Hi everyone! At last it has warmed up and turned into spring here in Appleton! It’s been quite a beautiful week weather-wise; warm temperatures (50s and 60s!), sunny skies, and the snow has all melted and made way for green grass and flowers! The university decided to plant beautiful white crocuses in various locations all over campus, and many of them are already in bloom! A lot of us really like to take advantage of the nice weather this time of year; there are an increasing number of people studying outside on the grass or under trees, and there are almost always a few people playing Frisbee on one of the grass areas around campus. Yesterday morning I went jogging down by the river through one of my favorite trails, and it was quite beautiful! It’s a trail that I jog through at least once a week during the warmer months, so it was nice to be back after a long winter! Below is the lovely view from my room this afternoon:
My classes have been going pretty well, though I’ve had a lot of work and studying to do! One of my classes is Music History Survey II, and we’re currently studying the music of early to mid-19th century composers such as Schumann, Mendelssohn, Chopin, and Rossini. It’s been so interesting to trace the development of music from all the way back in the 8th and 9th centuries to the 19th century and the Romantic era, and the nice thing about Survey II is that because we only cover about 250 years of music (we covered almost 800 in Survey I), we get to spend more time learning about each composer and time period. My other main class is international relations, and we are currently covering national security and terrorism, including some of the reasons for war and causes of terrorism. To help us understand these ideas in a more practical way, our professor showed us an episode of the TV show “24,” and we actually had a really interesting and productive discussion about how certain strategies and decisions play out (or have the potential to play out) in real time. Back in the music world, my clarinet studies have also been going well, and this week in studio class I gave a lecture-recital on Robert Muczynski’s Time Pieces for Clarinet and Piano. I’ve been working on the piece for a while, so I performed most of it and spoke about the piece and its various compositional and stylistic elements. Now that I’ve performed the Muczynski, I’ll be spending some more time learning Weber’s Concerto for Clarinet No. 2 and potentially Stravinsky’s Three Pieces for Clarinet!
Though my weeks have been pretty busy recently, there have been some great events and activities going on too! Yesterday, Career Services held its annual career conference, where there were a bunch of different career events and sessions happening all day. The annual conference is one of several different events throughout the year that are collectively known as “Lawrence Scholars” events, which include job fairs, alumni panel discussions, and career trips to nearby big cities (like the trip I took to the Twin Cities back in the fall!). The career conference yesterday was fantastic, and it included a business panel session featuring young Lawrence alumni in the business world, a non-profit resources fair, a networking reception, and an opportunity for free professional headshots! I learned a lot about various non-profits in the area at the non-profit resources fair, and it was great to hear about the kinds of projects they’re each working on and the ways that they’re tackling different community issues. The thing I love about these career events is that they really connect us to the job world and the vast network of Lawrence alumni out there in a myriad of different careers. It is really interesting and inspiring to meet all of these alumni who have applied their liberal arts degrees in all sorts of different ways (or have gone on to do something completely unrelated to their degree!). Countless alumni that I’ve talked to have all stressed how much the skills they gained from a liberal arts education have really prepared them for anything, because Lawrence has taught them how to think critically, make well-reasoned choices, and maintain a balanced life.
Below are a few pictures from the career conference! My friend Nathan, who is a Lawrence student as well as a professional photographer, took the photos below, as well as the free headshots at the career conference!
Above is the business panel featuring four young Lawrence alumni!
The above picture is of me talking to one of the staff members of COTS, Inc., a transitory homeless shelter in Appleton.
This is another picture from the non-profit resources fair; above are Oliver and Rebecca Zornow, who both work at the Trout Museum of Art in Downtown Appleton! They are both Lawrence alumni, and before they worked at the Trout they were both in the Peace Corps, stationed in the African country of Swaziland! I got to know Oliver and Rebecca when I stayed in Appleton last summer, and it’s always great to see them!
Photos courtesy of Nathan Lawrence ’15