By Whitney Clark
Students are finding classes offered during spring and summer are getting them just a little bit closer to graduation.
Though not all classes are offered during spring and summer terms, departments pick classes they feel will be helpful for students to take in a more concentrated atmosphere.
?It is a myth that the classes are more laid back,? said Jerry Jensen, an academic adviser. ?The truth is just don?t have to carry as hard of a load.?
Classes offered vary from general education requirements to outdoor learning courses.
Jensen said it is up to the departments to say the classes they will teach, but it really depends on if they can get someone to teach it and enough students to take it.
Though students are not taking as large of a load, Jensen said they need to be careful not to take classes that will be too difficult in such a short amount of time.
?Students generally do well,? he said, ?but they need to be careful not to take courses that are over their heads.?
Though most of the classes that are taught are commonly taken courses, there are a couple of smaller courses taught only during spring and summer terms, including a course on stained glass.
Stained glass, VASTU 355R, is taught by Andy Kosorok, and is open to all students who are interested.
?It is taught during the spring and summer because it is not considered one of the mainstream curriculum elements,? Kosorok said.
He said the class is very demanding since they only have two months to cover the material, but he found that students are more excited to learn in the spring and summer terms.
?You find a lot more students are coming in after hours to work and practice,? Kosorok said.
The first two years of teaching the course, he said he found it difficult to fit all the material into such a short amount of time.
?I felt constrained,? he said, ?but then I tried fitting everything I wanted to in and I found that students were really excited to learn.?
Liliana Garcia, a sophomore from Colombia majoring in Spanish teaching, has taken both spring and summer classes during her time here at BYU.
?The main thing is the timing,? Garcia said. ?You have to take the same content in less time.?
A listing of spring and summer classes can be found at saas.byu.edu/springsummer/index.html.
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