Editor’s Note: Much of the information from this article pulls from the syllabi of the respective courses.

College is what you make of it and, to a certain degree, what you make of your class schedule. But when your degree plan includes a fixed list of required courses, taking advantage of the wiggle room in your schedule can be challenging, so The Daily Texan is here to help you make the most of it. When a quick readover of your registered classes is enough to put you to sleep, jolt yourself awake by incorporating these four classes into your schedule.

RTF 344M 5 — Wrtg Interact Games/Media (Counts toward writing and independent inquiry flags)

Whereas many of us are usually exposed to the post-production stage of the gaming world, this class instead thrusts students into a vital aspect of the production stage: writing. By teaching students how to develop their own characters, create a fictional world and provide their own story pitches, the course puts its own modern, technological spin on the ancient art of storytelling. Who knows? Any student in this class might be creating our next “The Legend of Zelda.”

AFR 317D/HIS 317L — The Black Power Movement taught by Dr. Leonard Moore (Counts toward cultural diversity flag and history credit)

In this class, Professor Moore, the vice president of Diversity and Community Engagement at the University, urges students to join the conversation on black self-empowerment, no matter how controversial their views may be. With its heated discussions, the class accomplishes a feat that most primary and secondary curriculum material fail to achieve: Students delve past the surface of the Black Power Movement, an element of American history that most primary and secondary curriculum material about this subject merely grazes.

AFR 317F/MUS 307 1 — Music of African-Americans taught by Dr. Charles Carson (Counts toward cultural diversity flag and visual and performing arts credit)

If analyzing hip-hop masterpieces such as Kanye West’s Crack Music sounds addicting, this class was made for you. Carson’s Music of African-Americans gives students an important task: to actively contribute to an ongoing dialogue about a music genre beloved by people of many backgrounds. No matter what grade you receive, any student who takes this course will walk away a new skill: the ability to assess a vital art form of the African-American experience.

WGS 303 — Intro to LGBTQ Studies taught by Dr. Curran Nault (Counts Towards Cultural Diversity and Writing Flags)

This engaging course fills the education void on a topic that is oftentimes left out in many classrooms: queerness. The course materials helps illustrate queerness and its presence in a variety of settings. Students are given opportunities to showcase quizzes, an essay and in-depth projects on this subject. The only things standing between you taking this class are instructor approval and a hectic registration process.