What’s on your Hesston College course wish list?

By Jessica Wilson

Hesston College offers a wide variety of courses, but there are some subjects that are just not available to students. There are courses that cater to different majors and a selection of electives, too. But when it comes to classes outside of those, students and faculty have some opinions on what should be taught. 

Many college students are on their own for the first time and have no idea how to deal with taxes or even balance a checkbook. That’s why Jacob Mullins thinks a personal finance class would be beneficial to many people.

“Managing money is crucial in the adult world and people [colleges] don’t teach that type of stuff,” Mullins said. 

Shanti Kauffman agrees.

“This school needs a class that teaches students how to pay taxes and budget their money.”

Kauffman and Mullins are in luck. Personal finance is offered at Hesston, and it’s open for enrollment in the spring on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 8:30 a.m.

But other students want to broaden course options in other disciplines as well. 

“French or German because I want to travel to France or Germany and it’d be good to know the language,” DJ Kintigh said. 

When comparing Hesston College to other colleges, the types of classes they offer could make a difference in whether or not they decided to enroll at Hesston. 

“I would like to see an aviation history class, looking at other flight schools around the country, they have their freshman take a history of flight class. Then from coming from an ag background, maybe some more agriculture class like agronomy,” Taitem Zeigler said.

Students are not the only ones wanting to see a difference in the curriculum. Professors like Kevin Wilder have a few thoughts on what they think should be taught.

“Philosophy because learning about human thought and thought processes is a lifetime skill,” Wilder said. “It is also a great class for pre-law and theology students. Game theory as well because it gets people to pick long term solutions as a group over short term solutions is a helpful skill in life.” 

NOTE: An earlier version of this article neglected to point out the availability of personal finance as a current course offered at Hesston. We apologize for the error.