A Day in the Life of Beloit
Posted by admin on 3/14/13 • Categorized as Featured StoriesPhotography by Trevor Johnson’08.
Trevor Johnson’08 has prowled nearly every nook and cranny of the Beloit College campus between his stint as a student and more than four subsequent years in college Admissions—now as an associate director—while he’s simultaneously served as one of Beloit’s go-to freelance photographers.
From coaxing portraits out of camera-shy faculty members to lying on the ground to capture the perfect angle on the Indian mounds, this alumnus, originally from Silver Spring, Md., has created a body of work that only an insider of considerable talent could produce.
On Oct. 11, 2012, a Thursday, he set out with his camera on assignment from the Office of Communications and Marketing, ostensibly to take photos for the college’s general use on its website and in publications. During about eight hours of early autumn daylight, he produced a softly lit glimpse inside one given day’s activities on campus, while capturing something of the timeless texture of life at Beloit.
A Beloit student bikes across the square in front of Middle College in October.
A VIDEO of select campus photos with their backstories is available online here.
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- Max Zapf-Geller’14 leaves his mark on Beloit’s “free wall,” which he initiated at Beloit. Located on the north end of the art studio in the Wright Museum of Art building, the wall is a legal place to create graffiti or art in any medium. Zapf-Geller is a prolific graffiti artist whose projects already include commissioned murals in his hometown of Portland, Ore., as well as the sign that welcomes patrons to the C-Haus, the campus pub.
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- A Beloit student bikes across the square in front of Middle College in October.
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- Theatre scene shop student workers Matt Porter’12 and Cheyenne Kern’16 work on the set of “The Lady of the Sea,” just a few weeks before opening night. The Henrik Ibsen play, performed in November, was directed by John Kaufmann, assistant professor of theatre arts.
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- International students leave the Office of International Education on campus, their arms full of warm clothing to help them face the imminent Midwestern winter. The Annual Winter Clothing Drive for International Students started at least a decade ago when host families started donating winter items for students to use. The drive has now expanded to include donations from the campus community, graduating seniors, and exchange students who are leaving campus for warmer climates.
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- When weather allows, a class on Chaucer and his contemporaries regularly meets in the fresh air around the wooden table in the Beloit Poetry Garden at the corner of Bushnell and College Streets.
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- Students in Professor Chris Johnson’s choreography course, held in Studio 2 of the Hendricks Center for the Arts, learn about “movement qualities”—the feelings, dynamics, and personalities that make a dance movement more interesting or convey an intended message. In this creative exercise, students respond to one another’s movement qualities by trying to capture their essence through drawings and paintings.
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- Dance major Claire Alrich’13, left, gestures during a discussion in a modern dance class, held on Pearsons lawn in honor of a perfect fall day. Visiting Assistant Professor of Dance Gina T’ai is in the foreground.
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- Molecular biologist Amy Briggs (left), a visiting assistant professor in Beloit’s biology department, listens as Garrett Nodell’14 (right) and Miro Frankzerda’14 give a poster presentation for a genetics course. Their project used bioinformatics tools to analyze a gene for its production of a specific enzyme.
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- Regina Hendrix, right, assistant director of Beloit’s Upward Bound and Help Yourself pre-college programs, leads a workshop with students enrolled in the Help Yourself Mezzo Academy. The students were exploring lyrics to music, as they learned about writing and analyzing music (Hendrix is actually singing to them, something she says students had begged her to do all semester). Darchelle Funchess is to Hendrix’s right. Beloit’s Help Yourself Programs serve low-income youth, from the ages of 12 to 18.
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- Students Claire Aichholzer’16, in the foreground, and Elizabeth Derfus’14 work on condition reports for three-dimensional objects in the Wright Museum of Art’s collections room.
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- The Indian mounds just south of Middle College offer a quiet spot to study outdoors.
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- Autumn sunshine illuminates Associate Professor of English Lisa Haines Wright’s Introduction to Literary Study classroom.
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- The towering smokestack (at right) of Wisconsin Power and Light’s Blackhawk Generating Station can be seen from this vantage point of the Middle College quad. Commonly known as “the power house,” this nearby industrial building with its enviable riverfront location may be headed for a second life as a campus recreation and activity center if an agreement with Alliant Energy (WPL’s parent company) and fundraising efforts are successful.
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- Aurora Peck’14, left, and Melina Montesino’15 work on a distillation experiment in Organic Chemistry. Kevin Braun’99, the assistant professor who teaches the course, explains that distillation allows purification or isolation of a product of interest based on its boiling point.
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- A handwritten chalkboard promotes the art exhibitions on display inside the Wright Museum of Art. Among them on this particular day was a special exhibition of lithographs by American realist artist George Bellows, drawn from the collection of Beloit’s ninth president, Victor E. Ferrall, Jr., and his wife, Linda Smith.
