Photo by Samantha Walsh.
On Oct. 9, the West Chester University College of Arts and Humanities Fair hosted a lively environment of students and faculty in a celebration and interest ceremony for the College of Arts and Humanities in the Sykes ballrooms.
Faculty representatives from the English department, theatre department and philosophy minor department set out tables for interested students to engage and ask questions about the potential fields of study after a short question and answer panel which featured four student representatives from the college who made outstanding academic achievements and contributions to campus organizations during their undergraduate studies.
‘I chose practicality over passion, and found that you can have practicality in your passion.’
Students on the panel included Christoforos Sassaris, an English literature major, Emma Johson, a senior theater arts major, Maria Marabito, an English major and literatures minor and Rebecca Lormeus, a graphic design major with an art history minor. The students were asked a variety of questions which pertained to their majors, extracurricular activities and journeys as majors in the college.
Johnson talked about her experience as a student who did not start out as an arts and humanities-related major.
“I chose practicality over passion, and found that you can have practicality in your passion,” Johnson said. She began as a communication sciences and disorders major as a freshman at West Chester University.
“There are so many different aspects of theater that you can turn into a career,” she said. Johnson hopes to audition for the Philadelphia Theater Company and start her own theater company in Philadelphia for children.
As a freshman at WCU, Sassaris began as a computer science major. He was good at the program — he even entered into the accelerated program where he could take master-level courses as an undergraduate — but did not see himself doing it for the rest of his life.
Over the summer, Sassaris participated in the Student Undergraduate Research Institute (SURI) by studying WCU’s large book collection from the early 20th century. He currently interns with “College Literature: A Journal of Critical Literary Studies” and works as the Entertainment Editor at the Quad newspaper.
Lormeus and Marabito spoke about their experiences as Global Ambassadors. Lormeus was able to study graphic design and environmental sustainability abroad in Denmark and encouraged other students to take advantage of opportunities to study abroad. Marabito studied in Edinburgh and was an intern for WCU’s annual poetry conference.
Lormeus was able to study graphic design and environmental sustainability abroad in Denmark and encouraged other students to take advantage of opportunities to study abroad.
After the Q&A session with the four students, fair attendees were able to walk around the ballroom and meet with a variety of faculty who work in the college. Faculty representatives included those in the journalism and philosophy minors, professors from the creative writing department and more.
For every time a student stopped at a table to speak to a faculty member, they received a ticket to enter their name into prize drawings. Once prizes were awarded, the fair announced the featured alumni from the college and spoke about where these alumni are now.
Featured alumni included Michael Avicolli from the class of 1997, Jennifer Long from the class of 2005 and Spencer Pyle from the class of 1997.
Avicolli graduated with a BA in speech communication and currently works as a recruiting manager for Vanguard’s IT Division. Long graduated with a BA in philosophy and works as the senior director of the Twardowski Career Development Center at WCU. Pyle graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts and is a data analysis manager for the operations advancement team at Bentley Systems.
For more information, contact information and resources concerning WCU’s College of Arts and Humanities, students can visit https://www.wcupa.edu/arts-humanities/.
Samantha Walsh is a fourth-year student majoring in English and special education. SM850037@wcupa.edu.