On Tuesday, September 29, 2009, RBHS hosted the Passion for the Arts college event, a forum designed to inform students and parents about college fine arts majors, including college applications, auditions, and the majors themselves.
Jon Grice, RB Fine Arts department chair, and counselor Marsha Hubbuch presided over the seminar. Each spoke about the importance of knowing the application and audition process of arts colleges for those interested in the field, as well as important decision-making questions to ask any college representative.
Grice stated, “The college entry process is not always the same when it comes to pursuing a fine arts degree. Sometimes students are required to audition or go through a portfolio review to gain entrance. Since RBHS has a number of students that continue their education in the field of the arts, we felt it was our duty to bring in school representatives to help educate our students on the college entry process, the course work load and job opportunities within the Fine & Applied Arts Colleges.”
Students and their teachers were first addressed by Grice and Hubbuch, and then allowed to go to two break-out sessions with individual college representatives. Attendees could choose the college representatives to listen to based on the specific fine or applied art in which they were interested.
The colleges present were Roosevelt University, Johnson & Wales, Illinois Institute of Art, Universal Technical Institute, Southern Illinois University, Concordia University, North Central College, Columbia College, Triton College, and Northern Illinois University. The colleges presented information on Theater, Culinary Arts, Digital Media, Automotive Studies, Film & Photography, Music, Theater Tech, Art & Art Education, Dance, and Broadcast Communications & Engineering, respectively.
The well-received Passion for the Arts will be presented on a bi-yearly schedule, so the next time RB will host it will be Fall 2011. Grice reccomends that even if students don’t want to be arts majors, they should still attend because many of the schools present were not exclusively fine arts schools.
