I attended a virtual Q&A panel with female comedians Jenny Cavallero and Elizabeth Norman on Friday, October 9, 2020. It was very inspirational to listen to women talk so openly about the hardships faced by minorities in comedy and stand up spheres. I was reminded of Arts Scholars when Cavallero discussed how she uses hard and interesting moments in her life (her father’s death, her alcoholism, having a disability) as inspiration in her comedy. It inspired me to rethink about many events in my life in a comedic light. I felt very lucky to be able to talk to such insightful women in such a casual manner. 

Yesterday, March 6th, I attended the admitted students open house. I had been to a couple of these open houses last year and really enjoyed talking to prospective Arts students. Last year someone I talked to at an open house ended up being my mentee which was really awesome because you can see the impact you are making before they even attend the school! I had a lot of fun yesterday at the open house as well. Everyone there seemed very excited about the Arts and most seemed like they already decided to come to UMD.

For my second colloquium event, I attended Scholars’ “Moving at the Speed of Democracy: Jamie Raskin’s Leadership Journey” panel event, This event featured Congressman Jamie Raskin, of MD’s 8th district, and commentary about his path to political success, as well as his insight into the state of our democracy moving foward. While this event (which took place Monday, 2/24) was not arts based, I still found it interesting and informative. My favorite part of the dialogue was hearing Rep. Raskin remark about his belief in the moral high ground, rather than what maybe deemed as politically beneficial. As this translates to art, one could loosely equate this to one’s adherence to what feels right to them, rather than catering to an audience or style that is popular strictly with the hope for success.

So on Monday night, I attended a Coffe house, where we followed different patterns for some type of animal or figure. In the image above, I made a crane and a flapping bird. I tried to make a ballon with wings but that didn't work out too well. It was calming to fold perfectly square pieces of paper into little figurines, and I'm glad I came to the event.

Yesterday, I attended Josh’s coffee & crafts where we did origami. I successfully made a crane (pictured) and unsuccessfully made a bunch of other stuff. They had several papers going around that helped make the origami animals. It was a relaxing and fun time after a long day of school.

On Wednesday, February 26, 2020 I went to an event in the Bel Air Lounge. Lauren, Maitri and I made silver linings jars with Haley. I made a braid out of strings and wrapped it around the top of my jar and made a little tag which i taped onto the jar which said “Silver Linings 2020″. I will put little happy thoughts, fun memories and other trinkets into the jar throughout the year. I had a good time hanging out, eating snacks and drawing with friends.

Tonight, March 2nd, I took some much needed time to decompress doing origami with Josh and other peers at coffee and crafts. I have been having a very hard past couple of weeks and it was nice to create something with my hands. I find creating things very relaxing and a peaceful activity (even though origami can be quite frustrating). It’s also really neat to think about how such activities can be used in my future career. I hope to get into graduate school for occupational therapy post-undergrad, and activities like these are great to work on building strength, flexibility, and coordination in the hands and fingers of children, especially those who have an interest in art.