Katerina Kremer
Arts Scholar
Semester 1
The first semester is coming to an end and I have a lot to reflect about. When coming into college in the fall, I didn’t have any clue what to expect from my art scholars class. Everything is slightly different than I always thought it would be due to the virtual setting, but especially because I lived in Bel Air, I got to meet a few other students in the art scholars program. This course was sort of what I expected from a college course. I didn’t know there would be a website where most of our work would be done, but it is interesting to be able to look back on and see my work all in one place from the year. Most of our assignments were discussed during our colloquiums to give us a heads up and then completed on Elms or Wix. This was helpful, because it can be challenging searching through Elms to find what assignments are due and how to complete them. The directions to our assignments were very clear, which was very helpful.
I took a supporting course of THET110 this semester and was shocked how the semester turned out. I have never done anything related to theater, so I was worried I wouldn’t know much going in, but the class was interesting. I learned a lot and was in a small group with a few people: all of them being in different grades, which was cool! I can connect some things learned in that to things we learned in class such as the idea that art can be used to tell a story and be used for activism. In art scholars we created an activism podcast, and in THET110 I created a monologue to show resilience in our community. Both are the same form of art: using the power of words to share your thoughts and ideas. I was aware the podcasts can be moving, but by creating two completely different ones for both classes, I was able to see the variety and range that podcasts cover and the effect on the audience. In theater I was embodying an experience of someone in my community and sharing their struggle, but in art scholars, we shared our daily challenges from being a woman in STEM. Both of these tasks were eye opening and the connection is very strong between the two classes.
I did not expect to participate in creating a podcast as our project. I think originally, the picture in my head was that we would do lots of art projects, but everyone in art scholars is here for a different reason. We all have artistic abilities but many of our strengths vary greatly. I enjoyed some of the events and field trips as they gave me time to relax and just draw and work on an art piece. I can’t wait to be in-person and be able to do more elaborate events, but I was grateful we were able to make the best of it and do events that everyone had the resources for.
I obviously never expected my first semester to be like this, but I am glad I was able to be on campus and in Bel Air. As I am currently at home because I went home for Thanksgiving break, it is a struggle to complete my work. I love my family and tend to hang out with them when I should be doing more schoolwork. I think I made the right decision to live on campus and I will be doing the same in the Spring. I was excited for the freedom and making new friends but struggled a little finding a ton of new people due to COVID. I was able to make friends though, and I will continue meeting new people in the Spring, so I am very excited about that, but I also did miss my family while I was away. It is very comforting to be home but living on campus definitely caused me to reach outside my comfort zone.
I expected harsh regulations to maintain our low numbers of COVID outbreaks but was shocked when we really went into the “second wave”. I thought we were doing a really effective job limiting the spread, but out of nowhere group fitness classes were closed again, more limits added, and we were given a tough decision for Thanksgiving break. I didn’t like the idea that if we wanted to see our family, we were no longer able to return to campus. Switching and coming home while continuing classes for many weeks has been quite a struggle and has challenged me a lot. So, although most of the COVID restrictions fit my expectations, I didn’t expect the severity necessarily, and the decision to take away Thanksgiving break.
I really enjoyed the Zen tangle workshop and the Zine making class. Both workshops taught me to take time for myself, relax and do something I enjoy. I was able to sit back and doodle during the time slot of our class. This was calming and helped me cope with any stress from the week.
Photo of mask above was found from Wix's free collection of photos
Semester 2
Overall, semester two in the Art Scholars program was very beneficial and enjoyable. The setup of the workshops each week gave me something to look forward to and a project to work for. It was very challenging still to grow a strong relationship with the faculty due to the online nature of the course again. Although I got to share a little about myself during our one-on-one meetings and have been able to easily contact any faculty member when I needed to, I still would’ve liked to create a stronger relationship. Incoming students will be able to pursue such relationships when they are in-person and get to meet the staff weekly and in the Cambridge community center. I think the difference between the Zoom environment and classroom are extraordinarily different and it will bring many more benefits to students in art scholars. In addition, the formation of a community from living together in Bel Air and attending classes together will be a lot stronger next year than what I have experienced because people will be less afraid to interact with each. other and hopefully roommates will exist again.
The adjustment from high school to college was pretty challenging and the pandemic only brought additional challenges. It was helpful knowing a group of people on campus because they were in my dorm and I would see them on our Art Scholars calls. I was also able to use my love for art to cope with the transition and create something for me to do with my friends on campus. I never missed an opportunity for the Studio A art supply pickups and loved sitting outside and painting mini canvases, rocks, stuffing stuffed animals, and so much more. This allowed me to relax, express myself and be social while doing so. It was a struggle to meet lots of people at first due to many people being sent to COVID dorms, the sequester in place, and the overall strict rules on campus. I ended up rushing a sorority in the spring which is nothing I ever thought I would do, but it has helped me branch out and have the opportunity to meet so many more people.
The incoming freshman will have some advantages my grade lacked and will hopefully be able to meet many people during in-person activities and classes in general. I think they will also be able to participate in large group activities with Art Scholars students and people in their dorms to be able to get to know each other. Overall, the art scholars program creates a sense of community and is comforting to meet and know a larger group on campus that live in your dorm and have similar interests. I already plan on contributing to the Art Scholars community next year by being a peer mentor and using my time to help ease the incoming freshman into college and share any advice that I learned through my experience. I enjoyed having a peer mentor even though our activities together were very limited, it was reassuring to know I had someone older to look up to and ask questions to.
Lastly, being on campus has made me appreciate art more than ever. I always love crafting and doing art projects but forgot that I wouldn’t have as many resources to do so while I am on campus. By utilizing the free resources of Studio A and participating in pentathlons and a workshop, I was able to continue crafting and making projects that I enjoyed while still remaining very focused on my academics. Although this has been one of the most challenging years of my life, I think that as a person I have grown immensely from the experience and from stepping outside of my comfort zone to try new things, and the Art Scholars program has helped me ease into this transition.
Image by Gabriel Benois found on Wix's free collection of photos
Semester 3
Throughout research this semester, I investigated the history of different art techniques, famous art movements and cultures created through artwork for inspiration for the capstone project idea. Also, in the documentary in class, I saw the importance of art in telling the experiences that a group of people experienced. The Latinos that live in Mount Pleasant were facing discrimination issues such as mistreatment, curfews, riots, and protests that ended in violence. The video we watch called “La Manplasa” was an artistic representation of the event. The events that took place were difficult to explain and for many of the victims to share their experiences, but in the video, they used writing, videos, and pictures as ways to express their emotions. This documentary taught me a lot about the inequity and the powerful impact of art on the viewer. This form of news and historical events is more informative than reading a short article about an event, because the emotion could be seen and felt, as well as the cruelty is emphasized by seeing the terrible treatment of the citizens by law enforcement. The creative art process varies for everyone. Typically, an event or situation sparks an idea or thought that can lead the artistic ideas to develop a project.
In any form of art, an important and often overlooked step that is not utilized is feedback and revision. In the colloquium, when we created each step of our project proposal, we went through the step of peer revision. During this, we were able to see what worked and what was needed improvement to make the proposal more comprehensive and effective. It is helpful to get a new perspective on work you’ve been working on and to review other examples to see what I could add or remove to make my project clearer. Having someone peer review is very helpful, especially when utilized in essays or writing submitted for a grade. I also enjoyed the chArma and drum lessons that we received because it was a nice break from traditional classes throughout the week and created a fun environment to learn new skills.
In microbiology (BSCI223) this semester, the course has required a lot of artistic abilities and has made connections to Art Scholars. In Art Scholars, we had a librarian come and speak to us to educate us on the proper sources to use for researching and how to find scholarly sources. These specific search techniques were beneficial when researching topics for microbiology and completing research projects. Constantly, we had to look up information and cite it, so it was important that the sources were peer-reviewed and reputable. In addition, many assignments required analyzing a lab report and summarizing it and including a hand-drawn diagram with an explanation. I was able to use my artistic abilities to help my group create diagrams that could depict the experiment occurring. In addition, my I-series class this semester that is an art- supporting course was TLPL288W. I learned a lot about the banning and censorship of books, ideas, and words in our society. We reviewed a lot of literature and a website and learned the foundations of censorship and examples of books that were banned so we could discuss the reasons and our opinions. This class was very interesting to revisit some novels I have read before and analyze them from a different angle.
Scholars is a living-learning program and has helped me create a few friendships. Although I feel like I have made the same number of friends in the program as in any other class on campus, I do know a good amount of people in the class. This being said, because of commuters and people living at home last semester, there are a ton of people in the class that I don’t know the names of. I have tried to learn people’s names but there are a lot of people that I haven’t had the chance to meet or interact with. My only disappointment is that because of COVID, we were unable to do the trip to NYC that was talked about a lot when I was first introduced to the scholars program and I was super excited for. I was able to participate in the freshman welcome activities that we couldn’t have because of COVID as a peer mentor. This experience was fun to meet other mentors in different programs and get to know my mentees better. I also was able to help the community through the service day where I took my mentees to clean up the arboretum of College Park, which is all the nature on campus. As a mentor, I have gained the leadership experience and I have had the unique opportunity to meet freshmen on campus. There aren’t freshmen in any of my classes, so if it weren’t for being a mentor, I wouldn’t have had the chance to know any of them. This has also been a great experience because I can share my wisdom and advice from my year on campus with them and help them transition into college with the addition of COVID issues that I have dealt with my entire time in college. Overall, scholars has brought me in contact with lots of people with different beliefs and ideas than mine, but these differences challenged me in a good way and help the formation of good project ideas. Seeing everyone’s capstone proposals showed me the variety in our classroom and helped me know people a little better by seeing what they are passionate about. I enjoy looking at these differences and learning from them instead of questioning or not accepting them. The art community as a whole is very inclusive to all people.
Image above is titled "Exhibition Space" from Wix's free images
Semester 4
Throughout my four semesters/ two years in the art scholars’ program, I have grown and developed as a student and a person. In my pentathlons, I was forced to step outside of my comfort zone and experience new forms of art. By having to do pentathlons in different event categories, I was able to attend a large variety of events from museum visits to a pre-election conversational zoom call, to audiobooks, dance performances and band performances. This has increased my exposure to new ideas and different forms of art.
My perception of art has been challenged and redefined through our many experiences and guest artists as well. During one colloquium class on zoom, I was introduced to the idea of Vogue dancing. This was very new to me and a unique experience that I likely wouldn’t have had without this program. I had never heard of the style of dance, but by the end of the hour and a half session, we were all doing freestyled dances in our own rooms. I was able to hear the history, as well as learn the basic techniques to be able to build from. Also, freshman year, we had a guest speaker teach us about the best ways to create and record podcasts. It was interesting to hear her trial-and-error ideas of how to record the crispest sounds by trying to record in her car, room, closet, etc. I never thought about the technical strategies and setup required to record a podcast the most efficiently. I don’t enjoy hearing my own voice, so this was a challenging project, especially because I did a lot of the editing.
In comparison, my perception has also been influenced by many trips and guest speakers. My favorite experience was visiting the Artechouse in DC. The exhibit was a large self-playing piano that was coded to continuously play, and the walls and floor surrounding it displayed colored drawings that matched the music. The serenity and calmness from this exhibit were very comforting and entertaining. The concepts behind the art were very impressive and new to me to consider coding a form of art, but it just shows that large inclusion of art and its parallels with technology.
By creating my capstone project, I improved my technological skills and was able to advance my skills on Wix to create my website. I was able to build from my skills from my art scholars’ website with my pentathlons and my website skills from my scholars ENG101S course. In addition, I had to work on my communication skills and oral communication to present about my workshop piece at Artsfest and create a presentation for the academic showcase. This improved my ability to give speeches and presentations.
I was able to deepen my artistic talents during my time in art scholars. Especially when completing my capstone project, it allowed me to expand my creative abilities and work on new techniques. I have knitted before, but never crocheted, and through this project, I was able to not only learn how to crochet, but with my fingers and no tools. I am going to use these skills to create future projects.
In scholars, I have been able to collaborate a lot with many people that have differing beliefs from me. We have done group projects, such as the podcast, as well as peer feedback in CPSA250 on a weekly basis. I am also a peer mentor, so I have gained a lot of leadership experience as well as collaborating with my mentees and other mentors to create events.
I still and will always love art and being creative. I will use art in the future as a de-stressor as well as a fun activity to do. Also, it is important to incorporate art and creativity into future jobs to think of new problem-solving ideas and thinking outside of the box. In addition, I learned how to navigate Wix, which could be a useful skill to possess and being able to create a website overall.
