Coming in winter of 2023 and fall of 2023, Citrus College will see two new classes on the horizon. Thanks to the approval by the Board of Trustees, Citrus Salon (COS 231) and Introduction to Poetry (ENG 202) will be new class options for students.
The class justification for Citrus Salon says the Citrus Salon “reviews all practical areas of cosmetology learned in the foundation classes, as well as state board requirements for licensing. Students will conduct consultations, perform client services, and fill out service record cards. Business practices will be taught such as effective communication, resume building, preparing for employment, principles of selling and building, and types of business options.”
The coordinator of Citrus Salon, Maria Fischer, said “the goal is to get this class going as soon as possible.”
“COVID had messed up a lot for the students in terms of coming onto campus and being able to interact and work on the fundamentals for saloning.” Fischer said. “Communication is something that will play a tremendous role in the class.”
Fischer said a big element of this class is for students to actually work on people opposed to how doll heads were used, so students get more experience.
“Students will be conducting salon and cosmetology services on people, which is the most important way for them to get more developed in this field,” Fischer said.
“Another goal of this class is for students to break out of their shells and to redevelop the importance of communicating with people around them, as well as customers to provide saloning services to, since COVID took a lot of that away.”
For Introduction to Poetry, the class description lays out its teachings for a “survey of poetry written in English and in translation from the Middle Ages to the present day. It increases students’ understanding of poetic conventions, cultural and historical contexts and theoretical and aesthetical issues. This course will develop students’ interpretive and analytical writing skills.”
The English professor who will teach the class, Eric Odegaard, said he wanted to “emphasize poetry more in English.”
“I developed the idea of this class and began the process of forming it last semester,” Odegaard said. “I thought why not do an intro to poetry where that is a ruled genre and a specific class that is merely just poetry?
“…I’ve been teaching creative writing for many years and I feel like poetry gets the short end of the stick when we’re teaching other types of English classes. You’re never going to get an introduction to poetry in an English 101 class.”
When going more in depth about the structure of this class and what will be specifically taught, Odegaard referenced skill sets and goals for what he wants his students to learn.
“There are different skill sets and you need a deep dive to master them when it comes down to the teachings of poetry,” Odegaard said.
“We use language in a very direct and transactional way, and I want to help students break that barrier.”
“I feel like people are hesitant with poetry, as if there’s a magical key to it and that you need to be perfect with it,” Odegaard said.
“My goal is to dispel that myth.”
Odegaard references a quote by an American poet and writer, Archibald Mcleish, “a poem should not mean, but be.”
Odegaard said if there’s one thing he wants students to pick up from this class, it’s to “appreciate language differently from the normal way we are used to appreciating it and to realize that language can mean something in many different ways.”
“I feel like people have these blinders that a word means only one significant thing.” Odegaard said.
“I don’t think that’s true, and if anything, I feel like meaning is beside the point sometimes.”
Chelsea Petersen, a student who took Odegaard’s English 102 class this semester weighed in on her experience in his class, and how she feels about Introduction to Poetry.
“I think Introduction to Poetry could be a very enlightening class for any kind of student, no matter which major they are taking. As an English major, I find the things I learned very useful in the rest of my classes going forward. Taking a poetry class allows a student to expand what they know about self-expression and I think that is a very valuable thing to learn,” she said.
Petersen said in her English class, what they learned about poetry was good enough, but to understand it, the subject will need more emphasis.
“I actually took English 102 this semester, and I felt that our poetry unit was pretty solid,” Petersen said.
“Although, I think in order to fully understand poetry you need more than just a unit.”
