Introduction to Anthropology, ANTH 101-50 – E-Portfolio of Haily Joseph

As a student of Honors, it is known that the General Education Goal 9 course will be fulfilled when we study abroad as a requirement of the Cormier Honors College. However, as a freshman I was very interested in the field of anthropology, and was fortunate enough to find an open spot in Dr. Jordan’s Honors Introduction to Anthropology class that fit my schedule perfectly.

As a first-year student in her first semester, I had no idea what to expect from my classes, no to even mention what an Honors class would be like. But this course was all that I hoped it would be and more, and I can only be thankful for being in the Honors College for having such a great experience.

On the first day of class, Dr. Jordan stated how excited he was to be teaching our class, after all, there were only eight of us which would allow for to get to know each other better and delve deeper into the coursework. I originally thought that we would be constantly reading out of the two assigned texts, but I was wrong. Instead, we would read a few articles and one of us would lead discussion each class.

What made this course truly worth it was the amazing hands-on learning trips that helped to better understand the concepts from class and gave us a better understanding of the human history in our own state. One of these trips led me to my first visit to the Longwood-owned Hull Springs Farm. Here, we learned of the farm’s past owner, and the history of the grounds, such as the remainder of the old colonial roads that led straight to what was called the ‘wharf’ near the shore of the ‘Big House’. Even after we returned back to the classroom and to the books to learn more about both ancient and current civilizations and cultural disparities, we set out again to gain a personal experience with forensic anthropology at Ferrum College.

While going to Ferrum College to study forensic anthropology, we stopped to study a re-built settlement of old german immigrant colonies. — While going to Ferrum College to study forensic anthropology, we stopped to study a re-built settlement of old German immigrant colonies.

Looking back in my time in this class, I can’t believe I learned and retained all of the information that spanned from human evolution, ancient and current civilizations, cultural disparities, to forensics and archaeology, but it couldn’t have been any better.