\u201cA full plate\u201d\u00a0This poem earned me an award through the Connecticut Student Writers Project in my senior year of high school.\u00a0I connected personal experiences of immigration, an eating disorder, and the idea of what generational success looks like. I used words to move through healing; and move toward the reader, speaking to their soul.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Then came October of freshman year at URI, when I stumbled upon the words: \u201cHPR 147 Drawn Together – Intergenerational Exchange through Poetry, Letters, and Doodling\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Completely enamored, I emailed to learn more about what this class entailed. Surprise: I enrolled! <\/p>\n\n\n\n
We learned about the science of art through readings and class discussions via Your Brain on Art How the Arts Transform Us<\/em>. This spanned from the idea of neuroplasticity – the ability for the human brain to change and grow new neural connections throughout life – to how physical touch shares emotions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Notably, though, we were woven by the idea that beauty is always, and only, in the eyes of the beholder. We read and analyzed favorite poems chosen from members of the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI), and eventually discussed our takeaways in person.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Despite the differences in our age, we shared moments of laughter of childhood stories and tears of some of histories\u2019 most impactful events. I made new friends, including a beautiful soul and Olli member, Amy. I even tried another Olli member, Jack, \u201cBest Batch Yet Mostly Applesauce\u201d during our class-wide end-of-semester celebration. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In this class, Professor de Bruin captivated the beauty of human connection, how words can truly allow for one to take agency over their life to heal. But even one step further, act as a learner for life – remaining curious, engaged, and open to meeting new people. <\/p>\n\n\n\n It was one of the best decisions I made taking this class. It is also one of my favorite classes I have ever taken\u2026 in my life! <\/p>\n\n\n\n I had classmates who stemmed from all sorts of disciplines, ranging from education, finance, biology, and communications. Even if you do not see yourself in the role of a \u201cwriter\u201d, or \u201cdoodler\u201d, this class will allow you be free with creativity and create connections that strengthen our communities. <\/p>\n\n\n\n – Anxhelika Deda ’29<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u201cA full plate\u201d\u00a0This poem earned me an award through the Connecticut Student Writers Project in my senior year of high school.\u00a0I connected personal experiences of immigration, an eating disorder, and the idea of what generational success looks like. I used words to move through healing; and move toward the reader, speaking to their soul.\u00a0 Then […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5228,"featured_media":6155,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[151],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6153","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/honors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6153","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/honors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/honors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/honors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5228"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/honors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6153"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/honors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6153\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6156,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/honors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6153\/revisions\/6156"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/honors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6155"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/honors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6153"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/honors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6153"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/honors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6153"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}