I took UNE’s Citizenship course during the Fall 2022 semester. The course’s main purpose was to direct students to engage in civic contributions and to reflect upon not only their rights as citizens, but their responsibilities as a global citizen. While I was familiar with a lot of the information presented in this course, I believe it was an important step in my transition from a student life to an adult life. The course also touched upon the importance of self-education and being able to formulate your own opinions based on information from multiple sources with different viewpoints. In her first chapter, Nussbaum outlines the main abilities/traits that are synonymous with the humanities. “The ability to think critically; the ability to transcend local loyalties and to approach world problems as a “citizen of the world”; and, finally, the ability to imagine sympathetically the predicament of another person” (Nussbaum, 7) are all abilities that were insisted upon during the Citizenship course. As members of a democracy, we must be able to, as stated above, formulate our own opinions using critical thinking skills and sympathize with others in our nation that have differences in political leanings, gender, religion, etc. The arts and humanities assist in developing these skills. Within my own major and minors, I’ve been expected to use critical thinking skills to approach problems. I’ve also been able to express my own beliefs and ideologies through written and visual works while also being exposed to works that sometimes counter those beliefs. The experiences I’ve had within the humanities have helped me become a conscious citizen, not just within my country, but globally. The curiosity and acceptance fostered by humanities courses have helped me look at issues from multiple viewpoints while also allowing me to have my own opinion based on personal values. This idea of the humanities fostering civic engagement is something Nussbaum discusses in chapter six. The arts, she says, are directly “descended” from our early experiences of playing as children and that “this curiosity contributes toward the development of healthy attitudes in friendship, love, and, later, political life” (Nussbaum, 100).