MUNCIE, Ind — Just as classes close for the day, residents of Schmidt/Wilson come back to find tables full of paint, C-D’s, and students expressing their creativity.
You could see everything from unique patterns to complicated album covers right on the C-Ds. For one student, he saw this opportunity to create some albums from an artist he loves.
“So today, I had to get deep into a personal connection of mine. My favorite artist of mine is JCole. And so, I had to make 2014 Forest Hills Drive, which is all solo work, hence why it is not that good. But I did Born Sinner (J-Cole Album). This one turned out to be my favorite. And I had one of my residents, Evan Kearny, fill in the shadows for me so it looks a lot better and a lot cleaner. So yeah, JCole means a lot to me as an artist. It’s someone I really resonate with, and I had to go make two of my favorite albums,” said Collin Hatfield, a Junior Broadcast Journalism major.
Schmidt and Wilson put together the event after Assistant Resident Learning Coordinator Lauren Ivankovich took inspiration from a custom record craft she saw on Pinterest.
“When coming up with the event, me and Josh like to bounce ideas off each other. And we really want to get connected with students, and I know being in Schmidt-Wilson, our students are very creative, and I was scrolling through Pinterest and I saw a lot of record painting stuff, and I was like, ‘record are kind of expensive, but C-Ds are very doable and their very compact and able to be taken easily place to place.’ And I thought it would be a fun thing to do with students. Getting a lot of C-Ds, getting paint pens and challenging us to be creative and then our students to be creative as well,” said Ivankovich.
The goal of the event was to bring together students and staff and form connections in the residence hall. To overall, improve the living learning community (LLC) as a whole. With Schmidt/Wilson being a Fine Arts LLC, this activity was a perfect way to bring students together.
“This event was to help us connect with students. So a lot of the time, doing the administrative work within the residence hall, we are sitting at a desk, working on computers, working with paperwork. You don’t always get to see students straight up. This gives us an opportunity to have that face-to-face interaction and have students get to know us and us to get to know them, so we can better support them,” said Josh Weseli.
Weseli works for Schmidt/Wilson as the head Resident Learning Coordinator. For him, part of the job is interacting with students in positive ways that build community. Events like this help students get together to form connections.
“I think it gives them an opportunity to, like I said do something they have never tried before and have a chance to get to know us, and so being able to know the administrators are helping run or work at the university allows that better connection when students have concerns or problems, to come up to us, to have those conversations, and so we can better address those and support those individuals in the residence halls,” said Weseli.
During the two hours the event occurred, over 20 C-D’s were painted and customized, to see them, visit @schmilson_bsu on Instagram.
Contact Braylon Judy with comments at braylon.judy@bsu.edu
