Tiffany Nguyen
Arts Scholar
Semester 1
I really wasn’t sure of what to expect coming into this school year. I was sure college would be pretty different, and definitely more challenging, from high school, but especially because of the circumstances of this pandemic, classes would be conducted completely online for me, and I would have to attend at home. I would be experiencing school in a way I never have before, in a higher level of learning than I have experienced before, so it’s fair to say I had absolutely no idea what to expect, other than classes being significantly more difficult. However, the workload for most of my classes was a bit less than I had initially anticipated, since college classes don’t meet everyday like high school classes do. I’m not sure if the workload was less or different because of the online structure of classes, but I usually didn’t have assignments that were assigned one day and due the next. And I also only had two synchronous classes, which is less than I thought I would, and I had to watch recorded lectures for almost all of my other classes or learn from readings and homework in others.
Along with CPSA100, I also took ARTH201 as a supporting course. Before taking this course, I wasn’t too interested in art history and old paintings, but through this class I learned more about the importance of old famous paintings, and about the motivations behind the creation of these paintings, like the political and social turmoils of the time. This reminded me a lot of what I learned about social activism through art in CPSA100, and how a lot of artists will send messages through their art to bring attention to political and social issues that they care about. I was really surprised when we had that mental health day where we spoke self-affirmations and practiced self-care; I really appreciated the little exercises we did that helped me relax. I expected to do more arts-n-crafts activities and maybe share more about my art and learn about what other students do to express themselves.
College life is definitely a little more boring than I expected it to be since I’m at home right now and I haven’t really had the opportunity to join clubs or meet a lot of new people and do “normal college” things, like live in a dorm or attend sports events. However, I’m prepared for next school year to be the same given the circumstances, and I’d rather I have to stay at home for another semester if that meant that life can go back to normal a little sooner. I think the university has done a decent job at preventing the spread of COVID-19 by limiting dorm and classroom capacities and providing online resources to students, but I don’t know if I can fully form an opinion about UMD’s coronavirus response until I’m on campus. But, I feel like the daily screenings and covid tests are a great way to negate spread.
One of the most thought-provoking projects I did in this class was actually the podcast assignment. Through that, my team and I began discussing cultural appropriation, and the erasure of the work people of color have done for pop culture. I learned a bit more about the history of white artists profiting off of black artists’ ideas and how things like that have existed for years, and I'm going to use this knowledge to bring to light more work that BIPOC have done for pop culture, and give credit where credit hasn’t been given.
Semester 2
I had the opportunity to get to talk to faculty more through the required one-on-one meetings and through emails. The Arts Scholars faculty are extremely open, sweet, understanding and speaking to them one-on-one helped me understand the inner workings of the Arts Scholars program a little more, and of course helped me get to know them better and develop a closer relationship with them. At first, it was difficult to get to know anyone, including faculty, because all classes and meetings were held online over Zoom, and it’s really easy to simply not log on and attend those meetings. However, getting involved with things like the Arts Advisory Board and getting to know more peers within the Arts program helped a lot with forming connections. Of course, there is only so much you can get to know about someone while we are still in this online format. To incoming students, I recommend that they reach out to faculty, whether it be to ask questions or to just chat. They are really perceptive and are really just here to help. Additionally, I recommend getting involved if you can, like I did with AAB. It provides a great opportunity for leadership experience but also just getting to know other students within the Arts Scholars program.
The entire College Park Scholars has a discord server where all Scholars program students can communicate and get to know each other, and that has served as a great tool in getting to know other students at UMD. They have an art gallery channel within the server where all scholars, regardless of whether they’re in the Arts program or not, can share their art. I’ve shared a couple of pieces of my own and have gotten really positive feedback. I think the fact that we’re all in this situation, and we’re all feeling the effects of COVID-19 on our health really helps students bond and makes us feel less lonely in this situation where we’re all so separated from each other.
The Arts Scholars program fosters community and artistic engagement by framing social problems in an artistic view, so we can see how art fits into the situation. Like I mentioned before, the Arts program allowed me to become involved with AAB, and AAB has allowed me to plan and actively engage in exploring what pentathlon/art events would be fun for the Arts Scholars students. I will continue to contribute to AAB in the future.
My understanding and appreciation for art has been exponentially expanded and I essentially look at everything through an artistic lens if I can. Future Arts Scholars might find their definitions of art expand to include almost everything that we can experience in life, anything that includes creativity and expression.
Workshops, field trips, and advising meetings I would say were most beneficial in supporting my work, but all aspects were helpful in some way. Workshops taught me a lot and also served as a creative outlet for me, especially when I was in an art slump. Field trips allowed me to see art and creativity and its impact in the real world, and see how other people utilise art to create things that I myself wouldn’t know how to even begin making. Advising meetings allowed me to ask questions and helped me stay on track with my goals, tasks, and requirements/assignments for CPSA. Incoming Arts Scholars would do well if they actively participated in all events. It’s easy to be intimidated but all the students, staff, and faculty are so nice and no one will judge you, so you can easily take part in conversations and events, and doing so will make your experience in the Arts Scholars program so much more enjoyable.
artwork by titsay
Semester 3
Through this semester of Arts Scholars, I’ve learned how art can reshape or re-contextualize things such as learned history, biases, and beliefs by allowing other people to view and experience other people’s perspectives through their art. By viewing art from people who belong to communities that you are not a part of, you can understand what they share about their experiences and lives. By being able to understand how other people live and view the world, one can better unlearn biases and false history. For example, by viewing art and other forms of expression from Black people who had to experience Black death plastered on the front pages of news outlets, I was better able to understand their outrage and their emotional reactions.
In class, we learned that the creative process includes preparation, incubation, illumination, and verification. In class, we implemented these ideas to help create our capstone proposals. For preparation and incubation, we brainstormed ideas for our capstone projects and discussed with classmates these ideas to help formulate a final idea. We then researched how our ideas would work and solidified our project idea. Illumination came when I realized how to put all of my skills and desires together to create an idea for a workshop that connects what I’m learning for my major with my interests. For verification, we had multiple opportunities to give and receive feedback from both the teaching team and classmates that helped refine our ideas.
To effectively incorporate feedback into my ideas, I should reflect on what I’m missing and take into account what the feedback is saying, and add or change to make sure the content is the best quality I can produce.
When the Atlanta shootings happened earlier this year that resulted in the death of multiple people of Asian descent, I paid attention to a lot of the press surrounding the indecent. I saw a lot of Asian/Asian-American creatives take to art to express their grief, sympathy, and anger. I can connect this to Arts Scholars because by experiencing art from people of all different backgrounds, I was better equipped to understand, appreciate, and sympathize with the art I was seeing all over social media.
I took Multicultural Psychology this semester, and that class surprisingly helped me better connect to and understand things I learned as an Arts Scholar. We learned how multiculturalism impacts different groups of people and communities in America, and how there are systems in place in the U.S. designed to disadvantage minority groups, and how to navigate conversations concerning those topics. What I learned in that class helped me in developing my capstone proposal and considering how the workshop I was planning would impact different groups of people.
My learning was definitely improved by interacting with other Arts Scholars, especially in relation to the Capstone Proposal and developing it. Being able to discuss where we were in the process of it and how other people came up with their ideas gave me a nice reference point from which to base my ideas off of. Being in the Arts Scholars community, surrounded by other artistic, like-minded students helped in discussing concepts we learned in class since we often engaged in peer review/feedback. Getting to know other scholars through AAB or by getting to spend time with them on the field trip made me look forward to coming to class and learning. However, I felt like during class, we missed out on having the opportunity to speak to and engage with other Scholars since most of class time was spent in lecture. I feel like my quality of learning may have improved if we were to have more time doing group work or having discussion groups.
I have actively contributed to discussions regarding other students’ workshop capstones by providing feedback and constructive comments. I also was involved in the Arts Advisory Board as their treasurer and planned multiple events throughout the semester that provided students with the opportunity to gain Pentathalon credit.
Honestly, I haven’t really come into contact with people or concepts that have challenged my beliefs, but I also feel like I haven’t really been in a situation like that where I had the opportunity to discuss controversial topics. But there is a huge value in exploring perspectives that are different from my own because it allows me to think critically and be open to what other people believe. For example, if I learn about another person’s political beliefs, I can ask them about their experiences that formed their opinions and can become empathetic to their beliefs.
Semester 4
For my capstone project, I led a semester-long workshop called Creative Expression of Emotion. The skills that I cultivated through this experience, I think, will be useful for me throughout my entire professional and social career. Every week, we turned in our lesson plan for the following week. I had all these ideas in my head, but having to write them out in a structured format while explaining my thoughts allowed me to grow in my written communication skills. Additionally, I had to stand in front of the classroom every week to lead a class of 12 of my peers. This greatly challenged my oral and public speaking skills since I was not used to leading a workshop, but doing so week after week helped me overcome these challenges.
In CPSA260 with the other workshop leaders, I learned more about the definition of art. Kyle and Victoria led the Comedy workshop. This was really interesting to me at first since I didn’t see comedy as a form of art before, but after viewing their lesson plans and understanding the type of work required to create comedy sketches, I have come to really appreciate comedy as a new form of art. I also went on the field trip to ARTECHOUSE, and that was also a really eye-opening experience that introduced me to the intersection of technology, coding, lights and art.
My workshop capstone allowed me to incorporate all that I’ve learned about the benefits of art as a creative and emotional outlet and gave me a chance to teach that to my peers. A lot of what I learned in my freshman year workshop that I attended, the Art Therapy workshop, influenced my capstone and what kinds of information I was able to teach through it.
Before being in the Arts Scholars program, my participation in the arts started and ended with painting and illustration. Having experienced Arts Scholars, my interests have bloomed into so much more, like the research and planning side of art, and I have also become aware of so many different forms of art that I want to explore now. Now that my definition has expanded so exponentially, I’ve become interested in things like ceramics/pottery, cake decorating and crocheting: things I wasn’t interested in before two years ago!
My capstone workshop was an amazing opportunity for me to work with peers who had diverse artistic perspectives, interests, and abilities. Though the workshop only has 12 participants, there was such a wide range of skills and interests. For example, there was someone in the workshop that did a lot of digital collages, and completed one as part of their final project for Arts Fest. In the same class, there was someone who wrote poems on pieces of origami as their final project for the workshop, but coded a game as their individual capstone. Being able to experience such a diverse bunch of artists and figuring out a way to work with all of them and provide a final project prompt that allowed them the creative freedom to create something that best aligned with their skills proved an interesting and rewarding challenge.
I think Arts Scholars will definitely inform my personal creative growth as I continue to explore different and diverse forms of art. In fact, I think it already has since I’m now interested in dipping my toes into so many other things. Additionally, I think the research I did on behalf of my capstone project will assist me in my future education as a psychology major. Overall, Arts Scholars was such an informative and valuable experience that has rewarded me with knowledge, experience, lasting connections.
