Mahan Haghighatian
Arts Scholar
Semester 1
Despite the challenges and difficulties caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, my experience at the University of Maryland and in Arts scholar has been rewarding so far. Before coming to the university, I had a rough idea of what the structure of my classes and graded items would be like since my last semester of high school happened to be online as well. I had mostly asynchronous classes and had to make a schedule for myself each week to study and complete my assignments. However, my online experience at the University was much different than my high school. My assignments were much more time consuming and challenging to manage altogether. Fortunately, with the resources I had and time management, I was able to do fairly well in my classes. Next semester, I am going to take Music 130, Survey of Music Literature, and Arth 200, Art History & Archaeology, as my arts scholars supporting courses. From my experience so far, I have learned to appreciate other forms of art than I am already familiar with. These two classes will introduce me to two relatively new genres in art, which I am very excited about. Before taking colloquium, I did not expect to learn about how art has led to social change. I rarely thought of art in this way, and thankfully we had a discussion panel about this very important topic. Participating in activities beyond the classroom was also rewarding. Pentathlon events gave me the opportunity to get familiar with different forms of art. I was able to meet new people virtually in my peer mentor meetings. Attending a virtual field trip to strathmore with an expert talking about the arts on display was very interesting. Even though I expected these activities to not be as engaging to circumstances of the pandemic, they turned out to be very fun and I enjoyed every one of them. I lived in the Cambridge community last semester. I really enjoyed my time and my experience in these few months. I had the chance to meet many people and make friends while staying safe. Because of the pandemic, I thought that living on campus would not be nice, but it turned out to be otherwise. I look forward to living on campus again next year. Hopefully, the circumstances will even be better. I feel like the University’s response to the pandemic has been very professional. I felt very safe during my time on campus. Looking back at my first semester in art’s scholars, one impactful moment was when we had a discussion with Pepe Gonzalez about the power of music. When talking about music, he was very passionate and talked about how it changed his life. I was really inspired by his words and would like to reach the same level of appreciation and enjoyment while playing music myself.
Semester II
It is hard to believe that my second semester at the University of Maryland is almost over. Looking back, I had an overall good experience, but there were some challenges due to everything being online. Being part of the arts scholars community made it much easier. I found it challenging to develop mentoring relationships with faculty members. Many of my classes were asynchronous, so I did not get the chance to meet a few of my professors. However, in Arts scholars, I had the opportunity to meet the faculty over zoom and talk to them individually, which was something I really appreciate. Still, I feel like this would have been much easier in an in-person environment. I encourage incoming freshmen to take advantage of in-person classes next semester and develop strong connections with faculty members.
The transition from high school to college was not that easy. Since everything was online, the transition was not as challengeing. Even so, arts scholars made the adjustment easier. In the program, I had the chance to live with other students on-campus who shared similar artistic interests as me. I even had the opportunity to virtually meet other students who were not on campus. Having weekly colloquiums and the peer mentor program helped me so much with the adjustment. I encourage incoming students to make good friends during your first semester as these friendships will make your transition much easier.Â
In arts scholars, I was given the opportunity to contribute to the community and engage with the arts. In the first semester, we created a podcast in my group talking about how arts can be used to improve mental health during the pandemic. In the second semester, I created a wire sculpture. I also saw how my peers created many artworks. The program made me actively participate in the arts, something I am very appreciative of. Having the knowledge of wire sculpting, I will keep creating sculptures in the future contributing to our community.
The program changed my understanding of the role of art in society. Previously, I thought about art as merely a medium for self expression. Whether it is wire sculpting or music, I only thought that an artist’s purpose is to express themselves in some way. However, arts scholars made me see things differently. I realized that art can play a significant role in society to bring about change. I encourage future students to take part in the opportunities provided by the program to experience all aspects of the arts In this way, they can realize what art truly means to them.
Throughout the two semesters, I feel like pentathlons were most beneficial in supporting my work and helped me get the most out of my experience in the program. Every time I completed a pentathlon, I learned something new about the arts. I learned something about the community and had a very good time overall. For example, I watched music performances. I attended sketching workshops with my peers. More importantly, I had the chance to really think about my experiences and write a reflection on every single event. I encourage next year students to be creative with their pentathlons and enjoy them as much as they can to have an even more amazing time in arts scholars.
Semester III
This past semester, I mainly worked on developing my plan and ideas for my capstone project. I am very thankful for the help of my fellow arts scholars throughout the process. They helped me better understand my thoughts and articulate my ideas into a solid plan for my project. For example, earlier this semester I was not sure if my research question for my project was specific enough. Then, one of my classmates made me realize that I should focus my research on anxiety rather than a broad topic like mental health. Also, being part of this community and working on similar assignments made the challenging parts of this course much more manageable, which is something I am really grateful for. Giving feedback to other students, I would be glad if I was able to assist my fellow classmates. Going through this feedback and revising process, I realize how important it is to develop ideas with more depth and clarity.
For this semester, I took TLPL 288W as my supporting course for Arts scholars. It was much different from my previous arts supporting courses. This class was about censorship in education and literature and was less focused on arts. I learned so much about the historical, political, moral, philosophical, and socio-cultural perspectives surrounding censorship. I learned about the rationalizations and arguments behind censorship and more importantly its consequences in society. I realized that many works of art or literature are banned because of their challenging content. Even so, most of these works are very educational and essential for students. In arts scholars, I learned that even though art might present difficult topics, it is often very educational or created for the purpose of justice or an important cause. From TLPL288W, I learned that censorship simply denies people the freedom to express and share their thoughts through art.
This fall semester was the first time I got the opportunity to attend the colloquiums and field trips in person. I realized how much fun I missed last year as everything was online. During this semester, I got to attend a concert for my field trip and learned drumming and hip hop dance in the colloquiums. I really enjoyed participating in these activities and cannot wait for more fun events like these in the future. As my schedule was very busy this semester, I did not get the chance to attend other art scholars events and feel like I missed out on a lot of fun. Hopefully, I will get the chance to attend more events next semester.
As I mentioned previously, I got the opportunity to attend drumming with the drumlady earlier this semester. Before this event, I had zero knowledge of communal drumming and west African music and instruments. Being in scholars not only introduced me to drumming but taught me how to create beautiful music with other people. This was a very enjoyable experience for me, and more importantly I got the chance to explore a new aspect of art. I got to learn music that I have hardly heard before and enjoyed playing it so much. I hope to get better at it and look forward to learning more talents like drumming next semester.
Semester IV
Throughout this semester, writing about the pentathlon events I attended was very rewarding and helped me improve my written form of communication. For example, writing about the music, theater, and dance performances I attended and talking about how each one used a form of art to send an important message to their audience helped me so much with my written communication skills. Every semester I learn something new about art. I took the upcycling workshop this semester and learned that art can be used to inspire others to recycle and reuse more products. In this way, art can be used as a tool to help the environment. Art can be utilized to teach people how they can help the environment. One pentathlon I attended was the gaming symphony orchestra performance, and watching all of these student musicians playing together music that they all enjoy, I realized how art can create community. I saw how music has brought so many people together to create art, which is something that I am very thankful for. For my capstone project, I completed an independent research project to study the impact of music on anxiety and present my findings from research by creating a comic book. Throughout the process of my research, I learned how music, a form of art, can be used to help people with mental health and reduce negative feelings by introducing people to something pleasant and beautiful. This is something that I have seen many examples of and have learned about throughout my time in the arts program. Doing research on this effect of art was really rewarding and kept me motivated throughout the semester when working on my project. In the arts program, we all come from different artistic interests and abilities. In the upcycling workshop this semester, not all of the students were good at certain artistics techniques such as braiding when making class projects. However, all of us helped one another and taught each other what we knew so we could all finish our project and create something that we would be proud of. Throughout my time in the program, I learned about the significant roles and the positive impact that art has on our lives and communities. For my remaining time at the University of Maryland, I will try my best to teach others all the inspiring things that I have learned from this program.