Semester Reflections

Semester 2

Connecting with Professors In Arts Scholars, I enjoyed getting to interact with other students as proffesors in my workshop. While it may have felt slightly less formal than other teachers, there was a lot of value in getting to engage with them in a different dynamic. Outside of Arts Scholars, I made the effort to connect with my professors by engaging with discussions in class and attending office hours. Particularly in my Oral Comm class, I would attend workshop days that I wasn't required to, both to connect with the class, but also because I found them to be a valuable way to see concepts being learned and executed. 

Connecting with Peers Arts Scholars continued to provide me with connections to several of my friends–including a few who are rooming with me in our sophomore years. I also appreciate that it gives us the space to pull together a meeting for the 3-4 of us available on a given week to play musical instruments we brought to college. Getting to know a few of my friends while connecting over music was very special to me, and those were all Arts Scholars students using Bel Air as a space to meet. My only worry is that next year, I'll be living much further from Bel Air, which might make it more difficult to connect with the friends I've made, but I know I'd love to keep going to those band meetings and as an Arts Scholar, I still have access to that communal space. 

Arts Scholars Community Arts Scholars really encourages students to dig into art projects that appeal to their interests on multiple levels, whether by engaging with their major or by focusing on a topic that they really personally care about. Going to Arts Fest was a little overwhelming for me, but I loved getting to see how attached each artist was to their piece–they spent a long time on it, but no one seemed fed up or unhappy with them. It was a very positive artistic presentation that made me happy to see. An artistic community that encourages dedication to craft that you care about is very important!

Experimenting and Expanding Artistic Experience Arts Scholars was a great way for me to meet other people with their own artistic ideas and creative hopes. I learned so much about what sorts of hobbies and crafts you can pick up, and most of all, I discovered how reasonably easy a lot of them are. If you just take the time to figure them out, you can crochet or embroider or paint or play a recorder fairly well! I've really enjoyed expanding my scope of artistic experiences, and I look forward to being able to use these new skills in the future, whether for my own personal projects or for other creative ventures I get into.

Impactful Learning I think that the field trips are a really important part of Arts Scholars that doesn't get pointed out often. I like that you don't have to go off-campus, which I often prefer, because it gives students a chance to see what we have access to as UMD students. Taking students to the Clarice to see a show will encourage them to check out what else is running across the year (which is a lot! And very important to me). Or exploring the gallery in Stamp can give students a new look into the sorts of art displays we have across campus, not just in art buildings. Picking a field trip that you're genuinely curious about is important, and I think there's plently to chose from, even with scheduling and/or transportation limits.