HUMSS or Humanities and Social Sciences is a strand taken by students in the K-12 Program. Often, it is underestimated as it is over shadowed by other strands. The stereotypical questions for a HUMSS student are: "Are you gonna become a lawyer/politician?" "HUMSS? Walang pera doon!" (HUMSS? You can't get money there!) "You should just pursue another strand." People aren't quite familiar with what HUMSS can offer and what HUMSS can do. 

Let me, a HUMSS student, show you the way:

1.  HUMSS can show you the world (but not on a magic carpet ride).

"I can show you the world."

With HUMSS disciplines like Geography and Anthropology, you can get to know the world as we live in it. Being a part of HUMSS means learning about the world, and how we humans interact with it. Also, we learn about our past through our ancestors and how they interacted with their environment.

2. HUMSS can make anything happen (within reason, of course)

"It's called: IMAGINATION"

Enter the world of writers. Creative Writing, Creative Non-FictionHUMSS students are trained to think, write and talk critically and creatively to be able to express ourselves and our topics in a understandable way. Our works may be based on fiction or non-fiction, but you can be rest assured that HUMSS students can make anything happen through pen and paper.

3. HUMSS can change the world (one step at a time).

"The power of the lawyer is the uncertainty of the law."- Jeremy Bentham

This is the inevitable "Are you going to become a lawyer? Politician?" question, answered. In the Philippines did you know that we have plenty of weird laws? For example, in the case of a tie in the elections, both candidates will settle the winner through a coin toss. Also, in the extreme cases, someone can "legally" kill another, and this is seen under Article 247 of the Revised Code. With knowledge from the HUMSS strand, these future lawyers and politicians can make a change (or in terms of laws, a revision) to these outdated and unnecessary laws.

4. HUMSS can revise (or discover new sides of) History.

"History is written by the winners."

Have you ever heard History from the point of view of the losing side? Me neither. This is what Historians aim to do. You see, History isn't one dimensional; there are plenty of sides and angles from which we can view it. It's all about perspective, and HUMSS students try to discover all possible information about a specific event, and infer on what truly happened and the motivation behind it. 

5. HUMSS can solve social problems with the force (no, not really). 

"We can use the force!"

By force, I mean the work force. Social issues are always present, and causing even more problems in the country. Through researches contributed by the HUMSS sector, soical issues are addressed, and we aim the discover the cause and find a solution. The work forces of sociologists are not just office workers, but field agents. They aim to discover solutions by immersing themselves in locations where the social issue thrives, and learn from the people possible solutions and aid needed. Though this does not happen in a snap, it can be of great help to bring us closer to progress.

 6. HUMSS can understand Minionese (well, we can try)

"BANANA!"

 Through Linguistics (the study of language and its structure), we will be able to discover information from our own language and the language of others. No, you don't have to know other languages to enter this discipline; your sufficient knowledge of your native language is more than enough. Also, language is part of what makes us who we are; it is part of our culture and life, so why wouldn't you want to learn more about it?

7. HUMSS can tell if you're lying. (not exactly)

"You look like you lost some weight!"

HUMSS students may enter the field of Psychology where one can study the behavior and mind of a person (so #7 isn't a complete lie). Psychologists seek to understand a person or a group through research and establishing generalized theories, explanations and principles. Psychology also researches information about special cases and exceptions.


8. HUMSS can make millions (we're saving for it right now)

"We gonna make it rain."

Money makes the world go round, and that's true for Economics. HUMSS students are exposed to the study of allocating resources and decision making. It involves finances, wealth and banking, but Economics also helps us understand why people spend, why businesses go bankrupt and even why some countries are rich and some poor.



9. HUMSS can avoid death (but all men are still mortal).

"Death aint nothin' but a word."

HUMSS students study the statistics of birth, death, income and diseases which may be quite useful for the progress of a country. This is called demography. Now, we can't avoid death (because death is absolute), but we can find out possible reasons for increase in mortality rate, and find solutions to lessen that.

ONE THING A HUMSS STUDENT CAN'T DO?

1. HUMSS students can't stand idly by.

We can't stand idly by, and just watch people criticize our strand. We can't stand idly by, and watch the world stay as it is when we know we can make a change. We aren't just HUMSS. We are HUMSS.