Tuesday, April 10, 2012

10 to 10 at Ithaca College

I spent all day at Ithaca College. My mom and I left our hotel at 8AM to arrive at Ithaca at 10AM. The friendly staff welcomed me into the admissions office, where I was given two slips of yellow paper, a pass for a campus tour, a map, and a few coupons for the dining hall. A few weeks ago, I got in touch with the director of my major at Ithaca College, Communications Management and Design (CMD). The director, Dennis Charsky, and several other CMD students hosted a virtual conference for prospective students. I was the only student that attended.


My tour guide, Andrew, is a senior at the Park School.

My hall passes

The tour guide was almost as good as the Syracuse tour guide. He was very knowledgeable and he was an excellent public speaker. My favorite place at Ithaca College is the Performing Arts Center. All the walls were covered with show posters that IC students were involved in. I even found a poster of "Anything Goes!"
The library is connected to the Whalen School of Music

A pretty nice day at Ithaca College

Dining Hall
Ithaca College is not nearly as big as Syracuse, but the small size has a very close sense of community. Ithaca is located on top of a tall hill overlooking Cayuga Lake. The view is beautiful. You can even see Cornell University on the neighboring hill.
I broke off from the tour group to meet up with Dennis at the Roy H. Park School of Communications. My mom waited downstairs in the cafe. I ran into Dennis in the hallway and be brought me into his office. We sat down and he told me, "Well, Erin, you asked a lot of questions at the virtual conference, so let's just schedule your four years at Ithaca." We picked out the classes I would need for my major so that I would have enough credits to graduate. He even gave me an entire semester to study abroad!

Dennis brought me downstairs to attend an event called AdLab. The CMD students at Ithaca compete in a national competition to produce an advertising pitch to a specific company. The presentation was brilliant. I cannot share any details about the pitch because the competition has not happened yet. IC students and staff urged that the ideas remained within the college.
AdLab

An IC Ambassador and IC Peer, Leonard Slutsky, Marketing Major

After AdLab, I sat in on a class called "Audience Research" instructed by Professor William Ressler. When I walked in, he was blasting "Macho Man" by the Village People. He introduced me to the entire class of 16 students. They were all welcoming and happy to have me. I took notes throughout class but I realized that I did not need to because I enjoyed the material so much. You are supposed to like what you are learning, or something is wrong. We discussed coconut macaroons and Twitter. I loved the small classroom. Professor Ressler was always asking questions (mostly, "Why?") so I was on my toes the entire time. I stuck around after class to thank him for letting me stay, and he gave me some great advice. He told me that I was conflicted, but it was the best conflict I could be in. I was stuck in between good things. I have a lot of colleges to choose from, but I cannot make the wrong decision. He told me to talk to a lot of students. After he offered me more macaroons, I left and he wished me luck. My favorite thing that he said during class was, "It is doubt that invigorates us."

Drove past Cornell University. Here's the girls Ultimate Frisbee team

Shout out to the Cornell Hotel Management summer students!

A Syracuse lacrosse team truck at Cornell

My mom and I went back to campus in the evening to catch a free performance. Ithaca College was originally founded as a music conservatory. Students from the Whalen School of Music were performing some contemporary pieces in the Hokin Recital Hall. My favorite piece was performed by two barefoot musicians, a flutist and a percussionist. It was rather tribal, and I enjoyed it a lot.

Barefoot IC musicians
Tomorrow, I am heading back to Syracuse University to meet with the staff to plan my classes for the next four years! My flight home is at 5PM.
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