On the Campus...
March 23, 2005:
off; leaving ‘home’
By Christian R. Burset ’07
The Princeton Alumni Jazz Quartet arrived onstage with a mission.
Tom Artin ’60, Alan Bergman ’58, Peter Blue ’58,
and Ed White ’56 came to Richardson Auditorium to recreate
a time when, as Artin said, “jazz was the music of choice.”
The quartet’s uniquely Princetonian first selection –
“East of the Sun,” written for the Triangle Club in
1935 – drew an enthusiastic response from the audience of
500, and the musicians seemed equally excited to be back at Princeton.
“It’s nice to be the kid in the band again,”
The quartet was the opening act for “This is Princeton,”
a Feb. 17 showcase featuring 16 faculty, staff, alumni and student
performances. Jazz would yield to other sounds: the fast-paced dissonances
of Lauren Carpenter ’06 and her brother David ’08 performing
a Prokofiev violin sonata; the dueling tattoos of Jeff Alpert ’05
and admissions officer Kelly Sortino ’03 engaged in a tap
dance “battle”; and the calm, measured voice of Professor
C. K. Williams reading his poetry. It was a show without a lead
act – nobody got top billing, and it would be impossible to
pick a single audience favorite among the performers – but
rather a community performance, designed to show off Princeton as
much as the individual artists.
“This is Princeton” grew out of Tiger’s Night
and Tiger’s Roar, orientation-week shows that introduce freshmen
to many of Princeton’s performing groups. Based on the programs’
popularity, last year Associate Dean of Undergraduate Students Thomas
Dunne and Undergraduate Student Government Projects Board co-chairs
Rishi Jaitly ’04 and Jen Albinson ’05 (also a PAW columnist)
decided to offer a similar program to the entire University. The
event doubled as a fundraiser for Community House, a University-run
community service program; nearly $3,000 was raised to support local
youth arts scholarships.
“ ‘This is Princeton’ creates a forum to celebrate
all the talent that makes Princeton such a special place,”
Nassoons President Dave Jangraw ’07 agreed (although the
Nassoons’ first song, “Princeton is Free,” wistfully
suggested another reason the University could be special).
“Princeton a capella is a good opportunity to share your
talent with a huge variety of people,” Jangraw said. “
‘This is Princeton’ is such a cool show because not
only do we get to share our voices with others, but a variety of
talents are also being shared with us.”
* * *
Princeton to study abroad often worry about adjusting to a foreign
country, even if learning a “foreign language” only
means acknowledging the New England Patriots don’t really
play “football.” But during their time abroad, most
Princetonians adjust quickly to their temporary homes; despite looking
forward to returning to Princeton, many students find it difficult
“I felt like I had to leave home to go home,” said
Christine Stahl ’06, a molecular biology major who spent the
fall semester in a research program at the University of Oxford.
“I made some of the most difficult goodbyes I’ve ever
had to say.”
Despite spending nine hours each day in a laboratory, Stahl had
a much more social experience than she had anticipated, including
playing the bassoon with her college’s orchestra and with
a local church.
Steve Anderson ’06 also studied in an English-speaking university
this fall – in Budapest, Hungary, at the Central European
University. Because it draws students from 88 nations, the University
uses English as its lingua franca.
“I went because I knew I’d learn more abroad [than
at Princeton],” said Anderson, a concentrator in the Woodrow
Wilson School. “I knew the classes would have a different
perspective and a new style, and I would learn so much from the
students there. It was an incredible experience.”
According to Dean Nancy Kanach, director of the study abroad program,
a record 170 students studied abroad during the last academic year
– up from only 58 students 10 years earlier. Many more study
or work internationally during the summer.
Students have traditionally favored the United Kingdom –
over the past five years, it has been the destination for more than
a quarter of those going abroad during the year – but programs
in France, South Africa and Australia are also popular. Recently,
Panama has ranked second in popularity, thanks to the department
of evolutionary and ecological biology’s “semester in
the field” there.
“Students always remark on the ways that study abroad has
changed them, made them more mature, given them a new perspective
on themselves and their own culture,” Kanach said. “They
often come back with a new confidence in themselves and their own
resourcefulness, and they take even better advantage of the faculty
and resources at Princeton.”
Christian R. Burset ’07 is from Bernardsville, N.J.