Amanda Ward

Amanda

Let the spirit move you

I love the enthusiasm at Kent. From the very first day I came to visit the school, the faculty and students I met were so outgoing and friendly. I felt like they had a lot to teach me, not just academically but about life and everything. It seemed they wanted to be here and they wanted me to be here. When I left with my application that day, I'd already made some friends.

And the incredible school spirit makes Kent a fun place to be. When we play our biggest rival in football, it's a huge event. Everybody wears KENT clothes and even paints themselves with the school colors. The teachers are there. Everybody is there, having a blast together. That's Kent, not just that weekend but all the time. I'm really involved in the arts but I want to hang out with and be friends with everybody. And at Kent you can.

The sense of community is empowering too. And that's important to me. I wanted a place I could make things happen for myself. For example, I decided to teach some dance classes using my own choreography. I taught other students and the children of faculty. It was fun to work with kids and really interesting watching how they learned. And then we, together with the music department, put on a recital. Everybody on campus came. It was amazing. Even guys who couldn't have cared about a bunch of seven year olds dancing -- they came too. The faculty at Kent made it easy for me to get the classes going. But the community at Kent made me feel that the classes mattered.

My favorite part of the campus is called the sandbox. It's just some benches surrounded by a stone wall where students come to study, catch up, see your friends. It sounds overly simple, just a bunch of people spending time together, having fun, helping each other, even learning from each other. Actually, that’s not just a description of the sandbox. That's Kent itself.