HawkTalk
Christian Grotewold On campus

Classes Are The Building Blocks Of Dreams

Logo created in my Graphic Design class

I never thought I would get a shot at making my dream organization during my first semester at Wagner College. I came all the way from Guatemala to fulfill my goal of creating an innovating record label, and to my surprise, LC (Learning Community) 19 helped me get a jump start. LC 19 consisted of three classes: Business and Society, Graphic Design and the Reflective Tutorial. These classes worked together to help the students build our own organization. Every student had to make a business plan, a logo, some advertisements, etc. By the end of my first semester I had a good grasp of what I wanted in my record label. Now I'm in my third semester and taking a class called Management and the Arts, where we are also creating our own organizations. As you might have guessed, I am using the record label I created a year ago because it needs some tweaking here and there.

I was in love with my LC. The professors were amazing, all three classes were very interesting and they opened so many doors for all of us. My favorite class was Graphic Design; what is an organization if it is not appealing to the eye of the audience? I enjoyed making the website for my record label, creating a logo for it, and crafting the first advertisements. I have to say, I am very proud of my work — so proud that you can see my logo tattooed on my right ankle. It is strategically placed there so I begin my quest to create my record label with a right foot, and every step I take must be towards my organization.

Joining Graphic Design with Business and Society was a great idea, because to have a successful organization we must know how to sell it and organize it. In my Business class I learned how to determine the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of my record label and how to deal with each one. We also learned how to work with people below and above you in an organization — something very important when managing a business. All of this was put to a test during group projects; that is where one truly understood what it meant to lead, plan, and organize.

Advertisement created in my Graphic Design class

My current Management and the Arts class may be in business, but it concentrates on arts organizations and how to manage them. The big project of the semester is creating an arts organization. Since I already have one and it has a lot of the aspects the professor is asking us to work on, I only have to look at it closely and find cracks in it and fix them. Throughout the course, we are learning how to actually make an arts organization and how to make it work. We learn about what makes it succeed and what brings it to the ground.

I love how Wagner connects the classes with one another; it enhances the learning opportunities for us students and gets us more involved. I enjoy my time in every class, and the classes get me excited about making my record label happen.