Semester Reflections

Semester 2

One of the biggest culture shocks I’ve had whilst coming into college is the realization that I’m now the one who has to maintain relationships with my professors instead of them being required to maintain one with me. I’ve definitely had a rough time getting used to this change, and even now it still poses a challenge. To get over this hurdle, I’ve started slow: I’ll email my professors when I’m feeling sick or let them know when I’ve resubmitted an assignment for various reasons. It’s small, yes, but it lets professors know that you do care about the class, and from these connections I’ve noticed that my professors have been more lenient with my work, both grades and lateness wise. The biggest challenge in developing these connections is definitely communication, as every person handles their emails in different ways, some professors not even reading them until it’s beyond too late; however, to get around this, I’ve found that it’s helpful just to flat out ask what works for them, as not only do you get the schedule that you need, it also shows your professors that you’re taking an initiative.

Most of my connections in college are from pure coincidence. I happened to get a roommate with interests similar to mine, and I happened to live in a dormitory hall with a friend from high school, and I happened to have a friend who ran UMD’s art club. For meeting people, it’s really just learning to go with the flow. Knowing these people has definitely made the transition to college much easier, because I got helpful advice from my friends who had already been here a year, and I got to figure out other things alongside my freshman pals. There’s always someone I can lean on if I’m struggling, and I’m someone they can lean on vice versa. The greatest obstacle here is just finding the time to spend alongside my friends, because it seems like my academic career is always taking up my every waking moment. For oncoming freshman, just know that hanging out with peers doesn’t always have to be for an outing, you can always just have a group study session. The important part is doing whatever together.

One of the biggest ways that Art Scholars fosters community is by having all the freshmen living in the same dorm building because we all learned the highs and lows of on-campus living together. It also gave us a space to talk about the discussions we had just had in colloquium, and to generally talk about what we were working on in life. There was this one craft & chat in Bel Air where we got to make jewelry out of paper clips, and I still remember the chat I had with some sophomores I hadn’t known prior about their capstone projects, and how excited they were to be working on them. It taught me a lot about what Art Scholars meant to them, and about what the capstone projects really were. In the future, I know that I’ll be the one excitedly talking to the freshmen about my work on my capstone project so they can have the same experience I’ve had.

Coming into Art Scholars, I thought I already had everything figured out about the subject: I was an artist in all my juvenile years, and I had taken a course that covered art philosophy. The biggest impact Art Scholars has had on me has been teaching me that in the grand scheme of things, I don’t really know anything about art! Art isn’t just on the walls or in the headphones we all walk around with, it’s in the clothes we wear and the chairs we sit on and in the conversations we have about whatever. There is absolutely no facet of life that isn’t impacted by creativity, and what is creativity if not expression of the soul, or, art? To me, art is the life in everything that doesn’t live; however, that’s just my own conclusion. Art Scholars will introduce you into so many different ways of thinking about art that you’ll be able to see the subject from an entirely new perspective, and will get to come up with your own personalized version behind the meaning of art.

The most helpful part of my experience in Art Scholars has definitely been the workshops, for a multitude of reasons. The first reason is because they’re student led, so I felt like I got to finally participate in the soul of the program, rather than just looking in from the outskirts. Seeing someone so dedicated to their project, and spending all of their time just giving out everything they have while being in your exact position is a magical experience. The second reason is because I was actually participating in a capstone while doing my own work, so I got a fuller understanding of what the end of the program was going to look life for me. To all you incoming freshmen, I have one piece of advice: try. It’ll be hard, and at times it won’t be fun, but you have to try. You’ll get nothing if you’re always within your safe zone, and you will never be able to tell what you hold to be good if you never get to experience what you believe to be bad. Just try, it won’t hurt.

Simon's Birthday - picture from a friend