The program enables you to explore all aspects of literature. From medieval epics to contemporary poems. From Melville to Joyce. South Asian literature. European Romantic poetry. Colonial American short story. You name it. The acumen you acquire is staggering. I just finished my senior project, a chapter based on James Joyce’s Ulysses set in Greenwich Village with critical essays.
My workload is relatively light as a second-semester senior, but I’m taking an amazing poetry seminar with Bill Wadsworth, who happens to be the creator of www.poets.org and founder of National Poetry Month. We workshop poems in a class of 11 students, and have had six Poetry Society of America chapbook fellows work with us.

HELPING FRESHMEN WRITE
I began working with Kathy McCormick my junior year in her James Joyce class, and didn’t think I would be able to keep up, but I stuck with it and she became my closest partner in academics. She really guided me through the rest of my time here. I took another class with her called “Teaching Good Prose” and was one of her teaching assistants. We worked with the freshmen College Writing students. This is an entry class for all freshmen and all conservatories for all boards of study. You learn how to enhance essay writing and you start to write more academically with closer readings of texts, more research elements, while perfecting the art of essay writing.
We learned about various pedagogies and schools of thought in relation to teaching young students. And then applied those theories to the freshmen, helped them revise their work and even, in some cases, just get started on their work. Kathy heads that class and has a great deal of knowledge. She was also my senior project advisor and we worked very closely over the past year with my project on James Joyce. We met weekly and corresponded through email about 15 times day. She’s probably the closest faculty member to me.

WRITING CONNECTIONS
The other reason I chose Purchase was its close proximity to New York City. It’s so easy to get in and out—the best of both worlds. We have a rural campus in a bustling suburb 35 minutes from Grand Central Terminal. What more could you ask for? The campus’ proximity to the city is priceless. I’ve jumpstarted my career with internships, getting into publishing early so I can work my way up. Purchase makes you passionate about what you do and provides you with the means to make something of it. You learn the nitty-gritty of your chosen field and then go easily into that field. I’m going to graduate school for an M.F.A. in Poetry at Sarah Lawrence, only about 15 minutes from here. And I recently had some poems published in The Westchester Review, a literary journal of writers in Westchester County.

FREE TO BE MYSELF
To be completely honest, I chose Purchase in part for its gay-friendly reputation. I came from a small, rural town upstate with little exposure to more urban attitudes. Within the first two years, I’d forgotten about the stigma of being gay in high school. Purchase has an enormously diverse student population where the stigma of being gay in high school completely disappears. You become involved with your peers on an intellectual level—you identify with each other as artists and students, rather than gay or straight.

COOL SPOTS TO CHILL
Downtown Cabaret is perhaps the best Purchase function—the school rents a performance space in downtown Manhattan and sponsors a two-night showcase of choreography and music.
I see as many performances around campus as possible. The Dance Conservatory has weekly concerts for $3. The acting companies and music students put on dozens of shows each semester. The Visual Arts building always displays student art.
The Neuberger is my favorite place on campus. There’s always a provocative exhibit. We’re unbelievably lucky to have an art museum at our disposal. I held a poetry reading in one of the galleries last year with projections of the text. First Wednesdays are a great opportunity to see what your fellow students are doing, be it visual or performance art.
Purchase is all about exposure: to new directions in film, dance, music, stage, writing—the list goes on forever.
Culture Shock was this past weekend—a two-day music festival that totally takes over campus. Everyone is so happy and relaxed; it’s a great break from a year of hard work. The bands are free, you’re outside all day, and every student comes out to have fun.