Best of Show
Though, Joan had his struggles in college, due to financial stresses and the pressure of being the first one in his family to attend college, he overcame many obstacles; the freedom of leaving the comfort of home also got to him, like most college students. In the end, he persevered and never looked back. In his last six semesters of school he acquired a GPA of 3.02 and was entered into the Dean's list three consecutive semesters. The awards and recognition's below are some of which he is most proud of.
Awards
This art/text project was created for an Advanced Composition class. The class assignment was to compose a project based on self-identity struggles.
The "Domerican Flag: Me vs. Me" is a study of my struggles as a Dominican immigrant coming to America at a young age and, thus, becoming Americanized, which is not a bad thing. The problem is when I tell other Dominicans I feel more American they believe I abandoned "la patria," which is not the case. Though, the image is based o my experiences, it can easily be cross referenced with any young immigrant who has strongly adapted to the American way.
The image shows ad overwhelmingly large American Bald Eagle with its talons wrapped around a Palmchat, the Dominican national bird. The code of arms is removed from the Dominican Flag and is replaced with fifty stars in the second and fourth quadrants.
The semester long studio project "Re-Imagining Shelburne Rd.: '4our District'" was based on the idea of the Amusement Park and how they get tourists to their attractions and stay. The town of Shelburne, VT had the opposite problem; no one would spend the night.
At the beginning of the semester, we met with the Shelburne Planning Committee and were filled in on the situation and we, the students, were open to interpretation. We were also told that the public would be visiting the town hall once our projects were completed. They would be the ones choosing the only five out of twenty-four students would be chosen to present to the committee and the town. We would not have a chance to stand in front of our projects and pitch it to them, but rather they would choose on purely content. "4our Districts" was in the top five. The video below shows my presentation. I start speaking at 2:42 (read disclaimer at bottom of video).
The "NU Architecture Hall" is probably one of my favorite projects. It is a studio project that allowed the student to design a new architecture school for Norwich University, but it had to be designed with ourselves in mind. Meaning, we had to pretend we would design it as if the school were for ourselves and nobody else to inhabit. This allowed for huge interpretation.
My rendition is based on paranoia, proxemics, my then signature style of curves, and a dream interpretation. All of these weird and not so used inspirations for design got me the only "A" in the studio, and was chosen for best of show. An honor that allowed your project to stay hung up during the summer break for visitors to see, and being used for NAAB accreditation.
Apologies for the video and audio quality, the VPT camera man did not do a good job uploading any of the videos to Shelburne's Channel. That is me on the cover; I start speaking at 2:42 and show up on camera at 4:08.