APSU's Center of Excellence for the Creative Arts

 I chose Austin Peay as my college because it was local to my parents and I had a lot of friends that were coming here.  My plans after graduation are to hopefully become an actor.  I realize that this is a very competitive field, but I would like to be able to work doing something that I love. Ultimately I would enjoy working with anything related to theatre. My experience at APSU has made me more social and able to talk to people openly. I am always talking to everyone through the theatre department.

Professor Rachel Bush has made my experience at APSU great by inspiring me throughout the three years I have had her. She always pushes me to be better and to go beyond my limits. APSU’s art program is my favorite because of how the campus has a general sense of community. The one class that sticks out to be as most influential is my printmaking class. My professor Cindy Marsh allowed us to make/create projects that are outside of the box. Allowing us to explore our talents. Some of my most unique works in my portfolio are from her class. 

“I would say that preparation is the most important thing to being successful in the future; make sure to get your skills to the highest level possible and try to create a positive attitude all the time. It’s hard to do sometimes, but I think trying to be positive is the most important thing. Especially for singers...the voice is very personal; the minute we start to feel negative about anything, the voice responds to that almost immediately. So I try to help my students find ways to be positive in their approach to practicing, to talking with people, to going to class, to meeting demands, and trust me I know there are many many. But it’s a little bit of building skills, being very positive, and trying to build relationships with people...those are the important things.”

“Some advice for students finishing up the semester, get some sleep. And pace yourself. And the truth is, once you’re out of school, no one will ever ask you about your grades. Nobody will care what you got in English 1020 or in Art Appreciation or in Drawing II. People only care about what you can do. I’d say relax a little bit, and get some sleep. Put everything into perspective. For folks going into the art field, I would say you know there are no guarantees for employment in any field. And the truth is, that if all art schools were to close today, America wouldn’t notice for a good ten years because there are already too many artists out of work. However, the field is always open and ready for the next really good person. So just go in with your eyes open, and do your best. No one is going to reward you for mediocre work.”

“To students who are maybe interested in the arts--I’ve had a chance to do a lot of recruiting for the department and visit a lot of high schools, and I see a lot of students who are very concerned about talent. They’re concerned they didn’t come out of their mother’s womb able to draw like Michelangelo, and what I tell them is ‘talent is not the top criteria to me to be successful as an artist.’ Hard work trumps talent any day. So when we’re looking for scholarships for students, we’re looking to recruit students who want to work hard. We can help those students. Being able to draw does not mean that you’re going to have good ideas or that you’re going to have the commitment necessary to be successful, so it’s hard work. And of course the students who feel like they don’t have a lot of talent, of course they can’t draw really well until they’ve taken art classes. We teach them how to do that. We can teach students how to do these things, but we can’t teach them how to be hard workers.”

“I'm addicted to Dr. Pepper. [Laughs] The reason I'm so addicted to Dr. Pepper is that when I was a little kid I didn't go to church at all. This substitute teacher at my school--her husband was actually a pastor, but I didn't know that--I would go to their house and he would always give me a Dr. Pepper. And we would always play games together and they really, like, cared for me. And I didn't realize that's where I got my love for Dr. Pepper. But like now, I realize those people cared for me and played with me and that's how my Dr. Pepper addiction started.”

“Don’t be discouraged when you find that you’re at a sort of block in your lessons. Just keep going because eventually, whatever it is, you’ll figure out what you’re doing. I’ve had already three blocks in my progression this semester, with voice and horn, that were really big blocks and really hard to get through. But I’ve got through two of them. And that has already upped my quality of performance. 10 fold in voice, and at least 3 fold in horn. That feeling of when you realize that it stuck is worth the frustration of the days or weeks or even months before that.”

- “We actually do that a lot—just break out into song and dance. It’s kind of like Glee in this office.”

“Yeah, it is. We actually have the ‘Political Science After Hours.’ It happens after 4:00. So, if you’re feeling frisky...”

- “Sometimes we race each other.”

Race each other?

“Yeah, we do race. We take the chairs next-door in the computer lab and we roll down the hallway. Whoever makes it through the double doors first wins.”

- “This is all true.”

“Yeah! [Laughs]. It’s all fun and you’re laughing until you’re running into stuff and people are coming out of their offices and classes like ‘What are you guys doing?’ The Political Science secretary is rolling down the hallway.”

Do you two have any fun memories together?

- “I have actually caught a bird in her garage before.”

“Oh yeah!”

- “I did! I held it. It was just staying in her garage.”

“Seriously, it was caught in the garage and I was on the phone talking to him and he was like ‘Sage, talking to the bird’s not gonna get the bird out.’ And I was like, ‘Well, do you have a better plan for this?!’.”

- “And I caught it.”

“And he did! And, look, it was just sitting on him! And I was like ‘do you know how many diseases birds have?! Go wash your hands right now! Don’t go in my house, that’s disgusting.’ Yeah. That was fun. He’s like Mary Poppins.”

Did you guys break out in song, start dancing?

“Yeah, you can add that to the story.”

“I’m not really creative, but I do art.”

“I can’t like anything halfway. If I’m going to be interested in something, I’m going to devote days to getting to know everything about it. I think everyone gets frustrated with me sometimes, because people will ask me what TV shows I’m watching right now and I have to reply ‘I haven’t had time to watch TV lately, I’ve been too busy memorizing all the Olympic host cities, or learning how to speed paint’.”

What’s your favorite memory on campus?

“Participating in The Vagina Monologues. The Vagina Monologues is a play written by Eve Ensler. It’s about women’s experiences, specifically with their vaginas, sex, and sexuality. Every February [the play] is put on. It’s actually a class you can take for three credit hours. From the class, people can learn about women’s body issues. It’s a [Women’s and Gender Studies] class so you can learn about women’s history. You will learn about male privilege, white privilege, intersectionality, and feminism. When people actually participate in the play, which is the culmination of the class, a lot of people gain a lot of confidence and get through a lot of issues that they need to work through. It’s a really powerful class.”

What are you most passionate about?

“I’m passionate about feminism. The equality of the sexes.”

“I’m a poet, so every time I get mad or frustrated about something, I write a poem or a short story or something. It helps me vent.”

Do you use creativity in Computer Science?

You do a lot of thinking outside the box [in Computer Science]. Usually there’s a specific way that you’re supposed to code a program but if you don’t know how to do it that way, you can always work around it with other methods.