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5 of My Favourite Classes from Second Year

By: Jenna Larkin
May 10, 2021
People hanging out near a basketball court on Esplanade, with thhe Toronto skyline in the background

I cannot believe that I am finishing up my second year of university and that I’m pretty much halfway through Ryerson’s Creative Industries program. The thought both terrifies and excites me. One of my favourite parts of Creative Industries is the variety of classes that I get to take.

1. RTA 180: Music and Film

I took this class during summer 2020, as I didn’t have much going on and I wanted to fill my time with a fun class. I love both music and movies, so I thought this class would be perfect for me! I took it as part of my Creative Industries Music Industry module. The class looked at the history of film, and the role that musical scores and soundtracks play in movies. Throughout the course I learned musical ear training, all types of terms and more about two of my favourite subjects. Any class where you get to watch movies is an automatic win in my books.

Did you know that the Jaws theme is in a minor 2nd pitch? One of the things I learned in RTA 180

 

2. NNS 103: Basics of Photojournalism

I wanted to take this class in first year, but finally got to take it in fall 2020. I took this class for my Creative Industries Business and Practice of News module. Throughout the class, we learned about photography itself and how to take photos using real cameras (not just our phones), but also specifically about photojournalism. Each week we had a different assignment where we had to go out and take pictures. We did portraits, sports photography, news photography, feature photos and so much more. My instructor, Peter Bregg, made the class so interesting. He was a professional photographer for years and had been the photographer for Canadian prime ministers and many notable publications. His experience made for interesting stories and great advice.

Two weiner dogs with coats on during winter near Victoria St and Dundas St, with Yonge Dundas Square in the background

A “paw-trait” I took for a pictorial assignment for NNS 103. The featured image of this blog is also a photo I took.

3. ENG 505: Creative Writing

I chose this class as my upper liberal elective course for winter 2021. I love reading and I love writing, so I knew this class would be of interest to me. This was another class that I had been wanting to take since I started at Ryerson. We had two units in this class, a prose unit where we wrote weekly in response to creative writing prompts, as well as a short story. The other unit was a poetry unit, where we wrote four poems a week and an essay reviewing our work. It was a lot of reading and writing, but I genuinely enjoyed this class.

An actual GIF of me working in ENG 505. Just kidding, it’s Kermit the Frog.

4. CHY 183: Introduction to Forensic Sciences

If you knew me in high school, you would know that I am not a fan of science. Although, I am a fan of true crime and forensics. When I found out that Ryerson offered a lower liberal elective class about forensic science, I had to take it. We learned about how crime scenes and evidence are analyzed, and we paired it with learning about real true crime stories. It was a nice change from the classes I usually take, and I learned some new things about a subject I’m interested in.

After CHY 183, I always feel so smart whenever I watch forensic television shows like Bones.

5. RTA 905: The History and Culture of Popular Music

This class was another one that I took for my Music Industry module. Each week we learned about a different decade of music, and talked about the social issues and the general environment of the music industry in that time. I discovered some new music I probably would have never listened to otherwise. My favourite parts of this class was when we had a lecture all about Dolly Parton, and when we had a group project where we talked about Miley Cyrus’ music career. So interesting!

How I felt after our lecture about Dolly!

Honestly, I genuinely enjoyed most of my classes this year, even though I took them all online. I think I could have put a majority of them on this list, but I think five is a good place to start!