It’s a great time to catch student achievement on campus. There are plays and art installations, theses to read, and competitions to watch. Last week I was privileged to hear two frosh play pieces in the Elizabeth Tishler piano competition. Receiving honorary mention was Yujie Cai ’20, beautifully playing a program that was both challenging and inviting.
Ari Liu ’20 is the winner of the of the Tishler award this year. Ari made artful transitions among composers not always thought about in the same breath, and the result was totally enthralling.
After WesFest was over, I had the pleasure of seeing the women’s lacrosse team win a great game against NESCAC rival Bowdoin. Meanwhile, the men’s team was winning its match against the Polar Bears up in Maine. Both teams have won Little Three Crowns this year, the first time that’s ever happened in the same year.
While the art exhibitions have been crowd pleasers in the Zilkha Gallery, students in theater have been busy putting on shows of all kinds. I heard great things about Spring Awakening last week (too hard to get a ticket!), and this weekend Second Stage is presenting A Chorus Line. I plan to see the department’s play The Islands, and we are really looking forward to that.
Today I had the privilege of attending the science poster session to hear what kinds of research our undergraduates are doing. I heard about empathy, and I heard about eating disorders. I learned about biophysics and about astronomy. I even had a lesson in Necroplanetology (the student didn’t want his picture taken)!
