming, logic, software development, artificial intelligence and other highly relevant topics. When combined with the college’s already lauded humanities programs, students become “critical thinkers who improvise the way robots cannot.”
In terms of diversity, Jackson pointed out, the integration of arts and sciences led HMC to graduate “its first majority-female computer-science class” last year – huge progress in a space that still suffers from inequality.
HMC’s approach is so profound that faculty from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), one of the world’s foremost universities for delivering work-ready graduates, invited HMC professors to help train its own computer science staff.
Principal ITS Capability Consultant at CDW
6 年Through years in the tech industry, I have had many colleagues, staff and industry partners that had a music background, professional training, if not degrees. Not a coincidence at all. Music as an art is very logical from a standpoint of theory, yet very creative, expressive and innovative.
Chief Digital Officer | Enterprise Data Management | PMI-ACP | CGEIT
6 年The ability to do is exponentially greater when you can also imagine the art of the possible - creativity is a must!
Cultivating impactful experiences for new hires to ensure a positive employee experience from day 1.
6 年Agreed! I have a communications degree and while some may argue it’s worth I counter that it gave me the skills to break down complex technology to the end user, and in turn take customer products blend and put them into developer speak. Breaking down complexities into their most basic parts.