Semester Reflections

Semester 3

I have now finished my third semester at College Park. While this wasn’t the most chaotic semester of my college experience, it definitely had some ups and downs. It took me a while to settle on a capstone project. I started off wanting to do a workshop, since I just spent an entire summer making sewing project lesson plans for my job as a camp counselor. I wanted to learn about food styling and prop making, and have a workshop based on exploring meals from different cultures and creating fake versions of them for a “visual feast.” But, I was very overwhelmed with the fast paced workshop planning, and decided to switch to an individual project. I then wanted to switch my topic entirely to quilting, because I have more of a unique connection to quilting. I was surprised how supportive my professors were with my last minute project switch. It took me a while to realize that the activities in class were actively supporting the discovery and development of my project.

My favorite colloquium this semester was the West African Style drumming workshop. I heard many times before that it was a lot of previous scholars’ favorite workshop, but I didn’t understand why until I was actually sitting there with a drum between my legs. I had a midterm earlier in the day, so I was still stressed from it going in. The women leading the workshop were very interesting, and I admire their activism work. The rhythms they taught were fun to follow along to and it was definitely a good stress release. It gave me time to reflect on the current state of the US and what was happening outside of college.
I think the biggest connection between art scholars and my engineering classes is the importance of doing. It is one thing to talk about concepts of things like creating a plan or the forces on a yo-yo, but things start to click once you actually see it in action.

I really enjoyed living with all of my fellow scholars last year, and miss the late night cooking adventures. But, I have been able to keep the same friendships despite not living in the same building anymore. I have found that some of the strongest bonds have been with people in my classes who understand what I am going through. Art scholars gives a place to connect with peers from many different majors who I might not have interacted with before. 

My TA group was very chatty this semester. We clicked instantly and always had engaging conversations about the assignments. My peers come from very different backgrounds, and it is always interesting to see what we agree and disagree on. On the field trip I went on this semester, a drag show by Monet X Change, I sat with Jenna from my TA group and we had an insightful conversation about the show. Arts Scholars is a whole different planet from the rest of my college experience. I’ve met people from different majors that I definitely wouldn’t have interacted with otherwise. I have definitely made connections with my fellow group members and I hope to continue finding new connections next semester in CPSA250.