Student Voices: The Most Important Thing I Learned
ZSAK: Media Arts, Level III
What NOCCA has taught me the most is the importance of communication. Whether that be with a crew working on a film set, with actors when scheduling, or just letting others know what project you are currently working on. Allowing people to hear your ideas, concepts and plans not only helps when creating a project, but also in networking and getting others involved. Often, we get caught up with activities, plans, promised assignments; we mess up and forget. But instead of focusing on the failure, we address our weaknesses and try to work on them. Becoming professional is not an overnight process, it takes many failures and trials, but when you reach that level, it becomes worth it. Communication is an element that is necessary for all of us.
AVERY: Creative Writing, Level III
This year I realized that literature isn’t only an art or course of study. Literature is the collection of human experiences; learning to write is learning how to render experience more effectively. Literature, also, is a way of life, a life as committed to vividly feeling daily moments as it is to collecting a range of experiences. I’m leaving NOCCA endowed with both an appreciation of my life as it exists every day and an appetite for new moments and sights.
TORI: Visual Arts, Level III
Every year that I have been at NOCCA I have realized a variety of important things that have shaped me into the visual artist I currently am. This particular school year, though, I have acquired knowledge on one of the simplest, yet hardest, lessons to grasp: I learned how to express my valued through my artwork. This year has been devoted to building a multimedia series surrounding environmental and human harm going on in my community, St. Bernard Parish, due to the corruption in industrial corporations clustered there. This is not just an issue in my hometown, but is a worldwide conflict that needs a solution. The artwork I am now creating expresses my pain towards my community’s living conditions and the need for change, because if I don’t speak out then who will?
ANDREA: Drama, Level IV
‘An Open Mind, a Brave Heart, and a Willing Spirit.’ This quote by NOCCA Theatre Arts faculty Silas Cooper was one of the first things that I learned as I walked into NOCCA’s Drama Department five years ago. And over the past five years I’ve done everything I could to exemplify these characteristics. An Open Mind – The Institute and NOCCA have allowed me to dream big and achieve the unthinkable. A Brave Heart – The NOCCA Institute made it possible for me to attend our senior trip to Chicago where I auditioned for over 16 schools. Out of 16, I was accepted into 14 BFA Acting programs across the country. And A Willing Spirit – Thanks to the Institute’s financial support, I had the privilege of attending Rutgers University’s Mason Gross School of the Arts Summer Acting Conservatory in 2013. I saw that Rutgers University was the place for me and I will be heading off to train in Acting there this fall. I am truly thankful for NOCCA and The NOCCA Institute for all that they have empowered, instilled and blessed me with. With my whole heart I am forever thankful and grateful for the Institute, my teachers, and the wonderful & creative people that have made NOCCA my HOME!