Veloz, Larisa  

Larisa is a new professor this quarter, and on top of that, she is teaching a brand new course at Cal Poly, so you need to give her props. Her lectures are not always the most entertaining, but you can tell that she is passionate about history and wants everyone to enjoy history just as much as she does. Her class consists of quick writes, short responses that you do every class and turn in at the end of class. For homework she assigns readings, but it's not the end of the world if you don't do them. Your grade is based off of two essays, a midterm, a final, and participation. If you're still questioning whether or not to take her, she brought us candy on the lecture before Halloween and she played Bob Marley before our midterm because we seemed "too stressed."

I LOVED PROF V. SHE WAS AWESOME. She is very calm and composed and has so much expertise in this area. She went to UCSB and then chose to teach at Cal Poly so that says a lot oabout her already ;) She is so caring for her students and explains material really well. She is so passionate and enthusiastic and is more of a friend than a professor. She goes out of her way to make things easy for her students and is extremely fair in terms of grading. She gives a super helpful study guide before exams and the exam is basically just the study guide. I loved her so much <3 She's literally great. If you need a class with less work, a professor who gets you, and history without actually memorizing dates and stuff, this class is a must take.

In hindsight I really liked professor Veloz. this class covers history from the 1400s to today so it was a lot of information. I also took the class for 6-8 pm so by that time in the day I was pretty negative toward showing up. In fact, I showed up to about half the classes throughout the entire quarter. I DO NOT RECOMMEND SKIPPING THIS CLASS BECAUSE SHE TAKES ATTENDANCE!!!!! I ended with the lowest A- I could get and it was fully because of lost attendance points. I aced both the midterm and final, as well as the two 2-3 page easy essays you write. Veloz was seriously cool about her class and every time I went I learned a lot and enjoyed the class. all you really have to do is listen. Take her if you get the chance!

One of the best professors I've had for my GE's.. She is very invested in her students and she knows what she's talking about. The grade is mainly based off of a few homework essays and a 2 midterms which are also essays and a final. It wasn't easy but she covered everything she tested and she gives very helpful study guides. History in general is boring...but Larisa is great at making it relatable to her students. I'd give her a 10/10 in terms of teaching ability and it is a very manageable workload.

Professor Veloz was alright. She knew the material and taught it but all her lectures are boring as shit. She tends to focus way too much on certain topics which got annoying towards the end. Read Fred Doug in the beginning, but after that you can BS your way through the rest of the readings. Her midterm and final are structured the same with an essay and short responses to certain social movements or events, she grades them super nit picky. I got an A on both, but going over where she took points off it was a, "c'mon seriously?" kind of thing.

Professor Veloz knew how to teach. I've always hated history, and the fact that this class was 6-8pm made me really inclined to skip. But she made the classes interesting. She handed out extra points generously and was a compassionate, and understanding teacher. Students should expect two papers, two quizzes (possibly pop quizzes), attendance sheets, daily writings, and one midterm.

If you are looking for an easy A or B, take this class. For the tests, she gives you a list of identifications you need to research and memorize and she tells you what the essay question will ask in general terms. I got A's on both of my tests with minimal studying because she outlines everything that will be covered! So awesome! She allows a date range when citing a specific event or time in history (you don't have to be perfect), and she doesn't assign much homework. Concerning the books, I only used VOF vol 1 and I didn't use vol 2 at all. As a person who is only somewhat interested in history, I felt her lectures were incredibly dry. She repeated herself a lot and could have crunched lecture time down to about 1 hour instead of 2. However, I still benefitted from attending her class, and I enjoyed hearing her perspective on certain issues. I ended up bringing other homework, or my laptop, to class to pass the time as what is covered in lecture is purely for your own benefit, not the tests. She does have daily quick writes that are turned in but these take 5 minutes and the class goes over the answers before turning them in, These were not graded on accuracy but (I think) for completion & to take attendance. Overall, if you don't mind entertaining yourself for 2 hours/sitting through an extremely dry lecture, I would recommend! Easy GE, not stressful