By: Anastasia Benstead, Assistant Editor-in-Chief
Grand Rapids, MI- Last Friday, Oct. 25 was Choir Festival Day at AQ. 30 high schools were invited to participate and roughly 171 high school students showed up, their buses lining the Sturrus parking lot. “It was a very busy, hectic day, but it was truly such a joy to make music with so many others who love music as much as I do. The amount of passion and dedication in the room was overwhelming,” said Mary Kampe, a choir student at Aquinas.
While this event was exciting for those involved, the rest of the Aquinas student body was caught off guard by the high school guests during lunch when they tried to eat at Wege. “There were literally so many of them,” said junior Collin Neely. Students reported a lack of spaces to sit in the dining hall itself and a very long wait time in line. “I had to hold the door for everybody, man” said Neely, upset with the hundreds of high schoolers he was stuck behind.
The general consensus seems to be that Aquinas students did not mind the visitors and in fact welcomed them, however it would have been nice to have been notified earlier in the week so that students could have planned their Friday lunch accordingly. “I actually don’t have a meal plan. My roommate was going to swipe me in and then a friend told us not to go,” said Senior Grace Wilson. As predicted, the influx of high school students would have deterred Aquinas community members from eating in Wege at that time– roughly 11:30 a.m- 1:00 p.m.
Aquinas students receive “A letter from the President” every month to their student inboxes, and everyone is notified when MyAQ will be down, but other than that there is very little formal communication between the campus and all its students.
“I actually knew about it,” said sophomore Daphne Webber. “We were notified both in band and in my [music] theory class, if I remember right,” Webber continued. This indicates that the music students at Aquinas were made aware of the event, which Dr. Emmanuel De Leon Jr, director of choral activities, supported. He said, “they [the music students] were all informed… In fact, almost all of them were involved and assisted.” The AQ choir students were even given a detailed itinerary for the day. Once again echoing the same sentiments as Kampe who had an excellent day volunteering during Choir Fest.
“I’m not mad that they were here, I just wished I would have known,” said Neely. The best course of action would probably not have been to share the detailed itinerary with every student on campus. Instead, drafting a more formal and shorter email to let students know Wege would be packed during a certain time frame would have been more beneficial.
Despite a formal announcement, there was in fact a communication altering AQ students about the choir festival. Exactly one: a paper taped to the door of Wege saying “Choral Day 3rd floor” indicating their performance in the Wege Ballroom.
“I was super confused when I saw the paper taped to the door…When I walked in I wasn’t expecting a line to get into the cafeteria going up to the third floor and wrapping around. I left because I didn’t have time. It was genuinely frustrating,” said sophomore Rhodey Matzke.
High school students in the Wege Ballroom– photo courtesy of Mary Kampe
Choir day is actually a good experience for the highschoolers who get to participate each year. They spend the mornings in various workshops and playing getting-to-know-you games before ending with a showcase of Aquinas choir performers.
Students participating in ice breaker games in KRH – photo courtesy of Mary Kampe
“Education is one of the strong programs that Aquinas offers. Through this H.S.. Choir Day/Festival, we not only promoted the mission of Aquinas College, this also opened up possibilities for potential students to discover what the department has to offer in terms of program, faculty, and scholarships among other things,” said Dr. De Leon.
Choir Fest connects Aquinas to local schools and choirs in the area. The disconnect occurring in this instance is between Aquinas and its students, not anything external. Students are feeling frustrated due to the lack of communication of events that affect them.
The Saint 