Single-unit courses launch

Many opportunities at The Master’s University can go unnoticed if people do not go looking for them. This is the case with a collection of one-unit courses the university offers—most of which debuted this year.

Many courses are being offered now, including a self-defense course, a dentistry course and “how to be better” courses.

One of the original one-unit courses is KIN268A Self-Defense. Tim Wolkiewicz, the instructor, has been teaching this self-defense course for three semesters, and he is looking forward to teaching it in future semesters.

“I have a wealth of knowledge, and I’m happy to pass along to anybody that’s willing to learn and work hard. Just like any other classes at TMU, if you put the time and effort, you’re gonna come up more ahead than you were before,” Wolkiewicz said.

The course is different from most because it requires physical activity. The goal is to use all parts of your body and mind to work as one. The aim is to use the skills taught for practical defense applications, even after a student’s time in school is over.

The course is not academically rigorous since it is only one unit, but it may become a two-credit course in the spring, being more physical and a deeper teaching of self-defense than what it currently looks like.

“One girl always says, ‘Why doesn’t everybody know this?’ Whether you’re a girl or a guy, it’s important to understand how your body moves, how someone else’s body moves, and just being aware of your surroundings and how to avoid things that could be welcoming confrontations,” Wolkiewicz said. “I teach how to de-escalate that so it doesn’t get to confrontations because no one wants to go and hurt anybody else.”

Another course that will be offered next semester to any student interested in dentistry is LS387J Dental Studies, led by Neil McLeod, a dentist in Beverly Hills. Originally an anatomy professor at TMU, he noticed that there were a few pre-dental students. Wanting to grow the variety of departments, he decided to develop a pre-dental program. 

Students in the program are already taking science courses, but few dentistry classes are currently offered. The program requires 100 hours of shadowing experience, and McLeod wanted to help with that by providing a selection of dentists for students to shadow to prepare for dental school.

“My course is designed not to be complicated. It’s designed to be exciting and interesting and a compliment to their regular course of studies. If you are studying anatomy and you have to study the 12 cranial nerves, you’ve got a lot of work to do,” McLeod said. “I don’t want to burden them by saying, ‘I want you to now know the dates in which all these various discoveries were made.’ I want them to understand what's going on.”

The goal is to help these students apply to dental school by giving them a letter of recommendation from someone already working in dentistry.

“Right off the bat, the first thing we have done for our dental and pre-dental students is to give them a wonderful choice of different clinicians to whom they can go and watch dentistry being done and provide them with a possible recommendation,” McLeod said.

Two new courses launched this semester: IDS299B How to Be Better at BBQ led by Kenneth Piester, and IDS299A How to Be Better at Automotive Care taught by Brian Pam. 

Arts and Letters department Chairperson, and the Director of TMU Tutoring Esther Chua, came up with these course ideas and sees the classes more like tutoring. Over the last five to six years, she listened to what students said they needed and learned that they were interested in “adulting” classes that teach skills they need to know but are not sure how to acquire them.

“They are very practical classes. So we do expect students to attend because so much of the work is in the participation,” Chua said. “You can’t be late because there are only eight sessions. You can’t miss a class because that’s the work. It’s the opportunity to learn something from someone who’s an expert. I hope that will naturally make students know that they need to commit to it because they see the opportunity, and they won’t waste it.”

Chua said that all TMU faculty and staff have a heart for the students. They are either involved in the college ministry or mentor the students. Chua shared how she feels about her opportunity to get to know the students, revealing her heart for this school.

“It is always such an honor to be able to be trusted by a student who is willing to share their life with me and ask me questions about what they have questions about wisdom. As a result, I tend to think of all my classes as practical wisdom classes because our hope is to build discernment,” Chua said.