The following guest post was written by current Eastman student Mary Russek. Thanks Mary!
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Wow, another year at Eastman…check! In this post I’d like to share with you my summer plans. I’ll also let you in on a little secret that many students don’t know: summer is a fantastic time to be in Rochester! I am very excited to be staying in Rochester to work in the Eastman Office of Residential Life as the Summer Conference Manager and intern with the artistic director of Biodance, a local dance company that “explores social, political and environmental issues through its works always through dance, sometimes with text, film, music, and ice cream.”
As an Eastman student, I’m pursuing a double major in Violin performance and Music Education, working in the Eastman Admissions Office, and I am a Resident Advisor (RA) in the Student Living Center. When I originally began looking at colleges, I struggled to decide whether to major in music or business. Over my past three years here, I’ve found a way to mold both interests into my life at Eastman. Now that I will be a senior next fall and I’m beginning to look at graduate schools (a thought very far off for an incoming freshman!) I’ve learned about the arts administration major, which yields internships and jobs ideal to me.
Last Fall, I went to the Arts Leadership Program (ALP) office and talked about the opportunities I have here at Eastman to prepare myself for a degree in arts administration. The Arts Leadership Program provides Eastman students with classes, internships, and other opportunities (such as guest lectures) to help prepare ourselves to be successful artists after (and even before) we graduate from Eastman. This can be done as a Certificate Program, or through elective courses during the junior and senior year. In my original meeting in the ALP office, they suggested two things that I could do immediately: 1) contact Biodance to ask for an internship and 2) enroll in the ALP Grant Seeking course for the spring semester.
Since I’ve spent so much of my time in college focused on music, I’m excited that my internship with Biodance will offer the opportunity to be involved in another art form from a business perspective. Based on preliminary talks with my internship advisor, it sounds like I will be doing a little bit of everything from marketing to grant writing and even helping organize shows!
My job as Eastman’s Summer Conference Manager came about over the past year in my talks with Kellie Leigh, Assistant Dean of Residential Life and my boss as an RA. Last summer I stayed in Rochester to work as a Summer Session Assistant, which basically fulfilled the role of RA for the high school students who came to the Summer camps at Eastman. This Summer, my job will be geared more towards preparing and organizing for the Summer Camps. This will be a great opportunity because not only does it directly combine music and business in a real world application, but I will also be working along some of the people I respect most at Eastman whom I’ve gotten the privilege to learn from this past year as an RA.
Along with my summer job and internship to keep me busy, Rochester hosts many exciting summer events such as the lilac festival and jazz fest and other fun things-to-do like trips to the public market, activities at Bristol Mountain (skiing/snowboarding in Winter and a ropes course in the Summer), plenty of outdoor space at restaurants, Rochester Red Wings Baseball minor league games, and, of course, going to Java’s!
Eastman students spend their summers doing a variety of different things from teaching private lessons in their hometown, to national and international music festivals or even just enjoying some down time with friends and family. Eastman offers us so many musical experiences and opportunities with the added benefit of being surrounded by our amazing musical peers and top notch professors. Summer is a chance to expand on those experiences and continue to grow as young musicians. To all of you still finishing up the school year, run through the finish line! And to the incoming Eastman class of 2019, I can’t wait to meet you this Fall!