L.G-C.

LUKA GALLE-CALLAHAN

“My freshman year camping trip with my forum was really important. We had it with Judith before she left and it was that pre-COVID-19 era. It felt very fresh and new. On that trip I understood what forum meant to Community and the family aspect of forum. Understanding that you have those people in forum that are more than friends, they’re people that you can lean on and ask for help from. I think that’s pretty cool. Now I try to think about continuing to go to Community and keeping that essence. Beth, Steve, the art teachers were very helpful for applying to art school and things like that. After [high school] I want to make stuff: make clothes, make music, make art. Before COVID I liked music and thought clothes were cool. But then during quarantine, I met a cool, good group of friends and we all had really similar interests and built that off of each other. And that just grew into this idea of translating this feeling that we have, as a friend group, into an art form. Having fun with your friends and going out and doing things, the feeling that you’re alive in the moment is very important to me and I want that to be translated into art.”

E.K.

Eve Kaplan

“I felt like the normal school route was never really my thing. I mean, I was fine. But it just wasn’t as engaging to me. Freshman year, I was struggling really academically and I also didn’t get diagnosed with ADHD until way later in my life. And then when I went to the college experience theater program that I did [last] summer, I was finding that all of a sudden, my issues with paying attention and time management, and all that stuff went out the window, because I was doing something that I was so passionate about. That was also the moment when I realized I wanted to pursue theater in college. It makes me really excited that I’m doing something where I get to be creative and be myself, rather than kind of keep forcing myself to be in spaces that don’t really work that naturally for me.”