Skateboarding: It's that easy. I recommend taking fine and digital arts classes in college. They’re usually fun and a good break from class after class of a specific major. Most of all, they offer life skills for any career as well as for for other classes.

I’m a fine arts minor, so I have taken animation, music, digital drawing, Adobe Photoshop and other arts classes. You don’t even have to be a fine arts minor to take them, though. I’ve had classes with nursing, engineering, education, and business majors.

Today, I turned in my final project for an introduction to visual arts class. I overheard a few people behind me talking about trying to do their project on Microsoft Paint, printing it and failing to get anything to work right; I thought about how I did my project.

I used Photoshop in the communication arts lounge to make one part. I learned, among other skills I used on the project, how to make the image the exact size I wanted. Then, I used Adobe Illustrator to draft a blueprint for another part of my project.

After thinking about how easy it was to do these things, I felt bad. I felt like I had an unfair advantage, but that’s just one of the benefits of taking fine arts classes. They give you an edge.

When applying for a job in any profession, having fine arts knowledge and skills puts you at an advantage to anyone who doesn’t have that kind of background. Especially in today’s world, knowing how to use things like Photoshop is almost essential. A nurse may be able to help the place she works save hundreds of dollars by knowing how to design charts explaining things like how to administer an IV, and employers know this.

Gannon – being a liberal arts school – offers several excellent fine arts classes. Try one out, you won’t be disappointed.

Here are a few of my projects:

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