Humanities Careers

What Can You Do With A Humanities Degree?

The Humanities Degree at Kentucky Christian University is for four kinds of people:

1. People who want a pre-professional degree, who know they're going to go on to graduate school in journalism, English, history, law, philosophy, art, library sciences, theatre, film/television, business, international studies, and more.
2. People who love to learn. People who are excited about learning and want to learn about everything, who want to experience the integration of faith and learning, who want to minister within their own culture, who want to defend the faith against contemporary attacks, who want to think more clearly, more deeply, more broadly. It's an excellent degree for people who want to be writers, musicians, film makers, artists, college level teachers, and secondary level teachers in private Christian schools or, with some additional course work depending on one's home state, even in public schools.
3. People who know they want to be at KCU but aren't immediately drawn to the career degrees we have available. The Humanities degree is broad based and allows students numerous career directions (see number four).
4. People who know the Lord wants them at KCU but who don't know what they want to do with their career lives. The Humanities degree is perfect for people who want to serve God but don't know what capacity they want to serve Him in. In the Humanities program, we call our degree a ìswiss army knifeî degree because you can do anything with it! The new trend in hiring is the attraction of employees educated in the liberal arts (liberal arts here means broad based study, not liberal in theology) or Humanities. Employers are coming to realize that narrowly focused, single discipline oriented degree programs are not always the best preparation for new hires. They are interested in employees who know how to think. They are learning that the best thinkers tend to come out of programs which expose them to the widest variety of disciplines and thought. For more information on jobs available for Humanities students, see below.

Why Are Humanities Students Better Prepared for the Marketplace of Jobs?

Humanities students have two advantages over their career degree counterparts:

1. Learning is not just about being taught information, it's about being taught ways of seeing the world around us. We go to Sunday School, Church, and to Bible college because we want to learn God's word. Learning His word teaches us to see things the way He does. People trained in the Bible and Christian truths see the world through Christian eyes. The same is true for all that we learn. Business people learn to see with ìeconomicî eyes, to see the world in terms of numbers, goal driven visions, carefully laid out plans. Teachers learn to see opportunities for learning in everything around them. Students of history see our modern world repeating ancient patterns, some good, some the same old mistakes. Students of literature see symbolism and plot twists in everything. One of the advantages the United States military has had in recent war efforts is a technology called ìnight visionî: lenses that allow them to see at night what their opponents can't. A Humanities degree exposes learners to many different ways of seeing it's like having a dozen sets of lenses through which to see the world. As such, Humanities majors are prepared to see more, to think more broadly, and to respond more creatively to the challenges they will face in the work place.
2. Because the Humanities education is broad based, Humanities majors have the advantage of diversity over their career degree counterparts. They are quite simply able to work in more areas, choose from more career options than their counterparts.

How Does KCU Prepare Humanites Students to Find a Job?

The Humanities Program at KCU is aggressive in not only teaching students the value of learning for its own sake, but in marketing their talents for career choices. Note the following statistics:

Graduates of the Humanities program have found employment in a variety of fields. One graduate is in the Nashville area working to break into the studio music
industry. One manages an office for an investment firm. Another graduate is a youth minister at a large church in Michigan, and still another plays semi-professional basketball in Germany. We have
a graduate working at a museum in Florida, one working in the film industry in Hollywood, and one in banking.

The Humanities faculty help students find careers through the following resources and programs:

1. The Humanities program builds into its classes instruction in resume writing and job hunting.
2. The Humanities program requires all of its majors to participate in an internship (usually over the summer but it can be during a semester); students are required to and assisted in identifying an area of possible career interest and obtaining employment/internship in the field in order to assess the possibility of a career in that field, to make initial contacts which may lead to further employment, and to learn about the career through first hand experience.
3. Kentucky Christian University offers wonderful semester abroad experiences to all of its majors through the CCCU (Council of Christian Colleges and Universities), many of which are particularly suited to Humanities majors. Through our connections with the CCCU, KCU students can do internships in politics in Washington D.C. They can prepare for work in missions and international studies through overseas internships in South America, China, Africa, Australia, and Russia. They can study the classics of our Western tradition through a study abroad semester at Oxford University in England. Finally, Humanities majors have done semester-long programs in Contemporary Music (Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts) and in Hollywood at the Los Angeles Film Studies school. This Christian program gives 13 hours of credit in film theory and video production while also connecting students to a three hour internship at a major Hollywood studio. Combined with the three hour film course which all Humanities majors at KCU take, majors can obtain 19 hours in film and television.

What Kinds of Jobs Do Humanities Students Get?

As noted in the list above, our majors are already in a variety of fields. But look, also, at this list from The Serenus Press of Opportunities for Liberal Arts Graduates:

• Research Analyst
• Policy Analyst
• Public Relations
• Speech Writing
• Public Affairs
• Bank Operations
• Insurance Agent
• Journalism
• Freelance Writing
• News Reporting
• Editor (books & news)
• Video Editor
• TV Programming
• Radio Programming
• Travel Agent
• Interpreter
• Archivist
• Sales
• Computer Support
• Database Specialist
• Librarianship
• Museum Educator
• Museum Curatorial
• Human Resources
• Business Training
• Recruiting
• Paralegal
• Marketing
• Advertisement
• Small Business Owner

These options only scratch the surface of what a Humanities graduate can do. Among our current Humanities majors are students considering careers in photography, theater, music production and performance, film production, ministry, and teaching. Several, though not all, intend to go to graduate school and some of those hope to teach at the collegiate level.

The Humanities program has increased its versatility by accepting every minor available at Kentucky Christian University. We encourage our students to minor in an area of career interest, like business, youth ministry, English, or archaeology. We anticipate seeing our students find jobs in an ever increasing variety of fields. Many of our graduates thus far have had career oriented jobs waiting for them after graduation.

Young men and women who love learning, who want to learn about everything, who want numerous career options when they graduate, and who want these excellent offerings in a Christian atmosphere designed to give them a biblical vision for every aspect of their lives should seriously consider the Humanities program at Kentucky Christian University.