First Year Award

Last Friday I was invited to a lunch with the Provost and several faculty via a relatively enigmatic email promising further information upon arrival at the specified restaurant. Once we got there and saw our fellow students, for the most part individuals that I respect and am friendly with, we were seated in a private room and served behind a closed door. During the lunch it was explained that we (six of us, including myself) were nominated by the faculty and voted to be assets to the classroom, to our fellow students, and to Brooks as an Institution. We were presented with plaques bearing our name, the month and year of the award, and a ceramic tile with the representation of the Brooks Institute Gate of Montecito, with the phrase "Gateway to a Photographic Career" scripted beneath the image. We discussed our goals, the parts of the school that worked and things we were concerned about. We discussed where photography is going and had the opportunity to chat with our provost and a handful of the Still Photography department faculty. One of which was a personal favorite of mine. I haven't ever had him as an instructor, which I intend to remedy someday, but I have been working as a TA for him for the past four months. I was honored and proud to be at the table, and humbled that such an astonishing group of people would think so highly of me. I intend to do everything I can to positively represent Brooks Institute now and in the future, as a student, as a TA, and hopefully eventually as an instructor. My life will truly come full circle when I can sit at that same table on the other side and grin across at a student I am proud of, just as our instructors did for us.