The Next Phase of Campus Evolution |
|
I am thinking of our fabulous ASA Alumni this week while I am watching another round of outstanding presentations from our youngest to our oldest students. Third Quarter Presentations - now called 3QP - are still a highlight of the year as they have evolved to become increasingly innovative and creative. I saw a Senior Capstone presentation today featuring an animated children's book about the impact of fossil fuels and a 7th-grade student shared her research and podcast about the teaching shortage in our state - no tri-fold presentation boards in sight. Some of you may feel nostalgic about ASA moving to the use of technology for presentations, and others of you may be thinking - "it's about time!" The embrace of technological advances is only one of the newest developments evolving out of the COVID-19 pandemic. |
|
This past year has brought our campus some new opportunities too. Returning to campus at the end of last year, we were challenged to find large, shaded outdoor spaces for students to safely gather, learn, and perform. Turning the secure parking lot into classrooms and lunch areas was only a minimal and short-term solution to a few challenges we have always faced. With careful planning we are able to use some of our special Federal COVID relief funds to make some permanent campus improvements.
Coming in August of 2022, ASA will add a large shade structure south of the bandshell area that will enhance and expand our learning/performing opportunities and student lunch space. Even better – the structure will support solar panels so we will be powering ASA with our own solar energy! We are working with Scout Solar, a well-established company that installs the structure at no cost to ASA, and then sells us our own power at a reduced rate offsetting our regular electrical bill.
While this structure itself is free to ASA, we are able to enhance the new area using our Federal funds designated during the pandemic to help schools increase usable learning space for safe distancing. So, our new structure will have expanded learning/performing space, seating (for lunch!) and will be outfitted with lighting and sound.
This new solar/shade space does not quite hit the mark for all we need, but it certainly will be an improvement and work nicely with our master plan to have our own performing arts building eventually. I will keep you updated as the structure progresses through our social media channels!
|
|
Leah Fregulia
CEO/HEAD OF SCHOOL
|
|
 |
Joseph Martinez
Class of 2007
Joseph Martinez from the Class of 2007 attended Vassar College after graduation. He worked abroad in the visual arts for several years and then came back to the U.S. to pursue graduate studies. After a brief existential crisis, he decided to start an urban agriculture business instead. Today, he runs Arizona Microgreens in Phoenix. He also leads empathetic communication workshops for individuals and organizations.
Tell us about a "failure" or challenge that taught you something valuable.
In 2014, I applied for a year-long fellowship with 100% confidence that I would be selected. I was so sure that I would be accepted into this program that I made no back-up plan. So when I learned that I wasn’t selected, it was quite the blow and I ended up living back at home with my mom. This was a huge turning point in my life, though, and forced me to change my mindset from chasing institutional validation to deciding, instead, to choose myself.
|
|
|
|
Adele Etheridge Woodson
Class of 2016
Adele Etheridge Woodson is a classically trained film composer and violinist. She recently completed a documentary starring Dr. Jane Goodall. Adele's music has premiered in New York City, Austria, Los Angeles, Nashville, Phoenix, and Cleveland. She currently works as a composer for a contemporary dance company, in addition to composing, producing and arranging strings for artists around the world.
Tell us about a "failure" or challenge that taught you something valuable.
As an artist (and human), I fail pretty much every day. At ASA, I did not prepare for an orchestra audition properly, and lost my seat to a younger student. That experience not only taught me that I need to be more disciplined, but that I started to find more joy in composing than playing. Perhaps that was the most valuable realization of my time at ASA, and started me on my path towards becoming a film composer.
|
|
|
|
Carly McClain
5th Grade Math
"As a former ASA student, I knew this was the environment I wanted to return to and teach what I am most passionate about.”
|
|
The newest alum to join the faculty at Arizona School for the Arts did not attend that long ago. Not only is this Carly McClain’s first year teaching at ASA, but it’s also her first official year teaching anywhere. Carly attended ASA for 8th and 9th grades in 2012 and 2013 and even though she did not graduate with us, the school made a lasting impression. After she earned a B.A. in Elementary Education with an endorsement in English as a Second Language in May 2021 from the University of Arizona, Carly says, “As a former ASA student, I knew this was the environment I wanted to return to and teach what I am most passionate about." |
|
|
|
Kaleidoscope: An Arizona School for the Arts Showcase
“A kaleidoscope is ever-changing, every viewer has a different experience, there's motion, there's beauty in the uncertainty, but when a picture forms, it settles into its own uniqueness. As an image lands, it's like entering a new gallery - a new experience - and we embrace the idea that everyone sees new highlights,” says ASA’s Arts Director, Monica Anthony. This is the concept behind our first in-person Showcase since 2019.
A one-night ONLY immersive event for the audience and performers alike, Showcase has been completely reimagined. On June 2, 2022 at 5:30 p.m., the doors will open at the Phoenix Art Museum and Central United Methodist church with several large and small stages featuring more performers and events than we ever have been able to before. Attendees will get a new look at the variety of creative experiences students have throughout the school year that have never been featured before including solo works, small and large ensemble works, student devised works, academic and club spotlights, and interactive audience experiences. The kaleidoscope represents change, unique experience, and motion…everything we want this event to be for our students and audience.
Please visit our Showcase page on the ASA website for more information including ticket and sponsorship details. We would love for you to be part of this singular event, so there is special alumni ticket pricing. If you are in town, make your own turn of the Kaleidoscope and if you cannot make it, please consider a gift that helps support the programs that make every Showcase a unique and wonderful experience.
|
|
Showcase 2022 Alumni Award Nominations
Each quarter in Pigeon Post we feature some of the extraordinary people who have attended and graduated from Arizona School for the Arts, but this is just a tiny fraction of the creative, innovative, diverse, and marvelous young people who have shaped ASA as much as we have shaped you.
Last year at Showcase, to mark the school’s 25th Anniversary, we began a new tradition with the Alumni Award Honorees. For the inaugural year, the nominees were selected by a panel, but beginning this year, we would like to open up the nominations to our community, which includes our alumni. Who knows our alumni better than the alumni themselves?
There are two categories:
-
The Distinguished Alum Award Honoree will be someone who graduated from ASA ten or more years ago.
-
The Rising Star Alum Award Honoree will be a graduate of fewer than ten years.
We are looking for nominees who have taken the Core Values of Arizona School for the Arts on board and are making an impact on the world or their corner of it. The main difference between the two awards -- besides the graduation year -- is the Rising Star has made an excellent start with the potential for more and the Distinguished Alum is a current positive force on their chosen path. If you would like to see examples of who we are seeking, please check out our Honorees from 2021, David Hallberg, Kelsey Roggensack, and Stephen Dabrowski.
You are welcome to nominate in either or both categories using this form. Nominations can be funny, heartfelt, concise, or any combination thereof but please let us know why your selection manifests the core values of ASA in their daily life. The nomination period will end at the close of business on April 6, 2022, after which they will be vetted by a selection committee and then the final nominations will go to the judging panel. Both groups will be made up of long-term staff and faculty with a knowledge of our students.
Please participate and stay tuned to see if your nominee becomes one of our Honorees at the 2022 Showcase!
|
|
GIVE BACK AND GET BACK WITH AZ
TAX CREDITS!
Were you a member of Mock Trial or Robotics or maybe you formed your own student club while at ASA? Perhaps you got a lot out of your Life Skills classes as a student. All of these great programs are funded by Tax Credit dollars from the State of Arizona.
This initiative is designed to benefit Arizona state residents and our school at the same time with a dollar-for-dollar credit on your state tax liability, and you don’t even need to have a student at the school! Single filers can donate up to $200 and joint filers can donate up to $400. For more information and the online donation form, please visit the AZ Public School Tax Credit page on our website.
AMAZONSMILE
If you live outside Arizona (or even inside) but still wish to donate to Arizona School for the Arts in an easy way, please consider AmazonSmile; you could become an ASA donor without doing a thing besides registering and shopping. With a few easy steps to set up your participation in this reward program, you can make your purchases count with donations to Arizona School for the Arts. Simply visit smile.amazon.com and link Arizona School for the Arts to your Amazon account. Shop on AmazonSmile and the AmazonSmile Foundation will donate 0.5% of the price of eligible purchases to ASA.
|
|
STAY INFORMED: If you have classmates with whom you are in touch but we may not be, please forward this newsletter to them and let them know we would like to hear from them! Sign-up to join our alumni mailing list via the Alumni Connection Links at goasa.org/alumni.
JOIN THE ASA PARENT ALUM FACEBOOK GROUP: This group is for parents or caregivers of Arizona School for the Arts alumni only and is not open to student alumni (unless they are now parents of alumni), current ASA students, or other relatives of ASA alumni. Join now!
|
|
Arizona School for the Arts inspires creative thinkers and leaders through providing an innovative concentration in college preparation informed by the performing arts. |
|
© 2021 Arizona School for the Arts |
|
|
|
|
|
|
