Scholarly Activities of Jesus
Arts Scholar
TRYathlon
Semester 4
As an experiential component of College Park Arts Scholars, I attended a selection of three art events during my fourth semester. These events ranged in art mediums and each sparked dialogue among my peers.
TRYathlon 1: Valentine's Day Card Making
Event Logistics 2/12/24 @ Bel Air Lounge, Arts Scholars presents Valentine's Day Card Making
TRYathlon category #visualart
Along with fellow Arts Scholars peers and mentees, I attended and participated in the creation of fun and thoughtful Valentine’s Day cards here in Bel Air lounge. The event fostered a sense of community and collaboration, as I engaged in conversations with my peers about how to improve or make my card more inviting and loving. These interactions reinforced the value of communication, as we shared insights and techniques, enriching our creative processes. Such exchanges exemplified the collaborative spirit essential in both artistic work and engineering projects, where teamwork is essential for both innovation and problem-solving. It reminded me of the engineering projects I worked on during my freshman year where we had to work together in a group to create an OTV that could accomplish a set of tasks. Through the act of card-making, I found myself applying principles of design and aesthetics, considering color schemes and layout compositions, much like the critical planning required in engineering projects. Each decision, from selecting materials and knowing where to glue or paste different decor, required thoughtful analysis and evaluation, mirroring the problem-solving processes involved with my coursework. Overall, the Valentine's Day card-making event provided a valuable opportunity to apply, analyze, and evaluate concepts from both my aerospace engineering major and the broader Arts Scholars community.
TRYathlon 2: Heartmelt Delights
Event Logistics 2/13/24 @ Bel Air Lounge, AAB presents Heartmelt Delights Chocolate Making!
TRYathlon category #visualart
On the day before Valentine’s Day, the Arts Scholars Advisory Board hosted a chocolate-making event for the whole community to participate in. During the event, I got a chance to connect with my peers and formed a group to create a batch of Valentine’s Day-themed goodie bags with the chocolates being the center stage of our bags. I’ve never done this but have always wanted to try as the process was actually quite interesting. First, my group and I decided on the type of chocolates we wanted to use: white or milk chocolate. Then, we melted them in a glass mug by putting them in the microwave and letting the chocolates melt into a more fluid and liquid mixture. We then got to play around with the food coloring by dipping a few squirts into the mixture to pour it into a chocolate pan with a design of our choosing. The last step was to finally allow the liquid mixture to harden in the freezer and have our final chocolates ready to be placed in the goodie bag. I thought this was a unique creative process because not only did we have to figure out what kind of design we wanted our chocolates to have, but we also had to be very careful when implementing those ideas since there were a lot of steps that could go wrong in a more practical sense. For example, the original idea was to put the chocolates in a plastic cup and then microwave it, but it ended up burning the chocolates so we instead placed them in the China glass mug. This made me recall the engineering and design process my engineering courses keep teaching me and it was interesting to relate those same concepts into this art project.
TRYathlon 3: Orientation Presentation
Event Logistics 3/1/24 @ Bel Air Art Lounge, Arts Scholars hosts a Q&A for incoming Arts Scholars students!
Pentathlon category #presentation
During orientation, prospective Arts Scholars students participated in a Q&A session hosted by Arts Scholars. To provide upcoming students with a more comprehensive understanding of the Arts Scholars experience, I offered to be a member of the student panel. I discovered how much more comprehensive and community-focused the curriculum is. Similar to last year’s program, I reaffirmed my understanding of the Arts Scholars curriculum and gained insight into how we conduct our classes and apply our themes to the program. In reflecting on the two times I participated in this event, I noticed that some of my questions and concerns were resolved over this past year. How much more could I do for my Arts Scholars community? I joined the Arts Advisory Board to help plan social events for the program. I became more involved with the scholars community and ended up relaying this information to my peer mentors when I became involved in that as well. It all stemmed from the communication skills I’ve been developing in classes such as COMM107 where I get to learn how to be a better presenter/better communicator which in return has allowed me to engage with the Arts Scholars even more than I did last year. Keeping the arts alive within each of my peers brought me a sense of purpose within my place in this community as I got to see my peers flourish within their passions during capstone critiques and presentations. At the end of the day, I not only was not only receiving from scholars but also giving back to the community that brought me up through my first two years in college!
