First blog ever

Hi everyone! This is my first blog ever, so please bear with my. My name is Galen Kerrick, and I am a Junior here at Wheaton. It’s slightly hard to believe actually, that I am over halfway done with my college education. A little scary too. I am a studio art major, with a possible minor in either psychology or classical mythology. I hope to go into either graphic design or animation after school, but who knows? My interests might change drastically before I graduate.

I am involved is many things on campus. I am the Speaker and Events Coordinator for the College Democrats. It sounds like an impressive title, but it’s not really. I basically book rooms and venues for events and movie showings and stuff. We all chip in and distribute the work pretty evenly, so we don’t always adhere to the given titles. We have several goals this year, one being to show our support for the candiates by getting up to New Hampshire and helping with their campaigns. We also want to work on campus to combat apathy and to promote general awareness. This is something that we try to collaborate on with the College Conservatives, holding several events throughout the year that are bipartisan.

I am also an Ambassador Coordinator. I am one of the four students who are responsible for organizing and overseeing all the student Ambassadors. We do things like host prospective students overnight, or take them to visit our classes. It’s a lot of fun, and a great way to make connections with your fellow peers.

I am also living in a themed house this year with a group of my friends. Our theme is hunger, and we work together with the Cupboard of Kindness, a local food pantry, to supply families who may be going through some financial trouble with food and other necessities. We go to the pantry for food distribution about every other week, which we did this past Monday, and we are also planning a number of events throughout the year to gather food and raise money for them. One of the things we have planned is to go trick-or-treating for canned goods.

I hold two jobs on campus. One is in the Library as a Public Service Assistant. Basically we are there to assist anyone who has questions and to make sure everything is stocked. I am also a tour guide for the Admissions office, which is so much fun, and a great way to learn a lot about the school. I actually have two tours in a row later today, which should be interesting. Hopefully I wont loose my voice.

I am taking all art courses this semester, including 3-Dimensional Design, Graphic Design I, Intro to Experimental Animation, and Great Works I, an art history course. All of them are tons of fun, but as art courses, require a very big time commitment. I am not sure I will ever take three studio classes again. Experimental Animation is incredible, and it is actually taught by a visiting Professor, Daniel Sousa. We have gotten to create a few very short movies of our artwork, and it really gives you an idea of how much goes into animated movies like The Incredibles or Ratatouille.

Wonderfully, this has been a relatively low-key week, with the exception of yesterday. Senator Barack Obama came to my home in New Hampshire yesterday for a rally, and a friend, the President of the College Dems, and I got to drive up and go see it. In addition, because it was held at my house, we got to meet the Senator and get a personal photo with him! It was so much fun, and he was a great speaker. It was so hot though, and I felt really bad for all the security people, standing in the sun with heavy suits on. They must have fried.

Well, that’s just about all I have to say for now. Until next time!

Galen