School of Music Mental Health Group 98–99 Via’s Cookies

ITHACA COMMUNITY WELCOMES NINE AFGHAN REFUGEES AS THEY ATTEND CORNELL DURING SPRING SEMESTER STUDENTS INSIDE THE COLLEGE’S SCHOOL OF MUSIC ORGANIZE MENTAL HEALTH GROUP FOR STUDENTS

BY MIKE ROSS

Between standard academic responsibilities and personal life, students in the Ithaca College School of Music are required to follow a very strict schedule to ensure no practice time is wasted. Luckily, there is a place on campus that busy musicians can turn to in order to take a much-needed moment for themselves.

Every other Thursday on the second floor of the James J. Whalen Center for Music, the Mental Health Awareness for Musicians Association (MHAMA) hosts a musicians’ wellness circle in Whalen Room 2328, where music students can meditate, draw, write and reflect in an effort to alleviate the stress that comes with being a musician. The event is hosted by MHAMA president senior Gavin Tremblay and treasurer senior Erin Smith, both of whom are musicians themselves.

Tremblay said that this year the association aims to play a more prominent role in the music school community by hosting a variety of events and continuing events that have been successful in the past.

The wellness circles were Tremblay’s idea, beginning the fall semester of last year via Zoom with “Wellness Wednesday.” Wellness Wednesday had low attendance, which Tremblay said that he thinks was due to the fatigue students experienced being on Zoom all day.

“We focus on giving students a break from the academic side of their education,” Tremblay said. “We are very strictly a nonacademic thing.”

The musicians’ wellness circles also operate based on themes and topics chosen by MHAMA’s officers. On top of giving students a place to relax, MHAMA also invites guests to lead meditations, reflections and discussion at the end of some sessions.

The officers said there is a large number of music faculty and Center for Counseling and Psychiatric Services (CAPS) staff who offer valuable insight during their meetings. A huge part of MHAMA and the wellness circles is not only providing a space to heal musicians’ mental health but advocating for it.

The mental health of music students is a concern at colleges and universities across the country. Burnout in music students can occur for multiple reasons, like performance anxiety, perfectionism, heavier coursework, lack of sleep and excessive criticism.

Raychl Smith and Adrienne Steiner, faculty members of the East Carolina University School of Music, studied how students coped with these intense demands. They found that music majors report higher rates of anxiety and depression than the general undergraduate population, East Carolina News shared in an article.

Smith said she and Tremblay want to prove what they preach in regard to Whalen’s overwhelming course loads by assessing the academic lives of musicians with the Carnegie unit, a reference used for measuring the amount of time a student must study a subject. “We’ve taken a certain schematic for a freshman, with 15-and-a half-credits and figured out all the credit hours that are required of you in a week,” Smith said. “We showed it to Ron Dow at CAPS, and he was like, ‘You could sustain that for maybe a week. After that it’s damaging.’”

Ron Dow is a licenced clinical social worker and staff member at CAPS. Dow said the majority of student-musicians, or any artists, do not experience severe mental illness, though he said the busy schedules and high-intensity

situations involved with being a musician are not beneficial. Music students usually take between 15 and 18 credits during a semester, but music courses like Aural Skills and Fundamentals of Music Theory — both of which require extensive preparation and homework — are only one to two credits. So the number of courses that a music student takes at once can add up quickly. Senior Zoe-Marie Fuentes is a student in the music School. Fuentes said she was taking nine classes for a total of 17.5 credits and highlights the stress that comes with this. “I think that being a Whalen student is “Caring for yourself . . . incredibly stressful, and there are so many factors that feed into this,” Fuentes said via email. is really important and “I can’t exactly compare one major or school to goes hand in hand with another. … I think every area of study has their own types of stress and every individual handles your musicianship.” them differently.” Fuentes said a large contributor to the -Zoe-Marie Fuentes stress of being a student-musician is the importance of being a performer to one’s identity. Grading a musician so harshly on something they use to represent themselves can lead to circumstances of poor mental health. “One of the things that is super important to learn and realize as a music student is that it is OK to step back and take time for yourself,” Fuentes said. “Caring for yourself as a human is really important and goes hand in hand with your musicianship.” Seniors Gavin Tremblay and Erin Smith began musicians’ wellness circles to give music students a chance to take care of mental health. Kevin Yu/The Ithacan

A fnished batch of Via’s Cookies sit Oct. 22 on senior Olivia Carpenter’s kitchen counter to cool. Some of the proceeds of Carpenter’s business go to helping college students in need. Lexi Danielson/The Ithacan

SENIOR OLIVIA CARPENTER’S COOKIE BUSINESS IS MAKING A DIFFERENCE ONE BATCH AT A TIME

BY SARAH MARSH

Dotted across Tompkins County, in Greenstar Food Co+op, at Ithaca Bakery and at the Trumansburg Farmers Market are perfectly packaged cookies with a purpose. From classic chocolate chip to snickerdoodle to the rainbow-dotted galactic fudge, Via’s Cookies line store shelves as passersby go about their daily shopping. Starting as a homegrown, high school business venture, Via’s Cookies is an independently run cookie business owned and operated by Ithaca College senior Olivia Carpenter. Offering a wide range of cookies with traditional ingredients, Carpenter also specializes in vegan and gluten-free recipes. Carpenter has won multiple awards for her cookies and business plan and is currently selling both in stores around Ithaca and through her website. These cookies are available at $2 per individual cookie or case by case for bulk orders. In addition to providing a diverse array of favors and ingredients, they are also sold with a purpose. Every month, Carpenter chooses a New York state–based college student to fundraise for, spotlighting them in a section on her website where she describes their background and the cause for fundraising. Carpenter donates 5% of her proceeds to a different individual every month, with an emphasis on Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC) and LGBTQ+ students in need. “I originally started selling them back [in high

school],” Carpenter said. “I actually found a lot of success. I mastered the recipe. It’s something I’ve made myself perfect and people absolutely love it. They think these cookies are amazing.” Eventually, after selling cookies at her high school for some time, Carpenter said that her school informed her she would no longer be allowed to sell them on campus. “I had so much success that the school was like, ‘You can’t sell this here, you’re taking away from our sales,’” Carpenter said. “We can say that was really the case, but also I was like the only Black person at an all-white, country school. Other people were still selling their little goodies. But I wasn’t selling mine.” After this problem with high school administrators, Carpenter said that she found other avenues to continue her business. “I took it beyond school,” Carpenter said. “I sold to friends outside of school. I sold to my dad’s business clients. I found success elsewhere. … You know, nothing could stop me. And basically, I carried that through high school. People knew me for my cookies.” From its small beginnings in Carpenter’s hometown, Via’s Cookies evolved over time through a major business competition on campus, IC Demo Day. A well known event, IC Demo Day is put on by the college’s School of Business to provide an open forum for any student to pitch a detailed business idea. Winners and runners-up receive funding that goes directly into the real costs of

“I want to build up people around me because . . . I know the struggle.”

-Olivia Carpenter

running a business, like advertising or product materials. After originally not planning to enter, Carpenter said a conversation with her sister discussing her vision for helping students is what inspired her to join the competition.

Carpenter went on to win multiple awards, including both her original proposal of $500, as well as the Crowd Choice Award and the Sustainability Award for a total of $985.

“It’s one of the reasons I’m here at Ithaca College,” Carpenter said. “I’m here because I want to pursue social justice. I want to make change in the world. I want to build up the people around me because, as a student of color, I know the struggle. That’s what I include in my pitch because it’s the truth.”

Carpenter’s donations have had a real impact on those both on campus and off. Amaechi Kofoworola was enrolled at the New School in New York from 2020 to early 2021. Kofoworola was a leading fgure in the group of BIPOC students that raised concerns regarding a lack of fnancial aid, and he left the school after those concerns went widely unaddressed by administration.

“I had to leave the school due to the amount of racism and classism within the school that affected me and a lot of Black students,” Kofoworola said. “I basically had to compile and read 50 to 60 plus messages from BIPOC students who were having the same issues as me and I had to, by myself, post each and every one of them. After that, the school didn’t really do anything to provide any help or compensation.”

Carpenter ended up raising $120 for Kofoworola in Spring 2021, but he decided to share the donation with other students going through the same problems he was facing.

“There were so many people who could have done more that chose to not do more, and [Carpenter] did do more, and I really appreciate that,” Kofoworola said.

Highlighted under the “Support a Friend” tab on the Via’s Cookies website is Yahaira Tarr, a senior at Lehman College. Tarr is a student, artist and community organizer who started a GoFundMe in order to support their completion of college.

“I met Via when I was a sophomore at Ithaca College,” Tarr said. “Years later after I had transferred out of Ithaca due to fnan-

Carpenter sells cookies at a booth at the Trumansburg Farmers Market. Ash Bailot/ The Ithacan

cial reasons, Via and I kept in touch over social media and Via offered to promote my GoFundMe with Via’s Cookies.”

After another month of selling her cookies, Carpenter raised $90 for Tarr, who is now able to put that money toward the many expenses that come with college education.

“This was extremely helpful for my GoFundMe goal,” Tarr said. “It felt nice to be recognized and supported.”

Ithaca College senior Catriona Ferguson said she has known about the business for some time now, and customers keep coming back. “I frst heard about Via’s Cookies from [Carpenter] herself,” Ferguson said. “She is in my scholarship and is a wonderful networker and business woman, so she knows how to get the word out.”

Ferguson said it is both Carpenter’s cookies and her general attitude toward the business that intrigues people.

“My experience with Via’s Cookies has always been positive,” Ferguson said. “She is kind, easy to talk to and will always help customers and answer questions. Her cookies are well priced and of amazing quality. I haven’t tried a cookie of hers that I haven’t liked. Plus, the business also supports BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ students in need. I think that her message and dedication to social justice draws people in, and the quality and delicious taste of the cookies is what keeps people coming back.”

Carpenter rolls two different flavors of cookie dough Oct. 22 in her apartment kitchen for her business, Via’s Cookies. Lexi Danielson/The Ithacan