This past Friday, over a dozen freshmen gathered at OCS to listen to a panel discuss their experience integrating the arts into their Harvard career. The undergraduate panelists hailed from a wide range of artistic niches: Zach Sheets, a flutist and joint music and literature concentrator; Sarah Stern, a Visual and Environmental Studies concentrator and visual artist; Sanyee Yuan, a student intrigued by public performance who created her own communications concentration; Mark Chiusano, an English concentrator specializing in creative writing; Jessica Wu, a mechanical engineer who experiments with a variety of the arts; and Tabaré Gowon, an electrical engineer and dancer.
The panelists first described their experiences trying to get involved with the arts during their freshman year. Stern participated in the pre-orientation Freshman Arts Program, after which she decided to try theater design her, something she had never tried before. “I think the first most important thing is to jump into things you don’t know if you’ll like,” she advised, “and you might find out that you really love them.”
Stern also relayed her experience accidentally taking an upper level Visual and Environmental Studies (VES) class during her freshman fall, which was difficult but ended up being a great experience that ultimately inspired her to concentrate in VES. Meanwhile, panelist Sheets had the opposite experience his freshman year: although music composition is his specialty, he couldn’t take any composition courses in his schedule his freshman year. “I didn’t take the initiative to jump into a higher class,” he explained, adding that “you should always try to take the higher level class if you think you’re qualified for it. If you go to a higher level professor and just explain your situation, it’s very rare that he or she will turn you away.”
While a recurring theme among panelists was the frustration of being able to take creative classes, a few panelists found ways around those initial obstacles. Coming into his freshman year, Cisuano was confident in his creative writing abilities and was therefore really disappointed when he was not accepted into a competitive creative writing class. Instead of giving up, he then found extracurricular ways to improve his writing through involvement in Harvard Crimson and the Harvard Advocate. He applied again to creative writing classes his sophomore year and was accepted, and now he’s writing a creative thesis. Cisuano emphasized the importance of continued interest in certain subjects and finding ways to still do the things one loves, despite being initially turned away.
For Wu, participation in the arts is a way for her to find balance in her science-heavy course load. “I took a freshman seminar last year learning about the Adams’ House printing press,” she recounted, “and though it was a 4-hour a week commitment, it reminded me that college is still fun!” Although Wu had no previous knowledge of printing presses, taking this class – more or less on a whim – proved to add a necessary dimension to her coursework. Panelist Yuan echoed this sentiment, advising the freshmen to “take classes that sound interesting” instead of just focusing on General Education and concentration requirements. She also divulged some tips on how to turn a monotonous class into a fun and exciting one: “Sometimes I ask my TF if I can do a creative project for a final assignment – it is a perfect way to integrate the arts with Harvard!”
For these panelists, their involvement in the arts throughout their college career has proved to be rewarding and beneficial. Cisuano found in his creative writing classes that short stories and other creative works are not something to simply write quickly and hand in, but instead stay with him to muse over for a long time – especially because he knows that they could go somewhere after. Gowon discovered that his engineering concentration has significant overlap with his passion, dancing – and now, as a fifth year engineering student, is working on a project that integrates both engineering and choreography.
Most of all, the panelists urged the freshmen to experiment with different aspects of the arts and then to persevere in those endeavors. “Never take no for an answer!” exclaimed Gowon. Sheets encouraged his audience to take advantage of the amazing opportunities and resources available at Harvard. Although all panelists and most students are Harvard are primarily here for academics, Sheets assured his freshman audience that “there is a way to put the arts above; you just have to figure out how to do it.”
— Julia Eger, ‘14
