How do I know what classes to take in college? What classes are offered at UNH?
Welcome to our My Favorite Classes blog series, where UNH students share the most unique, fun and interesting classes they have taken so far and what they have learned from them, both personally and academically. Today, Brooke Rafter '25, a marketing and sustainability dual major, shares five classes that have made her UNH experience memorable, including a class where she made her own puppets and a class that changed her perspective on geological formations in the White Mountains.
Brooke walking on campus with friends
As an incoming freshman at UNH, Discovery Courses sounded like they would prevent me from learning my field of interest. However, as a senior, I have come to realize these classes were the ones I enjoyed the most. They not only offered great opportunities for me to learn more about topics of interest, but they also shaped the direction I wanted to take with my career. Here is a list of the five Discovery Courses that I enjoyed the most during my time at UNH.
I had to practice with my puppets before my performances, including this hand puppet.
1. Introduction to Puppetry
As a marketing major, I tend to have a creative side, so I decided to take this course as my fine and performing arts requirement. I discovered there are all sorts of different types of puppets, including the shadows I used to make on the wall as a kid, floats in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade and Claymation characters such as Rankin and Bass’ Heat Miser and Snow Miser. In this course, I made my own puppets, wrote scripts and put on performances with others, including an end-of-the-year performance in the Johnson Theater. A key takeaway for me was if I could stand up in front of a crowd of people and act out a script with my puppet, then I would have no problem giving a presentation to a client!
This is me on a field trip in History of Animals. We visited the Fairchild Dairy Teaching and Research Center just off campus and learned about sustainable milk production.
2. History of Animals
When I looked through the options for my historical perspectives requirement, I thought I’d see only the usual suspects, such as American History and European History. I was pleasantly surprised to see a course that was available which focused on one of my keen interests: animals. I found it fascinating to learn about the role that animals have played in the development of America, including how horses were used in the past as machines to run our cities and how cows are used in dairy production today. I learned how some animals can even change from villains to heroes, such as rats, which went from spreaders of the Bubonic plague to being used for genetic research, helping to cure diseases.
My Group Project in Introduction to Anthropology was on the role of anthropology in marketing, including the invention of Go-GURT by a General Mills corporate Anthropologist.
3. Introduction to Anthropology
I was immediately drawn to this class for my world cultures elective since studying people sounded helpful for my marketing career. In this course, I learned how anthropologists participate in fieldwork, including participant observation, where they immerse themselves in a particular situation to understand it more fully. I practiced this myself with various assignments, which helped me gain an interest in marketing research. I learned that some companies actually hire anthropologists to better understand their customers and help them develop new products, such as General Mills when creating Go-GURT.
This is my sister and I on a hike in the White Mountains taking a photo break in front of a boulder dropped by a glacier.
4. Global Environmental Change
I was a little worried about the physical science requirement, but I found an option perfectly aligned with my interests: Global Environmental Science. As an outdoor enthusiast, I love hiking and being surrounded by nature. In this course, I learned about climate change, both natural and human-caused, and that UNH was under a mile of ice and snow only 20,000 years ago! Now, I find myself looking at geological formations and trying to envision the glaciers. Visiting Franconia Notch will never be the same for me!
My Discovery Courses helped me to feel a closer connection with nature.
5. Environmental Ethics
My favorite class list would not be complete without including the course I took to cover my environment, technology and society requirement: Environmental Ethics. In high school, I learned very little about climate change and humans’ impact on the environment, and this course made me see the world and our role in it in an entirely different light. Environmental Ethics launched my interest in the field of sustainability and has inspired me to take other courses on the topic and eventually to add sustainability as a dual major. I am thankful my Discovery Courses gave me that opportunity!
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