My Daughter is a Bee

A SCAD Bee. Savannah College of Art and Design Bee. According to the laws of physics, a bee should not be able to fly. The size of its wings in proportion to its body should deem flight impossible. Yet it flies. SCAD founders were told the same thing. "An art school in the South? It will never fly!" SCAD celebrates 35 years of educating and preparing artists and designers of all disciplines since the school first opened its doors to students in 1978. Enrollment continues to increase along with the accolades and awards. Big names in all industries regularly recruit SCAD graduates. Why? Because SCAD is innovative in the approach to student success. From the moment a student is invited to attend, a team of SCAD professionals surround the student to encourage, guide and mentor in order to convey that student to success. Ultimately, the student is responsible for his or her success; however, with the resources provided, success is not an impossibility. In the time that I, as a parent of a new Bee, have spent on campus, talking with students, alumni and staff (and I mean all staff-even maintenance staff are friendly and engaging!), I find SCAD truly cares about each student and nurtures each one to reach beyond his or her potential. SCAD, thinking outside the hive!

Headin' South!! Part I

Two weeks in the South in the middle of July...not the best time to go if you and summer heat don't get along!  Our first week was spent in Savannah, Georgia.  Our oldest daughter, SAW, was spending a week at SCAD, Savannah College of Art and Design, to take a couple of classes and get a glimpse of what to expect of college.  The rest of us spent time wandering around Savannah, getting to know the city.  Our budding artist had a wonderful time playing college and created some pretty cool artwork.  Here is a sampling: 

Her task was to draw a how-to.  This was in a Sequential Art class.  The other class SAW took was Animation:  Bringing Artwork to Life.  I am not able to show you that sample, but it is pretty cool!  She drew 62 pictures for about 4 seconds of animation.  At this point, she thinks she will major in Sequential Art and hopes to be a storyboard artist/cartoonist.  She is committing to attend SCAD next fall.  Pretty scary sending my first child off to college so far away!  At least it is Savannah, a beautiful, enchanting city.

While she got to know SCAD, my husband, younger daughter, JMW, and I found things to do.  We spent a lot of time walking around Savannah.  Even though we had a full 4 days, I'm sure we did not see even half of the city.  This was not our first trip to Savannah, so we skipped the museums and historical homes in favor of strolling around.  Savannah is not a city to rush through.  When you hurry through, you miss quite a lot.  Sitting on a bench in one of the many squares, watching the tour buses cruise by and the tourists and locals traversing the town on their way to wherever is recommended.  People watching in Savannah was more interesting to me than getting a canned tour in a home turned $20 museum.  Quite interesting. 

The most fun I had was visiting a couple of cemeteries.  The Colonial Park Cemetery in downtown has some unusual tombs.  The most curious thing about the cemetery was the playground just outside the main fence. 

We took a trip out to Savannah's most famous cemetery, the Bonaventure Cemetery.  The rich and famous are buried here.  We saw maybe 1/3 of the cemetery and spent a good hour, hour and a half there.  I took the most pictures here.  Talk about spooky-so many statues and mighty oaks draped in Spanish moss.



In addition to seeking out the dead amongst the living, we ate at some really good restaurants and took a trip out to the Atlantic to look for dolphins.  The food was great and the dolphins performed beautifully.  I'm excited SAW will be going to school in such a wonderful city.  It will make our time apart a little less painful.  And it doesn't hurt that we will have to spend more time there ourselves.  I'm thinking  maybe I'll just move down there with her......